Danish Cartoons
Pickled Politics has a piece by Hari Kunzru on the controversy. (Thanks, Harpreet.) Kunzru is right to speak against the parochialism present even among European liberals, and he is also on the mark about how Islamists, who would gladly publish anti-Semitic cartoons, are the ones who benefit from the the foolish mistakes of outfits like Jyllands Posten. (A few days ago, my friend Amardeep Singh had a blog on this subject with some helpful links to diverse sites. Also see Desi Critics for further information, including a link to a site which presents a fascinating archive of historical images of the Prophet down to the present-day.) It is good to have folks like Kunzru writing. Because otherwise all you get is something like this piece from yesterday’s Boston Globe which, in an inflammatory way, begins by doing something that I had thought only the Hindutva half-pant-wallahs did–pitting good Hindus against bad Muslims.
Wow - that Boston Globe article - it is as though the wrecking of Deepa Mehta’s movie set, the vandalism and harassment of MF Hussain, the burning of the library in Maharashtra, the harassment, slander and death threats against Wendy Doniger, amongst other things, never happened!
I must have been dreaming about all those things, Jeff Jacoby made me realise.
Comment by Radhika — February 6, 2006 @ 4:16 pm
Hah! That Boston globe article is a farce…
Comment by Sunny — February 7, 2006 @ 1:22 am
The Boston Globe article is a PENetrating war-cry. Those who didn’t like it are anti-liberals/anti-semites/have converted to Islam to marry Muslims, or all three.
Comment by Amit Chatterjee — February 7, 2006 @ 5:35 am