It's Sunday February the 5 around 10:00AM and

Vancouverite Op-Ed: The Cartoon War

In short, The Mudville Gazette reports that about a year ago an author needed illustrations of Mohammed for his upcoming book. He couldn't find an illustrator that would do it. They were scared. So a newspaper then called for submissions, got them, and published 12 of them making a point about freedom of speech and all that. It was these cartoon versions of the prophet, that has now set off a fairly significant international incident. And the embassy burned count stands at three.

To start things off, let's go to Mark Steyn which is always a good call. Now, certainly if there is a writter capable of helping us understand what is happening in a smart and amusing way it is him.

I never thought I'd switch on the TV and see the excitable young lads jumping up and down in Jakarta, Lahore, Aden, Hebron, etc., etc., torching the flag of Denmark.

Denmark! Even if you were overcome with a sudden urge to burn the Danish flag, where do you get one in a hurry in Gaza? Well, OK, that's easy: the nearest European Union Humanitarian Aid and Intifada-Funding Branch Office. But where do you get one in an obscure town on the Punjabi plain on a Thursday afternoon? If I had a sudden yen to burn the Yemeni or Sudanese flag on my village green, I haven't a clue how I'd get hold of one in this part of New Hampshire.

Indeed, can you imagine if something happened here like this and people stormed, say the Danish Embassy in Vancouver? Well, we don't actually have that, but we do have a Danish Consulate and it's in North Vancouver. If there is a place as far from controversy as the Danish Consulate in North Vancouver I dare you to find it. You just can't even imagine anything like burning down something here in Vancouver. It's a no brainer really - this just simply couldn't happen here, could it? But, then again, I bet nobody would have thought anyone could get angry at the Danes - well, unless they are trying to steal one of your islands.

But how would we know anyway? I've been searching for awhile this morning, and there is very few Vancouver writers or even Canadian writers even talking about this subject. Yeah there is the odd piece - the CBC for example. But little else of consequence. It would help if we had a major newspaper publishing on Sunday's, but I digress. It may also help if we had the new government in place already. Take for instance blanketing this as "unreasable times" like Mathew Good did this morning doesn't really add much to his non-existent street cred as a writer on these international issues, now does it. The only article of note from a Canadian columnist, naturally is the Ottawa Citizen's David Warren.

I was always under the impression that this whole clash of civilizations thing was all about oil, but now it is about cartoons? That wasn't in that movie Syriana, with Fat Clooney I don't think. Hugh Hewitt makes an interesting point about what all this means.

If Hitler invaded Hell, Churchill remarked to his private secretary, "I would make at least a favorable reference to the Devil in the House of Commons."

So, did the cartoons and their aftermath make it easier or more diffcult for Musharraf of Pakistan to continue to guide his country away from the lure of the jihadists? Easier or more difficult for Turkey to remain a friend of the West's? Easier or more difficult for the pro-Western people of Iran to summon the courage to change their government? Easier or more difficult for Jordan's King Abdullah to continue his course, which has included support for the reconstruction of Iraq even in the face of Zarqawi's murderers?

In a wired world, there aren't any inconsequential actions, and everything is grist for the propagandists among the jihadists.

We in North America like to make a big stink about things when we find out that Google or Microsoft is helping the Chinese government to restrict freedom of speech on the internet. But tend to sit on our hands when a Danish newspaper tries to make a point, a rather large one now, and many of the same voices are absent. That is interesting. I think it is safe to asume that 12 cartoons - however offensive they may be - does not equal three embassies burnt to the ground.

Posted by Jackson Murphy | Link | Comments (1)