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Imagine sitting in class and somebody does something that irritates you. Instead of sitting there fuming, you decide to take matters into your own hands. You start a riot simply because of what this person said, injuring and even killing anybody who seems to obstruct your path. If this sounds familiar to you, then you are probably comfortable with the scandal dealing with the cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. These cartoons contain images of the Prophet Muhammad in ways such as: depicting Muhammad carrying a lit bomb in the shape of a turban on his head, decorated with the Islamic creed. His face appears to be angry, and dangerous, and he is viewed as a stereotypical villain, with heavy, dark eyebrows and whiskers.

Because there are 12 different images, there is a vast majority of what these images represent. The main reason as to why these images were published was because Jyllands-posten asked cartoonists to draw the Prophet as they saw him. Seeing as how the point of these cartoon depictions was to be satirical, obviously the central image of this joke was supposed to be funny. As its main image, the newspaper chose a cartoon of the Prophet among other turban-wearing figures in a police line-up and the witness said: I don't know which one he is. The object of the image was to portray the fact that it is impossible to determine what the Prophet looks like, and by doing so, Jyllands-posten wanted to incorporate a bit of humor in their statement as well. Unfortunately, the Muslim people didn't view this, or any of the cartoon depictions as a laughing matter, and instead they became infuriated.

Even though these cartoons created hostility, there were definitely reasons as to why the newspaper decided to publish these cartoons. First and foremost, Jyllands-posten wanted to test whether or not they still had freedom of speech in Denmark. Judging by how the cartoons were viewed, personally, I'm going to say that if there is freedom of speech, there are definitely limitations as to what they're allowed to do with that right. Regardless of what the images represent, the basic rights were created for a reason; so people can freely express what they believe, whether it is through media, paper, or voice. On another hand, editor in chief for the newspaper, Carsten Juste, knew that Islamic tradition forbids cartoon portrayals, but he decided to publish images anyway. When doing something that you know is not right, and to such an extent, there will definitely be people upset. Not only was Jyllands-posten trying to become better known, but they were expecting a strong reaction from these depictions. Well, they got their wish. Two employees received death threats, and the paper was forced to hire security guards.

In general, Muslim people have taken matters too far, whether they have a right to be enraged or not. There is no reason for this many people to be injured and killed because of cartoons. Likewise, no children should have a fear for their lives because of something their father did at his job, and Muslim people need to realize this. Regardless of their argument, Muslims need to stop the riots, quit protesting, and realize no matter what they do, these cartoons were already published, and it should be put in the past.

Learn more about this author, JJ Lynch.
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