Mahomet Controversies
One of the most recent major controversies revolving around the religion of Islam founded by Muhammad was began with over a dozen cartoons in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. On September 30th, 2005 the newspaper published near one dozen cartoons, many of the depicting Muhammad. It was an attempt to contribute to a debate regarding self-censorship and being politically correct about the criticism of Islam. It began with Danish Muslim organisations immediate response with public protests about the publications in Jyllands-Posten. The public outcry from the Muslim community grew steadily louder when the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers and magazines in over fifty other countries across the globe. The public demonstrations turned into rioting in numerous cities, causing armed police to fire into crowds. Altogether causing around one hundred deaths.
Later, in 2007 a cartoon film made by Geert Wilders would be the cause of more controversy; the anti-Quran film was called “Fitna.” Wilders included an image without permission of the original artist, Kurt Westergaard, twice in the film. The illustration depicted the prophet Muhammad wearing a turban that was likened to a bomb with a lit fuse. Westergaard threatened to sue Wilders for copyright infringement, afterwards, the images were removed from the film. Westergaard added later that if Mr. Wilders had asked first, permission most likely would have been granted for use in the film. The film Fitna placed scenes of violence and terrorism with captions and text from the Quran. Afterwards, Muslim outcry erupted once more, and the Dutch government denounced the film. The U.N. also commented on the film, via Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s comment that the film was “offensively anti-Islamic.”