The published cartoons showed "Mohammed" in various settings. One depicts him wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, while another has him, standing in-between two women in top-to-toe burqas, with his eyes blacked out and carrying a large, curved knife. In another, the prophet is shown telling suicide bombers seeking entry to paradise: "Stop, stop, we have run out of virgins."
Jyllands-Posten was also included on an al-Qaeda website listing possible terrorist targets. An organisation which calls itself “The Glorious Brigades in Northern Europe” is circulating pictures on the internet which show bombs exploding over pictures of the newspaper and blood flowing over the national flag of Denmark. “The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark – very soon you all will regret this,” the website says.
Muslim fanatics have been protesting for a week now outside the EU offices in the Middle East against Denmark, France, Germany and every other European country who didn’t bow to their demands and published the caricatures!
Meanwhile in Brussels a young Muslim immigrant published a poster depicting the Virgin Mary barebreasted. Chokri Ben Chikha is a young Tunisian author, actor and singer, who was born and raised in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of Belgium. He has written a play and dance act about cultural differences to draw attention to the difficulties of young immigrants who are discriminated against by the natives.
The play is called “Our Lady of Flanders” (Onze Lieve Vrouw van Vlaanderen) and the poster for the play is probably meant to be funny too. It depicts the virgin Mary with a howling child and a bowl of blood. She is barebreasted and is sitting next to a shield with the arms of Flanders.
Most of the European papers rushed to conclude that “…though the picture has drawn some protest from Catholics, this artist need not fear being murdered in the street. On the contrary, he is being subsidised by the Belgian Ministry for Culture. As a muslim immigrant Ben Chikha is apparently allowed to use such images, which make fun of the Flemings and ridicule the religion many of them adhere to. After the performances in Brussels it goes on a six-month tour through Flanders. The government encourages schools to attend.”
