'Draw Mohammed' cartoonist goes into hiding

YGBFKM · Sep 16, 2010

From the AP:

SEATTLE — A Seattle cartoonist who became the target of a death threat with a satirical piece called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI.
Seattle Weekly editor-in-chief Mark D. Fefer announced in Wednesday’s issue that Molly Norris’ comic would no longer appear in the paper.
Fefer wrote that the FBI advised Norris to move, change her name and wipe away her identity because of a religious edict issued this summer that threatened her life.
“She is, in effect, being put in a witness-protection program — except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab,” Fefer wrote. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had nothing further to say because it’s a sensitive situation.
The FBI also declined to comment Thursday. David Gomez, the FBI’s special agent in charge of counterterrorism in Seattle, told the New York Daily News in July that the agency was doing everything it could to protect individuals on a fatwa list issued by Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Awlaki said in the June issue of English-language Muslim youth magazine “Inspire” that Norris is a “prime target” who should reside in “Hellfire.”
Norris’ cartoon inspired a Facebook page that caught the attention of authorities in Pakistan, who banned the social networking site in response.
Most Muslims regard any depiction of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
The Facebook page encouraged people to post images of Mohammed to protest threats against the creators of the American TV series “South Park” for depicting the prophet in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.
Although the Facebook page was taken down by its creator, references to the page and to Norris’ cartoon remain online.
Norris wrote in a post on her website that she meant her work only to be a commentary on the “South Park” controversy.
“I made a cartoon about the television show South Park being censored,” she wrote. “I never started a Facebook page. I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this ’day’ be called off.”
Her cartoon posted at the end of April declared May 20, 2010, as the first annual “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” and depicts a group of colorful animated objects under the headline: “Will the real likeness of the prophet Mohammed please stand up?!” The cartoon says it is sponsored by “Citizens against Citizens against Humor.”
That fictional group now has its own website featuring cartoons and comments.
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The audacity.

Shaggy · Sep 17, 2010

I love how religion is so loving. It brings out the best in us.

mustangj17 · Sep 17, 2010

Islam truly is a religion of peace.

You just have to look deeper than the death threats and stoning.

TheSportsPredictor · Sep 17, 2010

I'm betting it's a hoax.

Oggiedoggie · Sep 17, 2010

TheSportsPredictor said:

I'm betting it's a hoax.
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Yep, it probably is because it's supposed to be an AP story and AP style is "Muhammad."

YankeeFan · Sep 22, 2010

Not a lot of support from the industry:

When The Examiner asked the American Society of News Editors for a statement on the issue, none was forthcoming. This despite the fact that the first sentence of ASNE's Web site describes its mission as supporting "the First Amendment at home and free speech around the world." We got a similar response from the Society of Professional Journalists, despite its dedication "to the perpetuation of the free press as the cornerstone of our nation and liberty."

Freedom of speech and press are in deep trouble when the American government thinks the best it can do to protect a journalist from death threats is to counsel her to go into hiding, and when the elite voices of American journalism can't be bothered to say anything in her defense. But it's actually worse than that. The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof thinks Muslims are owed an apology. "I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you," he wrote Sunday. "The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you."

Instead of telling the rest of us that we're all bigots, shouldn't Kristof and the rest of the journalism profession be outraged by what has happened to Molly Norris? And shouldn't they be angered that her government believes it cannot protect her? Imagine what they would be saying if white-hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan were threatening to kill Norris in Selma, Ala., instead of radical Muslims in Seattle. Would the FBI tell Norris she had to stop being a journalist and go into hiding? And would ASNE and SPJ look the other way as the First Amendment and freedom of the press were symbolically turned to ashes by flaming white crosses?

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Examiner-Editorial-Government-and-journalists-cower-at-threats-to-cartoonist.html#ixzz10JAqrGlC
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