Another cartoon, another outrage....

The Cartoon Jihad goes on and has found another infidel victim. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has published a cartoon on the soccer world championship which seems to have "hurt" somebody's "feelings". Anger in Iran over German football cartoon 13 February 2006 TEHRAN - The general secretary of the Iranian press association called Sunday for action over a football cartoon printed in a German newspaper showing the Iranian national team standing in a World Cup stadium with bomb belts strapped to their jerseys. Manuchehr Sandi called the cartoon, which was printed in the Friday edition of Berlin's Tagesspiegel, a "dirty joke" and in an interview with the ISNA news agency demanded the German Embassy in Tehran give an "appropriate reaction" to it. The cartoon also depicts German soldiers standing in the stadium with a caption saying "Why at the World Cup of all places does the German army have to be on duty?" The newspaper said it regretted the reactions from Iran. Earlier Sunday, the Iranian newspaper 90 published the cartoon, calling it "shameless" and demanded the Iranian football federation to lodge an official protest. "It is now clear that the Germans are under the influence of the Zionists (Israel) and have lowered themselves to become their scarecrows," wrote 90. Iran's most famous sports journalist, Ardeschir Larudi, accused the Tagesspiegel of becoming the first newspaper in Germany to demand Iran's exclusion from this summer's World Cup in Germany, which runs June 9 to July 9. "Iran was the second country (after Japan) to qualify for the World Cup and it is totally unfair to present the players in this way," he told ISNA. "We have to protest against this cartoon but we Iranians should remain civilised and not trade insults for insults." According to the German newspaper Der Spiegel, a crowd gathered in front of the German embassy in Teheran and shouted "Death to Germany". The drawer of the German cartoon has of course already received death threats. The Cartoon however targets an internal political discussion going on in Germany about the (delicate) question whether the German military should provide for support during this sport event. Maybe in the future every cartoon should be accompanied by an extensive explanation of its sophisticated meaning before being published in order to avoid to "insult" anybody? Oh, by the way, since the protesters are Muslims, the culprits were Zionists of course (1+1=2). Anyway, this shows why an unconditional rejection of the Muslim claims related to the Danish cartoons was so important. Otherwise, this is exactly what happens when you show weakness. It's like hijacking. If you bend once you're for sure going to face additional hostage takings. As Rumsfeld pointed it once: Weakness is provocative. Is there anyone out there still doubting of those people's mental sanity let alone their honesty? What's wrong with that part of the world? I wonder how long it will go until someone explains to us that this reaction has to be "understood" because of last weeks' excitements and that Muslims have another understanding of "honor" and that we must "respect" their "feelings" etc.? Why not call the publishing of these cartoons another "torture" and have an investigation being carried out by the U.N. on this latest and scandalous violation of the Muslim commmunity's human rights? Does "ridiculous idiots" exist in the protesters' vocabulary? Oops, I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. UPDATE (15.02.2006, 002:25): Here's an intelligent cartoon I have often seen on the net and on several blogs. It's quite accurate, isn't it? english / Mideast / Politique