Arab cartoonists are hitting back over the Charlie Hebdo affair with satirical works of their own questioning the meaning of free speech in the West, while attacking Israel and the perceived double standards that are applied to Muslims.
Leading caricaturists across the Middle East condemned last week’s killings in Paris, but the magazine’s publication of another image of the Prophet Mohammed has been criticized in several countries that denounced the murders. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey have all now banned the new issue of the magazine.
In one cartoon on a popular Arabic-language news Web site, a European-looking man has a viper emerging from his mouth under the heading: “anti-Muslim.” In the adjacent image, entitled “anti-semitism,” the same man’s mouth is closed by a padlock bearing a Star of David.
Photo: Reuters
Attacks on Israel often feature prominently in Arab cartoons, and this episode has prompted a flurry of them. Emad Hajjaj, a popular Jordanian cartoonist, drew an elderly, haggard Palestinian woman by her sagging UN tent saying — in an untranslatable pun on the words “Charlie” and the colloquial Arabic “I have been” — that she had lived as a refugee for the 67 years since the creation of Israel in 1948.
“Shame on you” declares an Egyptian peasant in Hisham al-Shamaly’s cartoon about last weekend’s Paris solidarity rally, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the front row of marching world leaders.
Another caricaturist portrayed Netanyahu heading for the event with angling gear, saying he was planning an outing to “fish in muddy waters.”
A Turkish cartoonist showed Netanyahu spreading out a red carpet to welcome French Jews to emigrate to an embattled, fortress-like Israel.
Arab leaders are also in the frame over their responses. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been shown laying a wreath on the graves of the people killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack, but ignoring the unknown “martyrs” of last summer’s Gaza war.
Al-Jazeera Arabic on Thursday ran a cartoon by Ahmed Rahma showing an Arab ruler heading for the French capital carrying an “I am Charlie” placard, while behind him journalists languish in a cage, a corpse at their feet.
The king of Jordan and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Algeria and Turkey all participated in the Paris march, as did a minister from Saudi Arabia. Morocco said it had declined to take part.
The new Charlie Hebdo depiction of Mohammed — shedding a tear and saying “all is forgiven” — has prompted fresh criticism. Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, which is responsible for issuing religious edicts, denounced it as “an act unjustifiably provocative to the feelings of a billion and a half Muslims worldwide who love and respect the prophet.”
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RSS