The cartoons were just part and parcel of our idea of a free press and we cartoonists will defend that free press to our last drop of ink. We don't do blood, writes Martyn Turner
Many years ago I drew a cartoon on the subject of the massacres by surrogate Israeli forces of refugees in the Lebanon. The Irish Times pondered publication for a day, decided I was a reasonably fair-minded commentator with a reasonably fair-minded point to make (albeit in a pretty crude way) and went ahead and published the cartoon.
They rang to tell me and when I said, surprised, "Oh, really?", they asked what I meant. "You will see," I said and, sure enough, they did when The Irish Times offices found themselves up to their oxters in belligerent Jewish people the day after publication. The day of publication was the Jewish Sabbath, so I guess they didn't read the paper until Sunday.
Now the militant Muslim lobby puts the belligerent Israeli lobby in the halfpenny place when it comes to protests which is why, partly, you won't see the 12 Danish Muhammad drawings gracing this article. But, in case you haven't found another source, let me describe them.
Number 1 is a line-up of bearded, turbaned people, seven in all. One is supposed to guess which one is Muhammad, I guess.
Number 2 is a boy in a football shirt standing in front of a blackboard (well, a greenboard, actually) upon which is Arab script. You will have to explain that one to me.
Three is a drawing of three ancient Persian gents, two with weapons, one reading a script. Don't get it myself.
Number 4 is a fierce warrior with one of those anonymity black lines across his eyes, the same shape and size as the missing bits across the eyes of two ladies in burkas on either side of him. I think there is a point there, not sure what though.
Five is a gag, an Arab in heaven (could be Muhammad, who knows) telling suicide bombers to "stop, stop, we ran out of virgins!". Okay.
Number 6 is a face in the Arab crescent.
Number 7 is a bearded gent with golden horns.
Number 8 is a bearded gent with a fuse coming out of his round black hat. Yup, get that one.
Nine is abstract doodles on the Arab crescent theme.
Number 10 is a drawing of a cartoonist drawing Muhammad, sweating profusely and hiding what he is drawing. And who says life doesn't imitate art?
Number 11 is, I'm told, a comment on the newspaper which published the drawings. There is, I'm told, a saying in Danish about dropping an orange, which means doing something for the sake of self-promotion or somesuch (irate Danes please write in and tell me I'm wrong, but don't torch my house).
Number 12 is a nice little drawing of a man with his donkey.
Number 12 is what this whole thing should have been about. Last year a Danish author was commissioned to write a book for children on the subject of Muhammad and Islam - an educational project like countless others on similar themes.
Because of the mindless murder of the Dutch film maker Theo Van Gogh, his usual illustrators were loath to take on the task fearing a similar fate at the hands of the Allah-is-Love Brigade, the guys who put "mad" into "Muhammad".
A newspaper got to hear of this and asked 12 illustrators (not, I repeat not, political cartoonists) to come up with images. They were paid €50 each.
Patrick Chappatte, a Swiss cartoonist, writing in the International Herald Tribune, comments thus: "The intention behind those 12 cartoons was dubious in the first place. The Prophet Muhammad did not appear merely as a cartoon character - which one could defend on the basis that he is a historic and religious figure and that the ban on representing him should not apply to non-Muslims. Muhammad was represented precisely because Muslims forbid that he be depicted."
That seems to be true. The newspaper didn't intend to just find an illustrator for the book about Islam, but to show what a free press is all about. The right to annoy whomever you like. Of course, as another cartoonist put it, normally the annoyed send a letter to the editor; some of this crowd send letter bombs to the editor.
It would be wrong to think that Muhammad has not been portrayed in cartoons before. After the first attempt in 1993 to blow up the Twin Towers with a rent-a-van, Doug Marlette of Newsday drew a cartoon of a bearded gent in a van with the caption: "What would Muhammad drive?" - a play on the What Would Jesus Do campaign in the US.
I'm told Muhammad even made it into South Park, the TV animation series. I didn't hear of any protests.
Most cartoonists I know and to whom I have spoken pretty much feel the same thing.
The cartoons, while dubious as an exercise and not that interesting, were just part and parcel of our idea of a free press and we will defend that free press to our last drop of ink. We don't do blood. If others object, then it says a lot more about "them" than it does about "us".
There are exceptions of course.
Just after this thing, er, sorry, blew up a few weeks ago, I was in Portugal judging the World Press Cartoon festival. One of my fellow judges happened to be the head of one of the world's cartoonists' organisations. She had just received a fax from Azerbaijani cartoonists urging her to make all her members desist from drawing or supporting publication of any Muhammad cartoons. She hadn't, of course, realised that she had such power over her members.
It shows the difference in mindset between those from democracies and those from totalitarian regimes, whether they be political or religious. A free press isn't exactly high up on the demands of Muslim demonstrators. Indeed, a free anything would not quite fit into their objectives.
And while I am still writing from the cartoonists' perspective, I should add that the concept of curtailing free comment isn't unique to the Muslim world, or China for that matter. In America, more and more newspapers are finding comment and cartoons an unnecessary luxury in their quest for greater profits.
While the Nixon presidency saw a doubling of political cartoonists working in the US, the Bush presidency has seen cartoonists being shown the door in their droves. Between God and Mammon, we are becoming an endangered species.