"To those of us born to privilege, cartoons are only cartoons - "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me!" seems reasonable to those who have everything; for those who have nothing at all except pride, words (or, in this case, pictures) are powerful indeed."
You have a point, but don't forget "Piss Christ" and the uproar it caused.
Also, the Koran apparently, forbids pictorial depictions of gods or prophets, which is why you see calligraphic and pattern based art in Islamic religious decoration. Pictorial depictions are considered idol worship. The cartoons went beyond being offensive in their subject matter. They actively desecrated the Islamic religion, which, as you noted, is all many of the protesters have.
Having been raised Catholic, I can sympathize with the Islamic point of view on idolatry. The gilded Vatican is pretty disgusting - speaking of which, check out the Bride of Satan getup Laura Bush wore to visit the Pope recently: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_laura_bush)!
Cartoons
You have a point, but don't forget "Piss Christ" and the uproar it caused.
Also, the Koran apparently, forbids pictorial depictions of gods or prophets, which is why you see calligraphic and pattern based art in Islamic religious decoration. Pictorial depictions are considered idol worship. The cartoons went beyond being offensive in their subject matter. They actively desecrated the Islamic religion, which, as you noted, is all many of the protesters have.
Having been raised Catholic, I can sympathize with the Islamic point of view on idolatry. The gilded Vatican is pretty disgusting - speaking of which, check out the Bride of Satan getup Laura Bush wore to visit the Pope recently: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060209/ap_on_re_eu/vatican_laura_bush)!
: ) - Malcolm