[Shawnski]

Ever wonder why cartoons in a Danish paper published in a September'ish timeframe are just now becoming such a hot commodity? A story that was as close to "old news" as you can get?

Look no further than Danish Islamic scholar, Ahmed Akkari.

Judging from what I have read, Akkari was frustrated with the Danish government and decided to take up his concerns over the cartoons to "esteemed figures in the Muslim world."

Over the next few weeks, he would hand copies of his green booklet to the grand mufti of Egypt, the chief cleric of the Sunni faith, leaders of the Arab League, the top official of the Lebanese Christian church and others. (1)

The green booklet referred to is allegedly a "43-page dossier on what they said was rampant racism and Islamophobia in Denmark" (2).

The Danish media have tried to question the Muslim delegates on how they came to include three extra, obscene cartoons in the dossier, in addition to the 12 images that started the row when they were published by a Danish newspaper in September.

The extra cartoons, whose origins remain obscure, show Mohammed with a pig's snout, a dog raping a praying Muslim and Mohammed as a "paedophile demon".(2)

Not sure about the source of these three "cartoon" references, but one story relates to the inclusion of an AP photo taken out of context.

The Associated Press protested Wednesday the misleading inclusion of an AP photograph in a pamphlet purporting to show images offensive to Islam.

The picture shows a bearded man wearing fake pig ears, a pig nose, and a pink embroidered cap on his head. He was wearing the costume while participating in a pig-squealing contest at an annual festival in a farm village in southern France last summer.

A blurry, black-and-white copy of the picture was included in a brochure that a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders carried on a Mideast tour to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey, in December and January.(3)

Now allegedly, he (Akkari) is claiming this particular picture came to someone in the Islamic community within hate mail, and did not verify the origin of it.

Funny though, that when questioned about these extra pictures by the CBC...

Those drawings show the Prophet as "a pig, a dog, a woman and a child-sodomizing madman," says the Globe.

He said the images were not meant to be mistaken for cartoons published in newspapers, but protesters have cited the drawings during their rallies.
When asked by CBC News why he included these images when they had nothing to do with the published newspaper cartoons, Akkari defended his actions.

"It was taken out of context and somebody is trying ... to give us the guilt for what is happening." (4)

So at least one picture taken out of context by HIM was subsequently taken out of context by others.

Friends, strangers and close family members are now blaming him for exactly the thing he says he was trying to prevent: the caricaturing of Muslims as violent fanatics. (1)

So instead of viewing the published cartoons as satirical, and part of free speech in the democratic country in which he lived, he decides to stir the pot.... big time. And does so with the inclusion of unpublished, or out of context products.

"Yeah, it has been more violent than I expected," he said. "I had no interest in any violence. . . . It is bad for our case because it's turning the picture completely from what this should be about, to something else -- and this is a dangerous change now." (1)

This Akkari character is a first class idiot.

Lots of interesting points not included above in the following links...

(1) Globe story

(2) Telegraph story

(3) Newsday story

(4) CBC story