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February 10, 2006
Belgium: Poor Turnout At Muslim Cartoon Protest
At 2.30 this afternoon, a gathering of Muslims convened in front of the Brussels Court, to protest against the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. The protest group Oumma had estimated 2,000 would attend, but only a hundred turned up.
A demonstration will take place in London tomorrow, supported by the mayor Ken Livingstone, and another will be held in London on 18 February, which is expected to have 100,000 attending.
Why have the Belgian protests been so muted, compared to numbers attending in Britain?
There is a simple reason. No British newspaper has had the courage to show the cartoons. Belgium, by contrast, has showed these cartoons. Anyone seeing them would appreciate there is nothing excessively offensive in their portrayal, in the eyes of Westerners.
In the countries of the Middle East, Kenya and South Africa (which has had a court ruling preventing publication), Indonesia, Bangladesh and elsewhere where people are rioting in numbers, no-one has had the chance to see the pictures.
In Belgium, one paper showed all the cartoons unexpurgated, while others used the novel approach of providing "dot to dot" versions, which people could fill out themselves.
One embassy however, whose national identity has not been revealed, has announced it is going to officially lodge a legal complaint to Belgium for allowing the publication of the images.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at February 10, 2006 6:35 PM
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