|
Trending Topics
|
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/681764.html
Lessons from the Cartoon Jihad
(Ha'aretz) Abraham H. Foxman - Jews can, on one level, empathize with those Muslims who feel insulted by the cartoons. Indeed, the medium of the caricature has been one of anti-Semitism's deadliest weapons. For years, newspapers and broadcasters in the Arab and Islamic countries have fed their audiences a diet of anti-Semitic images, libels, and conspiracy theories. Nazi-style cartoons demonizing Jews, along with references to the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, appear almost every day. Many ordinary Muslims have formed their view of Jews entirely because of such material; they have access to nothing else. Yet protests from Western governments and Jewish organizations have encountered indifference, contempt, or the devious response that government interference would mean restricting press freedom, even though many of these newspapers and broadcasters are state-owned.