http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/684696.html
A Danish newspaper ran a Cartoon depicting Mohammed (peace be upon him) with a bomb in (or on) his head. The Danish Cartoon was intended to gauge public sentiment towards potentially inflammatory or offensive content.
The Danish Cartoon caused a tremendous uproar across the globe. Scores of people have been trampled to death or otherwise killed in the midst of the furious actions. Scandinavian, American, and other embassies have been held under seige by angry protesters. Large demonstrations have taken place in many of the world's cities.
European newspapers continued to run the Danish Cartoon in order to demonstrate the value of free speech over poor taste, or cultural discretion. The European right got up on their rickety soapboxes, and shouted hoarsely, proclaiming this as further proof that foreigners should not be welcome on their soil. The left didn't know what to do. Inaffectual and intimidated Eurpoean leaders did nothing of consequence. Europeans lit a smoke, poured a glass and rolled their eyes, marking this as another sign of the existential decline of Civilization, or something to that effect.
The American press wrote coy responses to the uproar, and almost uniformly came up with witty, highminded or apologetic reasons not to run the Danish Cartoon. The American right wing media apparatus used this as one more example of Europeans and Muslims acting in character. This talking point was related via TV, radio, email, blogs, telegraph, smoke signals and semaphore. The left didn't know what to do. Our paranoid and belligerent leadership decided it best to blame Syria and Iran and challenge them on the world stage to some duel at high noon, (with no immediate or confirmable plans to show up) while offering condescending remarks to Europe by way of State Department spokesmen. Americans popped another handful of Cheddar Cheese Combos, washed it down with cold beer and changed the channel.
An Iranian newspaper came up with a retaliatory response to the Danish Cartoon. They created a contest to come up with the best antisemitic cartoon. The Iranian version of the right wing did to Denmark what the US right wing did to France. They called for boycotts of Danishes and certain cheeses, while clamoring for the heads of those cowardly, godless Europeans through their multipronged approach of AM radio, blogs, state newspapers and unscrupulously interpreted passages of Islamic scripture. The left had already fled to Beverly Hills in 1980, and hence, did nothing. Iran's paranoid and belligerent leadership decided to incite violence to consolidate their power and galvanize hatred for their enemy. Iranians probably never thought much of Denmark until this Cartoon, and would rather have had a little bread and hot tea, and gotten back to work instead of breaking stuff, if this had occurred to them.
I like the response from Israel the best. Someone decided to copy the Iranian paper and start their own contest for the best anti-semetic cartoon. They'd had their symbols defiled in every context from the destruction of the Second Temple to the kicked-over tombstones of a Jewish cemetary in Poland last week. As a defense mechanism, Jews have been making jokes about themselves for thousands of years. This one goes way back. You ever hear the one about Moses and burning bush? Never mind. Israel simply refused to be beat on their home turf. More important, the authors of the contest believed that humor and satire are some of the most powerful weapons against tyranny, hatred, and even indifference.
A little laugh, especially at one's own expense, can make any tense situation more manageable, or wake someone up from a stupor. I think it's a vastly underrated way to change the world. In any case, buoyant humor and lightheartedness can't be any more dangerous than the waves of fervent anger that seem to pound us from all directions these days, or the eddies of apathy in between.
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