The uproar in the Arab world over the drawing of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper shows how little-understood freedom of speech is in the Arab world. The New York Times reports,

The Foreign Ministries of Iran and Iraq both summoned Danish diplomats there today to protest the publication last September of the cartoons, which included one depicting Mohammad wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb. Islam strictly forbids depictions of the prophet. (Source)

Iran and Iraq are not the first, as the Washington Post reported this morning:

Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Denmark and Libya has closed its embassy in Copenhagen, the Danish capital. Kuwait called the cartoons “despicable racism.” Iran’s foreign minister termed them “ridiculous and revolting.” (Source)

To begin with, to call it “racism” is ridiculous. Ethnically insensitive? Perhaps. Religiously intolerant? Maybe. But “racist?” The cartoons do not depict the whole Arab world, just the founder of their religion. It’s hard to qualify that with “just” in their eyes, and I realize in using that term I am pressing my own view on them and then expressing surprise when it doesn’t fit. All the same, it seems to indicate a massive misunderstanding on the part of the Arab world of the relationship between the press and the government in the Western world. The Post, again:

As Islamic protests continued over cartoons of the prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper, the Danish prime minister defended press freedom in his country today while distancing himself from the newspaper’s decision to publish the drawings.

The remarks of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen fell far short of the official apology demanded by an array of Islamic groups and countries that have imposed a remarkable boycott on Danish products.

So because of one newspaper’s decision — indeed, the decision of one editor of one newspaper — the Arab world is waging a “remarkable boycott” against the whole country and demanding an official apology. And what for? A picture, in a newspaper, in a country where the majority of them don’t even live, in a language most of them can’t understand. They can certainly call for the complete extermination of Jews, but don’t let anyone draw a picture of Muhammad.

What would the Arab world have the Danes do? Kill the editor? Execute the cartoonist? Have the president step down and imprisoned?

But what’s this all about? What do the cartoons look like? The Guardian explains,

One drawing depicted Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse, while in another he wielded a sword. (Source)

Okay, the implication of the bomb-shaped turban is over the top. But are there not passages in the Koran about wielding a sword — positive passages, even? Are not the majority of suicide bombers Muslim?

Maybe it’s not how Muhammad was depicted, but just that he was depicted. That’s taboo in Islam. So is pork. Why not boycotts about Denmark’s pork consumption?

Idiotic questions, each and every one — but about an idiotic situation.