Muslim cartoon riot updates

The Iranians are blaming — who else? — the Jews (and Americans) for the Danish cartoons. Funny, I didn’t know Denmark was the fifty-first state.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s hard-line president on Saturday accused the United States and Europe of being “hostages of Zionism” and said they should pay a heavy price for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that have triggered worldwide protests.

Denmark – where the drawings were first published four months ago – warned Danes to leave Indonesia, saying they faced a “significant and imminent danger” from an extremist group and announced it had withdrawn embassy staff from Jakarta, Iran and Syria.

In a sign that the AP editors read my blog, they’re finally adding some context to Gorilla Boy’s anti-Semitic remarks.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is at odds with much of the international community over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, launched an anti-Israeli campaign last fall when he said the Holocaust was a “myth” and that Israeli should be “wiped off the map.”

In a speech marking the 27th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution Saturday, Ahmadinejad linked his public rage with Israel and the cartoons satirizing Islam’s most revered figure.

“Now in the West insulting the prophet is allowed, but questioning the Holocaust is considered a crime,” he said. “We ask, why do you insult the prophet? The response is that it is a matter of freedom, while in fact they (who insult the founder of Islam) are hostages of the Zionists. And the people of the U.S. and Europe should pay a heavy price for becoming hostages to Zionists.”

Look at that! One little sentence, and it makes all the difference in the world to the context of the article. Congratulations, AP, apparently, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Oh, but then there’s this. Just in case you were living under a rock, the AP had to make absolutely sure that you got why the cartoon riots are occurring:

The drawings – including one that depicts the prophet with a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse – were first published in September and recently reprinted in other European publications that said it was an issue of freedom of speech.

Islam widely holds that representations of the prophet are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Iran, a predominantly Shiite Muslim country, has seized on the caricatures as a means of rallying its people behind a government that is increasingly under fire from the West over its nuclear program.

Shiite Muslims do not ban representations of the prophet and some in Iran’s provincial towns and villages even carry drawings said to be of Muhammad. But Tehran said the newspaper caricatures were insulting to all Muslims.

Two things: The old boilerplate simply read “Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.” The AP has changed its boilerplate for this story, even though in the next breath they show the Iranians to be the hypocrites that they are.

Let me interpret for you what Ahmadinejad was really saying:

“With my left hand, I will condemn the Danish cartoons, while with my right, I will continue my march towards nuclear weapons for the Mullahcracy.”

By the way, take a quick look at my previous post, and tell me if you can tell the difference between Iranian “moderates” and “hard-liners.”

I can’t.