Michelle Malkin » Mo Cartoon for sale: An auction in defense of free speech

Mo Cartoon for sale: An auction in defense of free speech

By Michelle Malkin • February 29, 2008 09:05 AM

Via Weasel Zippers comes news that jihadi-targeted Danish artist Kurt Westergaard’s Mohammed cartoon is up for sale. The WSJ reports:

Kurt Westergaard is in hiding from Islamic militants who want him dead. Now, the Danish cartoonist says he’s ready to part with the source of his travails, a small ink sketch of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

But first there is the ticklish question of price.

“I would like to think that it has some value,” says Mr. Westergaard, the 72-year-old creator of one of the world’s most famous cartoons and one that inflamed Muslims world-wide. “It is a symbol of democracy and freedom of expression. I think I should have a little money for this,” he says.

The drawing is locked in a bank vault while the cartoonist shuttles between temporary havens the Danish secret police have found for him around this blustery port city. His is by far the best known of 12 Muhammad-related cartoons published in September 2005 by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. But how do you fix the value of something that auction houses won’t touch, that museums won’t hang on their walls and that still inspires murderous passions?

Two weeks ago, Danish authorities said they had foiled a plot to kill Mr. Westergaard in his home. Seventeen Danish newspapers, outraged and eager to show solidarity, reprinted his drawing. Muslims again took to the streets. Iran and others demanded an apology. “I always had a feeling this cartoon crisis would not end,” says Mr. Westergaard. “Now I know.”

Yet the new round of trouble may only increase the cartoon’s worth eventually. “Things gain value from public interest and history,” notes Sebastian Lerche, a director of Denmark’s biggest auction house, Bruun Rasmussen. He is quick to add he has no interest in testing the market: “We see no point in offending millions of people,” he says.

Some Muslims here want the bomb-in-a-turban drawing destroyed. Salah Suleiman, an activist in a mosque that helped whip up the fury over it in early 2006, delights in the artist’s troubles and says no amount of money can save him from God’s wrath: “He is living like a rat…. He is living in hell already.”

Mr. Westergaard’s wife, a retired kindergarten teacher, has also suggested destruction, by selling the cartoon to a wealthy Arab who “can then burn it in the central square in Mecca.” Mr. Westergaard says he likes the idea of getting money from an oil sheik but would prefer the cartoon stay intact and in Denmark.

The difference between us and them:

A less-famed Muhammad cartoon sold for around $2,900 in an Internet auction, but that was in late 2005, before the global uproar. The artist in that case donated the cash, which came from an anonymous buyer, to earthquake relief in Pakistan.

In an event last year at the Reagan Library in California, Mr. Rose, the Danish culture editor, saw the cartoons’ selling power. He autographed posters featuring his newspaper’s original cartoon edition, which sold out in minutes for $1,000 apiece.

Money has played a role on the other side of the barricades, too. When Muslims started burning Danish flags and ransacking Danish property in early 2006, extremists joined in a bidding war to get Mr. Westergaard killed. The bounties they offered ranged from a new car to a million dollars.

I mentioned Sudan’s anti-Denmark dress rehearsal earlier this week. The follow-up: No debt relief for you, Sudan.

Denmark said Thursday it will oppose any debt relief deal for Sudan in response to the Sudanese president’s comments urging the Muslim world to boycott Danish goods over the publication of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon.

Interior Minister Ulla Toernaes said she summoned Sudan’s ambassador to Denmark to demand an explanation of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s comments a day earlier.

Al-Bashir said Wednesday that he would bar Danes from Sudan and told tens of thousands of people at a government-backed rally in Khartoum that the Muslim world should boycott Denmark because of a cartoon reprinted recently in Danish newspapers.

Danish newspapers reprinted a cartoon showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban on Feb. 13 to show their commitment to freedom of speech after police uncovered a plot to kill the artist who drew it.

The drawing was one of 12 cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper in 2006 that triggered major protests in Muslim countries. The republication again sparked protests in several Muslim countries, including Sudan.

Sudan owes Denmark nearly $405 million and after Sudan’s government and southern rebels signed a peace agreement in 2005, international donors said they would consider debt relief.

Meanwhile, brace for Fitna and the coming paroxysm of rage against the Netherlands over Fitna–which will be complete by Sunday. It’s coming soon to a jihadi theater near you. The CSM reports:

Outrage continued to rise this week in parts of the Muslim world over the depiction of Islam in Danish newspapers earlier this month and the possible release of a film in the Netherlands critical of the religion.

Muslims in Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, the Middle East, and other parts of the Islamic world, have been angered over the republication of one cartoon from a 2005 series that satirized Islam’s prophet Muhammad. Muslims regard visual depictions of the prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.

Governments in Europe are also bracing for protests against the possible broadcast of an anti-Islamic film by right-wing Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders that links Islam to violence. Mr. Wilders says the film, which he plans to broadcast on the Internet and possibly television, will be finished Sunday, Reuters reports.

Memo to ABC News stuntpeople: Hey, how about sending an undercover actor wearing a shirt with Westergaard’s cartoon and American, Danish, and Dutch flag pins into a Friday mosque crowd?

***

Snapped Shot: Happy Rage Friday! Brian Ledbetter is also holding a contest in support of Denmark to counter the jihadi effigy-burners. Weigh in.

Posted in: Danish Cartoons, Jyllands-Posten

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#256719

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:09 am, mpChops said:

“It is a symbol of democracy and freedom of expression. I think I should have a little money for this,”

When exactly did we start putting dollar amounts to those ideals?
#256720

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am, TexasTiger said:

Original:

Muslims in Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, the Middle East, and other parts of the Islamic world, have been angered over the republication of one cartoon

Improved:

Muslims in Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, the Middle East, and other parts of the Islamic world, have been angered over just about everything…
#256724

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am, jukin said:

I’m just glad that Islam is the religion of peace. Can one imagine what would be happening if it were not?
#256725

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am, CarpiJugulum said:

A little off topic but related. Sudanees want to boycott all Dnaish products due to the cartoons. I read now that Denmark is fireing back and urgeing nonsupport for money from the United Nations to aid of the Sudanees government.

As to the Cartoons, I wish I had the money to purchase. I would frame and properly display for all to see at the local honky tonk. It would be a dart board.

Not knocking thwe cartoon but the charecter in it.
#256738

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:29 am, RedRepub said:

So, let me get this straight:

The movie is critical of Islam because it portrays Muslims as violent. Many Muslims will respond with violence along with protests.

Am I missing something?

Maybe they wouldn’t be seen as violent if they didn’t respond with violence every time a cartoon is printed.
#256758

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:54 am, procopy said:

Everything I want to say right now will sound so prejudiced and Islamophobian (that can’t be a word) that I am better off not saying anything. And yet I still feel compelled to write this… what’s up with that?
#256761

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:55 am, ajmontana said:

Memo to ABC News stuntpeople:

lol, I dont think they want to star in “Death Wish VI”
#256762

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:56 am, BetsyinAmerica said:

If I had the money I would bid on the cartoons. Either speech is free for everyone or it is free for no one.

But all I can offer is moral support, fwiw.
#256768

On February 29th, 2008 at 9:59 am, jimyai said:

Saudia Arabs should get the bidding up to $10,000,000 pretty quickly or we can make them pay that much by pushing the bid.OR maybe we can get all the muslim countries to pay the Danish cartoonist a jiza(?)tax to not let anyone publish that particular cartoon again.
#256770

On February 29th, 2008 at 10:00 am, Boomer said:

I have absolutely no use for the religion of perpetual outrage. They have shown themselves for the intolerant small minded bigots they are during this entire episode. Islam is not a religion it is a totalitarian form of government and my family and I will never submit.

I wonder how many Darwin kills we will see from the outrage, rioting, and destruction after the Friday prayers breakup.
#256797

On February 29th, 2008 at 10:28 am, Paul-Cincy said:

Salmon Rushdie, who’s had the chance to think about this general issue at some length, believes the problem is the Islamicists have defined their identity too narrowly, so that any assault on it is too painful. This is identity politics on steroids. Narcissistic types, Tammy calls them malnars, they can’t stand to be put down or diminished. Any assault on their identity, perceived or real, and the feeling of shame this engenders in them is intolerable. Recently Michelle printed an email in which she was verbally assaulted with the b and c words and the most humiliating references to her gender and ethnicity. It hurt, but she didn’t go nuclear, because she can use her mind to put it in context. It’s shocking to me that a mainstream religion like Islam can be so sensitive to slights. I guess it’s built-in. As Yusef Islam, the erstwhile Cat Stevens said when asked in 1989 about the fatwah against Salmon Rushdie, “The Qur’an makes it clear if someone defames the Prophet, then he must die”. How do you deal with a religion like that. I guess you could leave it, but that too is punishable by death.
#256798

On February 29th, 2008 at 10:28 am, MrVIBEMAN said:

The fuse is lit and burning….
#256831

On February 29th, 2008 at 11:09 am, Dimsdale said:

He should put it on Ebay!

I think it would make a great t-shirt, coffee mug, hat emblem, belt buckle etc., etc…..
#256877

On February 29th, 2008 at 11:46 am, gunslingerpatriot said:

I can’t afford the bidding price for the cartoon, but it would make a nice coffee table book or lithograph.

HHmmm….capitalism at work:
Coffee table book $40
” ” ” autographed $75
Mohammed cartoon on a t-shirt $25
” ” ” ” autographed $50

Now thats something I would like to see, but alas the major bookstores wouldn’t carry it because of cair’s immediate threat to call for a boycott, and the like.

GSP
Dhimitude or Freedom? Your choise!
#256899

On February 29th, 2008 at 12:06 pm, GlenW said:

What’s ironic is they are doing such a fantastic job of reinforcing exactly the image that cartoon is portraying.

Also lost on them is the concept that by making such a big deal about it, that silly cartoon has become an icon that just gets cemented deeper and deeper into the lexicon of the net.
#256943

On February 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pm, TMoney said:

Gotta love the capitolistic bent of the artist here. His wife has a good idea too, but I’m all for hanging it in the Louvre [sp?].

I bid one potbelly pig and a bobble-head Mo.
#257058

On February 29th, 2008 at 3:11 pm, tony the tiger said:

Snapped Shot: Happy Rage Friday! Brian Ledbetter is also holding a contest in support of Denmark to counter the jihadi effigy-burners. Weigh in.

Tried to click on the …friday link and got this:

It’s Been Fun

We have been informed that the Associated Press takes issue with our use of their images on this website, and until I’m able to resolve this matter with them amicably, I’m going to have to take the site offline.
Please feel free to e-mail me if you know more about this kinda thing. I’m posting a copy of the AP’s letter below, for full disclosure:
#257144

On February 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm, Bad Candy said:

Yeah, I saw that a bit ago Tony, sucks, and I’m hoping Brian can fight this, and I hope Michelle puts a piece up, given how many times she’s used Snapped Shot.
#257418

On March 1st, 2008 at 11:04 am, Mr Wolf said:

Give me a contact- I’ll buy it. No problem. Then post it in my front yard. In lights.

Really.

=W