From Farrakhan to Danish Cartoons

[G2099]

By Salim Lone

Two decades ago, the American Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan referred in an interview to Judaism as a "gutter religion." Ferocious condemnations from Western leaders and media commentators followed instantaneously, with most not only asking him to apologize and retract his slur but demanding also that other African-American leaders publicly disassociate themselves from Mr. Farrakhan.

The cartoons in Denmark's Jyllands-Posten which, among other things, portrayed the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist who also offered virgins to suicide bombers, were infinitely more explosive than Mr. Farrakhan's words. But no major Western figure has condemned their publication even though these have angrily united the Muslim world in a way no other issue has in recent times.

Such double standards aside, the absence of such condemnation by any Western leader is the principal reason that protests have continued to escalate and in a few instances turn violent.

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story.php?sid=021206222917