Cornell's Commentary on the Danish Cartoons
Speaking of Faith has decided to provide images of four of the cartoons — which Vincent Cornell prefers to call caricatures — accompanied by Cornell's descriptions and interpretations of them. He points out details and symbolism that made these images offensive even to a moderate and intellectual Muslims like him. These are details and symbols that non-Muslims — including many on the SOF staff — can simply fail to see or grasp without explanation.

Sensitivity is important. Context is essential. The following images are accompanied by an audio link to Cornell's description and brief explanation. Listen to the show to hear Cornell's more detailed explanation of why these images are so offensive.

Vincent Cornell on this cartoon: "One cartoon in particular is interesting. It's the face of the Prophet Muhammad in the turban. The face is framed by a star and crescent. The crescent frames the face, gives the appearance sort of as a sword or a sickle and the star is stuck in the Prophet's right eye." » Listen to Cornell's commentary (RealAudio, :17)

Vincent Cornell on this cartoon: "Another cartoon has the Prophet Muhammad holding a dagger or a scimitar, a short scimitar in his hand, with a bushy beard looking sort of like typical 19th-century images of the mad mullah. Behind him are two veiled women, veiled completely in black. The only thing visible about the women are their eyes. The eyes are made to sort of stand out, big, wide-staring eyes, sort of like a deer caught in the headlight. And the Prophet's eyes are obscured by a bar as if the Prophet is a criminal. Again, this is, you know, not simply a statement that Muslim men have a problem in terms of seeing what they do to Muslim women. It's an entire image of violence having to do with the sword that adds to the particular picture." » Listen to Cornell's commentary (RealAudio, :47)

Vincent Cornell on this cartoon: "Of course, the most famous or infamous one is the picture of the Prophet with the turban on his head that's a bomb. But more than just having a turban on the head that is a bomb, underneath the fuse of the bomb is a sort of a badge, a symbol, where it says, la ilaha illa Allah; Muhammadun rasul Allah, "There is no God but God; Muhammad is the messenger of God." So more than conveying the image that there is something violent in Muslim sensibilities or in Muslim expression, there's the very strong image in this cartoon that the problem is not just the Prophet Muhammad, the problem is Islam itself, that there's something inherently violent in Islam." » Listen to Cornell's commentary (RealAudio, :37)

Vincent Cornell on this cartoon: "And the cartoon that again, it's probably better to call them caricatures than cartoons, the caricature that struck me as most interesting that hasn't been discussed anywhere, as far as I know, is a caricature where there are very, very simple, almost stick figures that are indicating that they're probably Muslim women. I mean there are circles and lines that sort of look like a headdress or the veil that Muslim women wear. The mouths, as these women speak, are crescent moons. But I thought what was most interesting is their eyes are stars of David. And this, I think, to me at least, gives me the sense that what we're dealing with here is something broader than simply an anti-Islamic polemic. There may also be overtones of an anti-Semitic polemic in the sense of sort of the well-worn images of European anti-Semitism." » Listen to Cornell's commentary (RealAudio, :52)