Western press has manipulated their readers once again. Their governments and media have told people in western countries that the Cartoon Saga in the Muslim World was about some cartoons. It is not, and we should all know it.
Of course, many Muslims did not enjoy the 12 mocking caricatures of their prophet Muhammad. As we know, Islam has a prohibition of picturing their god and prophet and other holy things. When the largest newspaper in Denmark and a small Norwegian extremist newspaper published these caricatures, it was the famous last straw that broke the camels back.
The western world has neglected the Islamic world in centuries, and its words and actions it has treated the Islamic world badly – from the old crusades to the Iraq wars. All the time, the message communicated has been: “We are better than you!”
The cartoons where not the reason for this winter’s chaos. It was the trigger that released frustration from centuries of western oppression. Discussing the world’s power balance is difficult, but to give the cartoons as reason for the riots is plain childish. We must know our world’s uncomfortable history better than that, and take the responsibility of our knowledge.