A Memo
Written by
A post from The Religious Policeman, a blog by an expatriate Saudi, illustrating (with help from the Mohammed Image Archive) how depictions of Mohammed are widespread, even in the Muslim world.
A Memo
From: Royal Press Secretary
To: His Majesty
Date: 1st February 2006Subject: Cartoons
As Your Majesty requested recently, in order to divert public attention from the regrettable demise of a small number of pilgrims in Makkah during the last Hajj, Saudi newspapers were instructed to revive the four-month-old story of cartoons about the Prophet (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper, and turn it into an attack on Denmark, together with a “spontaneous demand by the people” for a boycott of Danish goods.
So far this has worked reasonably well, although major Danish exports are bacon and lager beer, which we do not import, except as “special consignments” for some members of your family. There has also been some unfortunate “collateral damage” in that “Nido” was wrongly identified as a Danish product when it is in fact Swiss; also the boycott has resulted in several thousand Third World expatriates being laid off in the Saudi plants of the Danish dairy company Arla. However we cannot be expected to take the troubles of the entire world upon our shoulders.
What is becoming to a concern to me is the “Denmark fatigue” that is clearly emerging in our newspapers. It has been an enormous strain on them to produce up to four reports a day from a story where nothing is essentially happening. It is also apparent that “reader fatigue” is setting in, and that instead of yet another article on Denmark, they would much prefer to read in great detail all the minutiae of Your Majesty’s travels around the world, the full transcripts of your after-dinner speeches, and other matters of great interest and importance.
I have therefore given some thought to “spicing up” the story, and have come to the conclusion that we ought to find some other country, ideally small, harmless and inoffensive and with exports that do not appeal to your family, to demonize in addition to Denmark. I have therefore been reviewing all published representations of the Prophet (PBUH) to establish what countries could be blamed for them. Sadly, there are many representations out there, perhaps more than we ever imagined…..