03-05-2006, 05:50 PM
Zieler received an email back from the paper's Sunday editor, Jens
Kaiser, which said: "I don't think Jyllands-Posten's readers will
enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will
provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them."
The illustrator told the Norwegian daily Dagbladet, which saw the
email: "I see the cartoons as an innocent joke, of the type that my
Christian grandfather would enjoy."
He said that he felt Jyllands-Posten rated the feelings of its
Christian readers higher than that of its Muslim readers.
But the Jyllands-Posten editor in question, Mr Kaiser, told
MediaGuardian.co.uk that the case was "ridiculous to bring forward
now. It has nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons.
"In the Muhammad drawings case, we asked the illustrators to do it.
I did not ask for these cartoons. That's the difference," he said.
"The illustrator thought his cartoons were funny. I did not think
so. It would offend some readers, not much but some."
The decision smacks of "double-standards", said Ahmed Akkari,
spokesman for the Danish-based European Committee for Prophet
Honouring, the umbrella group that represents 27 Muslim
organisations that are campaigning for a full apology from Jyllands-
Posten.
"How can Jyllands-Posten distinguish the two cases? Surely they must
understand," Mr Akkari added.
Meanwhile, the editor of a Malaysian newspaper resigned over the
weekend after printing one of the Muhammad cartoons that have
unleashed a storm of protest across the Islamic world.
Malaysia's Sunday Tribune, based in the remote state of Sarawak, on
Borneo island, ran one of the Danish cartoons on Saturday. It is
unclear which one of the 12 drawings was reprinted.
Printed on page 12 of the paper, the cartoon illustrated an article
about the lack of impact of the controversy in Malaysia, a country
with a majority Muslim population.
The newspaper apologised and expressed "profound regret over the
unauthorised publication", in a front page statement on Sunday.
"Our internal inquiry revealed that the editor on duty, who was
responsible for the same publication, had done it all alone by
himself without authority in compliance with the prescribed
procedures as required for such news," the statement said.
The editor, who has not been named, regretted his mistake,
apologised and tendered his resignation, according to the statement.
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