Answering Cartoons with Bombs

Recently, German authorities discovered an attempt to place bombs on board two trains. Several suspects have been arrested, and this AP article explains the motivations of the terrorists:

The prime suspects in the failed attempt to blow up two German trains were partially motivated by anger over the recent publication of Prophet Muhammad cartoons, a leading investigator said in an interview released Saturday.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten first published the 12 cartoons in September 2005, including one showing Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

Some of the caricatures were republished in German newspapers and other European media months later, sparking protests across the Muslim world, where many considered the cartoons a violation of traditions prohibiting images of their prophet.

Jihad Hamad told Lebanese interrogators that fellow suspect Youssef Mohamad el Hajdib considered the publications "an attack of the Western world on Islam," Joerg Ziercke, head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, told Focus magazine in an interview released to The Associated Press ahead of publication.

(Emphasis added-DD)


If we really want to appease the jihadists by changing our policies, the "policies" we will have to give up include little things like freedom of expression.


Update: 9-4-06. Lorenzo Vidino has more on the links between the attempted German train bombings and the Danish cartoons in this post at the Counterterrorism Blog.