An Egyptian newspaper released a 12-page special section for the purpose of ‘confronting thought with thought’ as protests against the low-budget film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ swept the Islamic world last week.
Al-Watan, an Egyptian secular newspaper, published a total number of 13 cartoons within a campaign as a counter-attack to the offensive cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The newspaper published the 13 cartoons on Monday under the title “Fight Cartoons by Cartoons.”
One cartoon showed a pair of eyeglasses wherein the viewer sees through to the set-to-flames World Trade Center in New York with the caption in Arabic reading: “Western eyeglasses to the Islamic world.” (Courtesy to Al-Watan daily) Prominent secular writers have also contributed to that section of the newspaper, including Amr Hamzawi, Carnegie Middle East Center research director, and Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, according to the BBC.
The cartoons portrayed how Western people, especially the Americans, view Muslims.
One of the cartoons showed a pair of eyeglasses wherein the viewer sees through to the set-to-flames World Trade Center in New York with a caption written in Arabic and translated as “Western eyeglasses to the Islamic world.”
A second cartoon showed a two-window image of an Arab man; the first one was spot-lighted by a flashlight drawn with the American flag in. The facial expressions of the man showed anger, displaying pointed teeth while holding a bloody knife. The other figure of the Muslim was depicted in a serene approach.
Readers of Al-Watan reacted positively to the action seeing it as a ‘civilized response’ to the issue, the BBC reported.
The anti-Islam film posted on YouTube provoked protests across the Muslim world this month. Related violence included the storming of U.S. and other Western embassies, the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
Many Arab and western countries have asked Google to remove th film’s trailer from YouTube.
