--- title: Muhammad Cartoons Are Offensive, But Not for the Reason You Think description: These cartoons contribute to a climate of fear in which Muslims are seen as a threat canonical: https://time.com/3924545/muhammad-cartoons/ author: Jordan Denari article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-19T18:59:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:34.050Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Muhammad Cartoons Are Offensive, But Not for the Reason You Think og:description: These cartoons contribute to a climate of fear in which Muslims are seen as a threat og:url: https://time.com/3924545/muhammad-cartoons/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt518fc8b934d39d0c/698854ffa988ca79376b3120/pamela-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Political blogger Pamela Geller, American Freedom Defense Initiative's Houston-based founder, speaks during an interview in New York on May 28, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Muhammad Cartoons Are Offensive, But Not for the Reason You Think twitter:description: These cartoons contribute to a climate of fear in which Muslims are seen as a threat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt518fc8b934d39d0c/698854ffa988ca79376b3120/pamela-geller.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Muhammad Cartoons Are Offensive, But Not for the Reason You Think > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=4772a92f-7321-48d5-8a1b-4799d2c63c6e&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Islam Became the Fastest Growing Religion in Europe [Watch (HLS stream): How Islam Became the Fastest Growing Religion in Europe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/2l2uH816.m3u8) (3:03)  _Published 2015-01-16. This is the environment that has bred rising tensions between European nationalists and everyday Muslims_ by [Jordan Denari](https://time.com/author/jordan-denari/) ## Jordan Denari Jun 19, 2015 6:59 PM UTC  Political blogger Pamela Geller, American Freedom Defense Initiative's founder, speaks during an interview in New York May 28, 2015\. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Political blogger Pamela Geller, American Freedom Defense Initiative's founder, speaks during an interview in New York May 28, 2015\. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Brendan McDermid—Reuters by [Jordan Denari](https://time.com/author/jordan-denari/) ## Jordan Denari Jun 19, 2015 6:59 PM UTC If you find yourself driving through [St. Louis](http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2015/06/08/gellers-muhammad-cartoons-appear-on-st-louis-billboards/) or rural [Arkansas](http://pamelageller.com/2015/06/muhammad-on-the-front-page.html/?utm%5Fsource=dlvr.it&utm%5Fmedium=facebook) in the coming weeks, you may come across billboards depicting Islam’s prophet Muhammad. The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the group led by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer that organized last month’s Draw Muhammad event in Garland, Texas, is promoting ads featuring the contest’s winning cartoon: an image of an angry, sword-wielding Muhammad lunging forward toward the hands of the artist who drew him. The news coverage of AFDI’s recent effort—as well as others’ [plans](http://www.bostonherald.com/news%5Fopinion/local%5Fcoverage/2015/06/terror%5Ftarget%5Fpamela%5Fgeller%5Fbacks%5Fcontest%5Fplans) to [disseminate](http://www.geertwilders.nl/index.php/94-english/1935-mohammed-cartoons-on-dutch-television) Muhammad cartoons—has been accompanied by attempts to explain why displaying these violent drawings is problematic or offensive. [Journalists](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU%5FNETHERLANDS%5FWILDERS%5FMUHAMMAD%5FCARTOONS%3FSITE=AP%26SECTION=HOME%26TEMPLATE=DEFAULT%26CTIME=2015-06-03-10-44-12) [and](http://www.mediaite.com/online/former-marine-announces-new-draw-muhammad-contest-in-new-hampshire/) [commentators](http://news.yahoo.com/crowds-gather-anti-islam-demonstration-outside-phoenix-mosque-011347916.html) often diagnose the problem this way: Many Muslims disapprove of depictions of their prophet, and thus some may retaliate violently against them. But this characterization ignores the cartoons’ real implications. Actively spreading these cartoons is offensive because it contributes to an existing climate of fear in which Muslims are seen as a threat—a climate that endangers Muslims in the West. These cartoons play into the worst stereotypes about Muslims. Almost all of the cartoons displayed at the Garland contest portrayed Muhammad in a negative light, showing the prophet as violent, backward, sexually perverted, and intolerant of non-Muslims. Out of dozens of cartoons posted on AFDI’s [Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/AFDInational/photos%5Fstream), only three can be interpreted as neutral. Like the cartoons, media representations of Muslims tend to be negative. [Content analysis research from MediaTenor](http://bridge.georgetown.edu/new-study-analyzes-media-coverage-of-islam-over-time/), an international media research institute, found that media coverage of Muslims and Islam is at an all time low. MediaTenor, which has analyzed more 2 million news stories from 10 outlets in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany since before 9/11, found that in 2014, 80% of stories about Muslims portrayed them in a negative light. News media, political discourse, and even entertainment often advance the same memes found in the AFDI cartoons: Islam is more likely to inspire people to [violence](http://crooksandliars.com/heather/george-pataki-conflates-islam-terrorist-an); Muslim men are [barbaric](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/salaam-love-counters-stereotypes-of-muslim-men/2014/01/31/fcc6642e-8ac1-11e3-a760-a86415d0944d%5Fstory.html); Muslim women are [oppressed](http://mic.com/articles/53783/the-biggest-lie-you-ve-been-told-about-the-oppression-of-muslim-women); and Islamic culture is antithetical to progress or diversity. This monolithic, negative portrayal provides a skewed image of Islam and Muslims. It excludes the manifestations of Islam as it’s lived by ordinary Muslims, and doesn’t reflect how Muslims view their religion and their prophet—as promoters of justice and peace. It also ignores the fact that the number of attacks committed by Muslims in Western societies is quite low. In the last five years, only [2% of all terrorist attacks in Europe](http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/01/08/3609796/islamist-terrorism-europe/) have been “religiously motivated.” Muslims have carried out only [6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil](http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02%5F05#terror%5F05sum) since 1980. Though attacks against Muslims in the West receive little coverage, they have been far more widespread. Since December 2014, [at least five Muslims](http://bridge.georgetown.edu/knowmore-about-attacks-on-muslims-since-the-chapelhillshootings/) in the U.S. and Canada have been killed—including three young family members in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in April—in attacks that many believe were motivated by Islamophobic bias. Across the U.S., police are investigating other murders of Muslims, verbal threats, physical attacks, and mosque vandalisms that have occurred in recent months. Muslim civil rights organizations have also noticed a [considerable uptick](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/08/3600829/killing-of-muslim-teen-highlights-possible-uptick-in-anti-muslim-violence/) in attacks against Muslims since the rise of ISIS. Islamophobic incidents in Europe have also risen. From mid-2012 to mid-2014, anti-Muslim attacks [increased considerably in London](http://tellmamauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/low-res.jpg), according to the U.K.-based monitoring organization, TellMAMA. A recent [study](http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/17/hate-crimes-against-muslims-britain-spike-jihadi-attacks-study) from Teesside University found that spikes occurred in the wake of “jihadi” attacks in Paris, Sydney, and Copenhagen. Anti-Muslim incidents in France also [increased steadily from 2005 to 2013](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/islamophobia-in-france%5Fn%5F6445064.html). In the two days after the _Charlie Hebdo_ attack in January, TellMAMA counted 15 major [attacks](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/09/islamophobia-in-france%5Fn%5F6445064.html) against Muslims or Muslim institutions in France. Muslims make up a minority religious community that is constantly demonized in the media and political discourse in the West. In this climate, ordinary people—who perhaps have never met a Muslim—have been responding to the depiction they’ve been fed for decades: that Muslims and their religion are a threat to the well-being of Western society. That’s what [Jon Ritzheimer](http://bridge.georgetown.edu/what-anderson-cooper-should-have-asked-the-organizer-of-the-anti-muslim-rally-in-phoenix/) did when he organized the anti-Islam [rally](http://bridge.georgetown.edu/in-arizona-bikers-plan-armed-protest-outside-of-mosque/) last month outside a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona, which was attended by protestors armed with military-grade weapons. And it’s what [Jerry DeLemus](http://www.mediaite.com/online/former-marine-announces-new-draw-muhammad-contest-in-new-hampshire/) and [Dean Remington](http://bridge.georgetown.edu/in-arizona-another-armed-protest-planned-outside-local-mosque/) are doing with their respective plans to organize a Geller-inspired Muhammad cartoon contest in New Hampshire and an anti-Islam rally in Tucson. But these threats are only perceptions—_misperceptions_—grounded not in facts or personal experience but in propagandistic portrayals. AFDI’s Muhammad ads make Muslims, the demonized group, actually look like the demonizer. The group’s latest campaigns contribute to these misperceptions and the more general climate in which Muslims are depicted as an existential threat and therefore treated as such. During a period when anti-Muslim attacks are already high, these ads make Muslims feel less safe, and they’re right to be upset about the promotion of these cartoons. In fact, we should all take offense to their dissemination. In diverse, pluralistic societies, Muslims and non-Muslims alike should not stand by as an entire religious group is made to look like the enemy. ## Transcript This is France. It has the highest population of Muslims in western Europe, not far behind is Germany, and then the United Kingdom. [ FOREIGN ] But protests in Germany represent a growing number of western Europeans who want limit Muslim immigration into the region. [ MUSIC ] These sentiments are only exacerbated by domestic attacks, levied in the name of Islam. In 2008, 46 % of people in Spain held unfavorable feelings towards Muslims. A modest number, compared to the 53 % in Greece. And 63 in Italy. Despite those statistics, Islam is the fastest- growing religion in Europe. How that happened rests in the hands of history. In 1830, the French monarchy invaded Algeria, a largely Muslim country. France dismantled all the Islamic institutions. [ INAUDIBLE ] And schools, and for citizens to renounce their religious ideals in exchange for French citizenship. But essentially later a rise in Algerian nationalism and resentment led to a brutal eight- year conflict for independence, which Algeria won. And despite years of friction between native French citizens and French Algerians. Algerians still constitute, by far, most of the Muslims in France. Germany on the other hand, didn't see a boom in its Muslim population until the mid- 20th century. After the end of World War two, Germany called for foreign workers to fill the void made more acute by the construction of the Berlin Wall, which cut off laborers in Eastern Germany. The new Gastarbeiter program was opening the immigration to millions of low skilled Turkish and mostly Muslim laborers who were supposed to stay for one or two years before returning home, but there were no jobs back home so they settled in Germany. The need for a bigger labor force and burgeoning trade agreements in the 1960's and 70's. So the increase of Arab and Muslim immigrants into the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, and other European countries. [ FOREIGN ] And today a growing number of people in those particular countries fear what they've dubbed the Islamization of the West. In the midst of that fear. Muslims have felt the repercussions. In Sweden, Britain and France, mosques have firebombed and burned down. Algerian, Turkish and Moroccan citizens suffer unemployment rates double and triple the amount of their French and German counterparts. And the recent Amnesty International report found that more and more European muslims face daily discrimination. Forcing them to carve our their own communities outside of mainstream society. This is the environment that has bred the rising tensions between European nationalists and everyday Muslims. [ FOREIGN ] And it's why in part extremist views on both sides [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] Have turned Western Europe into a virtual powder keg. 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