http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1703501,00.html
Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
Gwladys Fouché and agencies
Monday February 6, 2006
Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the
cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest
throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus
Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago,
on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not
funny.
In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a
series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ
to Jyllands-Posten.
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."
"I showed them to a few pastors and they thought they were funny."
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.
<end excerpt>
(Rest of article is about related matters)
Michael