Those Damned Cartoons

originally posted in the North-Jute newspaper Jyllands-Posten
are still causing havoc. - most recently the beheading of a secular schoolteacher
near Paris.

(this is not one of the Danish cartoons)

Until yesterday I had not seen any of the offending six cartoons.

Here they are.

I don't think any of them is particularly blasphemous
nor particularly funny.

It seems that the cartoon which caused the most offence
was the one about the failure or rupture of the supply-chain of virgins in Paradise.

The deeply offensive myth of the 72 Virgins offered to the pious male
after death derives from a Hadith composed either by

Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (Arabic: الحكيم الترمذي‎; (The Sage of Termez) or

Abū ʿĪsā Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā as-Sulamī aḍ-Ḍarīr al-Būghī at-Tirmidhī
(Arabic: أبو عيسى محمد بن عيسى السلمي الضرير البوغي الترمذي‎; Persian: ترمذی‎, Termezī; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209 - 279 AH),
often referred to as Imām al-Termezī/Tirmidhī. He was a Persian of Arab descent belonging to the Banu Sulaym tribe, an Islamic scholar, and collector of Hadith who hailed from Termez (in present-day Uzbekistan).

Jokes amongst Muslims about this ridiculous Hadith must date from at least the eleventh century.
Cartoons about the beheading of journalists, cartoonists or teachers may now seem to be in poor taste
but will probably not incite further beheadings.

But this one might:

SHOULDN'T WE, HOWEVER, JUST ONCE IN A WHILE,
'SEND UP' SOME OUTRAGEOUS CHRISTIAN MYTHS ?  

The caption below this superb painting by Bellini
could get me death threats from the crazy 'Christian Right',

but, fortunately, Freedom of Speech by millions means that
only ten people read my blog, none of them (so far as I know)
from the Raving Right (or the Loony Left).
I don't think that Jyllands-Posten , The Onion, 
or even Private Eye would print it,
nor any schoolteacher parade it, as an amusing example of
our cherished and much-vaunted Freedom of Expression.

Simeon:  I enjoyed you when you were a virgin; 
I look forward to enjoying your son.