Christian Publication Invites Readers to Send “Peace” Cartoons

|TOP|UK-based Christian news site The Good News (thegoodnews.co.uk) is currently inviting readers to send in a cartoon promoting peace, in response to the controversy caused by European newspapers publishing caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

"It seems right to promote peace at a time when there has been so much ill-feeling caused by these cartoons," says editor Howard Dobson, "and I hope our readers rise to the challenge and send in illustrations really get the message of peace across."

Readers wishing to send in cartoons or drawings for publication at thegoodnews.co.uk can email their work to editor@thegoodnews.co.uk.

Caricatures of the prophet Muhammad were reprinted in seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, following the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten whose cartoons have sparked outrage.

|QUOTE|Media watchdogs defended this issue in the name of press freedom, while Arab nations protested - some sparking death threats - as Islamic tradition bans depictions of Muhammad.

An American Muslim speaks on behalf of the issue: "If a newspaper published malicious and defamatory depictions of Jesus, Mary, Moses, Gandhi, Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II, there would be worldwide outrage. People need to understand that this goes beyond the right to free speech and a free press,” expressed Sehmina Jaffer Chopra, Islamic counsellor of Salisbury University Muslim Student Association, according to Miami Herald.

In a recently released statement by the Methodist Church regarding the issue, Dr. Elizabeth Harris, Methodist secretary for inter-Faith relations, said: "In the light of the current controversy over the publication of cartoons depicting the holy prophet Muhammad, the Methodist Church affirms that freedom of speech and responsibility depend on one another in a democratic society.

"The Methodist Church recognises that immense hurt has been caused to Muslims throughout the world through the publication of the cartoons.”

Harris continued: "It is saddened, however, that a minority of Muslims have responded with violence in word and deed. This harms the good name of Islam and plays into the hands of those who want to portray Islam as inherently violent.”