An interesting development in the cartoon war. Sandmonkey points out that Al Fagr newpaper in Cairo published the cartoons in October 2005 – and there were no riots.

According to Sandmonkey and other Middle East bloggers, the governments of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and other countries are now using the publication of the cartoons to distract their citizens from other problems within the respective countries and to stir up anti-western sentiment. Saudi Arabia to distract its people from the Hajj stampede deaths, Syria to distract Lebanese from the Hariri murder and to create sectarian division in Lebanon between Christians and Muslims, Jordan, to distract its people from the new minimum wage law demanded by the labor unions and Egypt is using it to distract their people while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt’s poorest families. Nobody is paying attention because they are all out in the streets demonstrating. Also, it helps the respective governments to make the radicals look bad. They are going to have to deal with the Islamists soon, and it is better if the world is on their side.

These riots did not happen spontaneously. They were well planned by the respective governments. How many Danish flags do you think there normally are in Syria or Egypt?

Previous related posts:
The Cartoon war – world overview
Dangerous Hypocricy: World reactions to the Danish cartoons
Is Europe finally waking up?
The Mohammed Cartoons