The Sad Departure of Molly Norris

The South Park cartoon of Muhammad (far right) with Jesus, Buddha and John Smith

With no one brave enough to defend her, Molly Norris, has disappeared...the brave cartoon that ended her career is pictured above...click on it for a larger view

Dueling Fatwas -Daniel Pipes

[I]n April, South Park, an iconoclastic adult cartoon program on Comedy Central, mocked the prohibition on depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad. An obscure website, RevolutionMuslim.com (whose proprietor was subsequently arrested on terrorism-related charges), responded by threatening the show's writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Panicked, Comedy Central censored further mention of Muhammad.

Molly Norris, a cartoonist at the Seattle Weekly, showed solidarity with Parker and Stone by posting a facetious "Everyone Draw Muhammad Day" appeal on Facebook, hoping that a host of caricaturists would "counter Comedy Central's message about feeling afraid." To Norris' surprise, dismay, and confusion, others took her idea seriously, prompting Facebook campaigns for and against her "day" and the Pakistani government temporarily to block Facebook. Norris disowned her initiative, apologized for it, and even befriended the local Council on American-Islamic Relations representative, to little avail.

Anwar al-Awlaki, [a US citizen and] Islamist leader in Yemen, responded in July by issuing a death sentence on Norris.

On consulting with the police, Norris in September not only went underground but "went ghost" and disappeared entirely, including her name and her profession.

[F]or the first time in the nearly 250-year history of the United States, the government placed Awlaki on a "kill list," making him the only U.S. citizen to be condemned to death by his own government without benefit of a legal process. Both the military and the intelligence services are targeting him; as one unnamed official puts it, "he's in everybody's sights."

This extraordinary trading of fatwas prompts several observations:

Make fun of Muhammad and you're on your own. Local and national politicians had nothing to say about her plight. Journalists, usually keen to protect one of their own, went silent. No organization sprung up to raise money for her protection.

The internet stands at the heart of this entire episode. It turned Norris' jokey idea into an international incident, brought news of it to Awlaki in remote Yemen, and allowed him to direct his American operatives. A mere twenty years ago, none of this could have taken place.

Awlaki is a terrorist, sowing death and disruption, whereas the U.S. government's "kill list" is defensive. One is evil, the other is moral.

The boundaries of warfare are being stretched in novel, strange, and frightening ways.
[Washington Times]
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