VZCZCXYZ0016
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #0344/01 0441407
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131407Z FEB 06
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3462
INFO RHMFIUU/CDR USSOCOM MACDILL AFB FL//SCJ2//
RULGPUA/USCOMSOLANT

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000344 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC, 
WHA/EPSC 
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION GLOBAL OUTRAGE OVER MUHAMMAD 
CARTOONS; BUENOS AIRES 02/09/06 
 
 
NOT CLEARED BY AN AMERICAN OFFICER 
 
¶1. SUMMARY STATEMENT 
 
Main story today is the global escalation of violence 
over Muhammad's cartoons, and its unpredictable 
consequences. 
 
¶2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES 
 
- "Freedom and Common Sense" 
 
Pablo Ceron, centrist, leading "Clarin" international 
columnist, opines (02/09) "Freedom of expression or 
blasphemy: two opposed concepts seeking to explain the 
uncontrollable situation that broke out these past two 
weeks - although nobody can predict whether it already 
reached its climax --. What began as a religious 
conflict ended in a clearly political protest march. 
Yesterday, the U.S. accused Islamic Fundamentalism of 
taking advantage of the Muslims' wrath. And they're 
possibly right. But what strikes the attention is the 
insistence in publishing Muhammad's cartoons - a 
decision that fuels a fire that is dangerously 
spreading and does nothing but incite hatred. Freedom 
of expression must go hand-in-hand with common sense 
in order to avoid widening the deep rift between two 
worlds that are drifting apart." 
 
- "The Wrath of the Believers" 
 
James Nielson, Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires 
Herald" international analyst, opines (02/09) ".... 
The message the rioters and those who are egging them 
on are trying to get across, is that it is O.K. to 
insult Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, as many 
newspapers in Muslim countries do with sinister 
relish, but nobody anywhere should be allowed to get 
away with saying nasty things about the prophet 
Muhammad. This rule of thumb has long been understood 
wherever there are large Muslim populations. In Europe 
and the U.S., even hardened satirists who have no 
qualms about driving pious Catholics and Protestants 
up the wall steer clear of Islam for fear of being 
murdered. 
 
".... Ironically, those who are allegedly most 
offended by the depiction of the prophet as a human 
bomb are also the most determined to prove that by and 
large the cartoonist responsible had got it right. 
Instead of staging an ostentatiously pacifist march 
carrying doves or flowers, they warned the Europeans 
that another 9/11 was coming their way and that Jews 
had better prepare themselves for a 'real Holocaust' 
that would be far more effective than Hitler's. 
 
".... Unfortunately, there is no formula that can 
accommodate both what to many is the licentious 
tolerance that is the hallmark of all democratic 
societies and the extreme intolerance that is the 
characteristic of most Islamic ones. As the Danes and 
others have just found out, when the two collide even 
the tiniest spark can cause a worldwide conflagration 
and, like it or not, there is no reason to think the 
one now raging will be the last." 
 
¶3. EDITORIALS 
 
- "Distance between Faith and Fanaticism" 
 
An editorial in center-right, daily-of-record "La 
Nacion" reads (02/09) ".... The escalation of violence 
(following the publication of Muhammad's cartoons) 
might spark more problems, now that Iran's leading 
daily Hamshari launched a contest of cartoons on the 
Holocaust, seeking to prove the limits to freedom of 
expression.... 
 
"It would be necessary, in the meantime, to find out 
if what caused the recent protest riots resulted from 
spontaneous reactions of the people or were carefully 
staged by some authoritarian administrations of the 
Arab world with the purpose of worsening the present 
antinomies, benefiting their dark strategic interests. 
 
".... From another point of view, it would be 
convenient for Western mass media to be particularly 
 
cautious in their irony and reports on issues related 
to religious symbols of peoples that are extremely 
zealous about their tradition or history. 
 
".... Those who are trying to lead humanity to an 
obscure and irrational confrontation -- a clash of 
civilizations with no turning point -- are undermining 
religious principles, trying to take advantage of a 
false and anachronistic relationship between politics 
and religion. 
 
".... Historic monotheism - in its different branches 
- mustn't side with ideologies or trends that want to 
sow hatred and horror. Faith and fanaticism are two 
paths which, in practice, never cross each other." 
 
¶4. To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our 
classified website at: 
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires 
 
The Media Reaction Report reflects articles and 
opinions by the cited news media and do not 
necessarily reflect U.S. Embassy policy or views.  The 
Public Affairs Section does not independently verify 
information.  The report is intended for internal U.S. 
Government use only. 
 
GUTIERREZ