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Despite the vast outrage in the Muslim world
caused by the recent publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers,
such controversy is nothing new in the realm of political caricature. Amazingly, 81 years ago, David
Low caused a similar response from the Muslim world when he drew a rather benign looking Muhammad looking
up at the then English cricket-hero, Sir Jack Hobbs. Appearing in the Indian version of the Morning
Post,
it, according to a Calcutta correspondent “convulsed many Muslims in speechless rage. Meetings
were held and resolutions of protest were passed”. Cartoonists are thus only too aware that to
approach religion as a subject can be a minefield. Steve Bell of the Guardian admits that the Muslim
Fatwa is something of a deterrent when portraying anyone in the Arab World. This he was particularly
aware of during the time in the early 1980s with Salman Rushdie. According to Bell: “It does make
you think twice, although I did my best at the time, taking the piss out of Ayatollah Khomeni.”
A
particular risk for the cartoonist is that unlike the written word, the cartoon as a visual image can
be more easily misinterpreted and often with serious repercussions. For example, when The Independent’s
Dave Brown drew a cartoon of Ariel Sharon eating a Palestinian baby, in an allusion to a well known Goya
painting, to comment upon Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, many Jewish people believed the
imagery in the cartoon had been lifted straight from the virulent anti-Semitic Nazi organ Die
Sturmer.
They believed Brown was intentionally making reference to the medieval blood libel where Jews had been
falsely accused of slitting the throats of Christian children in order to use their blood to butter their
matzah. Primarily due to its contentious subject matter, the cartoon was voted Political Cartoon of the
Yea 2003 by members of the Political cartoon Society. This resulted in the society receiving the condemnation
of Jews around the world.
Another famous example of a cartoon being misunderstood is Philip Zec’s
cartoon of March 1942, published in the Daily Mirror, showing a torpedoed merchant seaman hanging onto
a life raft. The caption read: “The price of petrol has been increased by one penny: Official.” The
cartoon was intended to show that the public should use fuel sparingly as it was costing lives to bring
it across the North Atlantic. However, the cartoon so infuriated Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, due
to his misreading of it, that he almost had the paper shut down. The then Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison
also misread the cartoon, seeing it as a veiled attack on the “profit-seeking” oil companies.
Herbert Morrison sneered: “Very artistically drawn, witty - Goebbels at his best. It is plainly
meant to tell seamen not to go to sea to put money in the pockets of the petrol owners.”
Interestingly,
when the Guardian’s Les Gibbard redrew the image of the Zec cartoon to comment on the sinking of
the Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982, he was accused of being a traitor on the front page of
the Sun.
During the 1930s, cartoonists had the Nazis up in arms by ridiculing their Fuhrer in the free
British press. On 8 July 1936, during the Berlin Olympics, Sidney Strube of the Daily
Express produced
a cartoon to which Hitler himself took an instant dislike. Orders were given that all copies of that
day’s Daily Express were to be confiscated as soon as they arrived in Germany. A year later, Foreign
Secretary Lord Halifax held talks with Germany’s Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, who complained
that British cartoonists were damaging Anglo German relations. Goebbels singled out David Low for special
attention. Halifax told the Evening Standard’s manager, Michael Wardell who was asked to arrange
a meeting between Halifax and Low: “You cannot imagine the frenzy that these cartoons cause. As
soon as a copy of the Evening Standard arrives, it is pounced upon for Low’s cartoon, and if it
is of Hitler, as it generally is, telephones buzz, tempers rise, fevers mount, and the whole governmental
system of Germany is in uproar. It has hardly subsided before the next one arrives. We in England can’t
understand the violence of the reaction.”
Halifax personally asked Low to modify his criticism
of Hitler. Low did agree to lay off the Fuehrer. However, the respite lasted only three weeks as Hitler
then went and occupied Austria. Low felt vindicated and consequently renewed his attacks upon the Nazi
regime. The meeting between Low and Halifax was probably the only time a senior member of the British
Government has personally censured a cartoonist. After the war, Low and Strube found their names on the
Nazi death list, emphasizing that a cartoonist’s lot is not always a safe one. A
cartoonist who picks a provocative approach to a religious issue is not only likely to face an emotional
and furious backlash, but, as we have seen, may require a secure hideaway and change of name.
Dr Tim Benson is the
founder of The Political Cartoon Gallery in central London which is presently hosting Misunderestimating
the President Bush through cartoons 32 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS www.politicalcartoon.co.uk
The Times cartoonist, Peter Brookes, believes that being provocative for the sake of it is not only meaningless,
but also invariably leads to injury or violence to someone.
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