Editorial Cartoonists In Heated Debate Over Religion

By: Dave Astor What do you get when you put Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders in the same room with editorial cartoonists? An impassioned and occasionally testy discussion that seemed to be just getting started after two hours. There was even some cartoonist vs.cartoonist debate.

"When any religion tries to change the laws of the United States to reflect their dogma, I have the right to fight like hell to stop them," said Bob Englehart of The Hartford (Conn.) Courant and Cagle Cartoons at the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists convention here.

"The Biblical world view is in the marketplace of ideas like any other point of view," countered editorial cartoonist Chuck Asay of the Colorado Springs Gazette and Creators Syndicate.

Most of the religious leaders who spoke said cartoonists have the right to free expression, but also have to practice a certain amount of restraint. For instance, Imam Ibrahim Kazerooni of the Denver Islamic Center noted that most U.S. cartoonists would hesitate to do a stereotypical cartoon about African Americans or Jews. "Why isn't that extended to the Muslim community?" he asked.

Kazerooni added that anger against the Danish cartoons picturing the Prophet Muhammad was partly stoked by the feeling that Muslims were stereotyped as violent. He acknowledged that some of the subsequent protests were violent, but many Muslims did not express their dismay that way. "And, before the protests, Muslims approached the newspaper and the Danish government," said Kazerooni. "Both refused to discuss it."

Fran Maier, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Denver, said: "I believe in a free press, but I understand Muslim anger over the Danish cartoons." Maier added that he feels some cartoonists, including Pat Oliphant of Universal Press Syndicate, went overboard in commenting on pedophile priests. "A lot of believers are tired of their religion getting beat up," he said.

"The leadership of the church was being attacked, not all Catholics," responded syndicated political animator Mark Fiore.

What about evangelical Christians? "They're probably the last group in America that's politically correct to insult," said Steve Adams, editor of Citizen Magazine, a Focus on the Family publication. "Christianity tells us to turn the other cheek, but when our heavenly father is being blasphemed, we must say something."

But Ben Sargent of the Austin American Statesman and Universal said "God can take care of himself." He added: "When religious people and religious movements move into the public sphere, that puts them on our turf."

AAEC President Clay Bennett, of The Christian Science Monitor and Christian Science Monitor News Service, said an example of "religion creeping into secular society" would be a druggist not filling a birth-control prescription.

"We're not attacking religion. We're attacking people, whether they be Christians or Jews, because they have political power," said editorial cartoonist/children's book illustrator Kate Salley Palmer.

Bruce DeBoskey, regional director of Anti-Defamation League, said some cartoons criticizing Israel are more palatable than others. He cited one -- by convention co-host Mike Keefe of The Denver Post and Cagle Cartoons -- that he didn't agree with but called "fair." In that cartoon, Keefe showed a plane named "Sharon" dropping houses into Israel's occupied territory to block the "road to peace." The caption of the cartoon (done before Sharon suffered his massive stroke) was "Ariel Bombardment."

But DeBoskey labeled a 2003 cartoon by Dick Locher of Tribune Media Services "anti-Semitic." That drawing showed President Bush placing American dollars on a bridge over "Mideast Gulch" in an effort to lure Israel into negotiating with the Palestinians. DeBoskey said this played into the stereotype of Jews being money-hungry, and he added that Sharon was drawn with a stereotypical "hooked nose."

Locher, when asked by E&P to respond after the session, said he had not intended to be stereotypical. "The worst thing a cartoonist can do is lose his audience or offend his audience," commented Locher. He recalled that he was trying to convey the need for American taxpayers to know what all the U.S. aid to Israel is being spent on. And Locher added: "I put big noses on everybody, including Yasir Arafat in that cartoon."

DeBoskey said that "overall, U.S. editorial cartoonists have been mostly fair in covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Editorial cartoonist Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service injected a note of levity into the proceedings when he showed a "Family Circus" cartoon with a new caption spliced on. In it, one of the "FC" kids says: "Mommy, why don't we just nuke those Middle Eastern bastards to hell?"

Moderating the cartoonists' part of the religion discussion was Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News and Washington Post Writers Group. Moderating the religious leaders' part of the discussion was Patrick Plaisance, professor of journalism at Colorado State University.