I have my own interpretation, which I’ll get to in a minute. Most of all, it strikes me as a statement of incalculable grief from a man whose life has just been shattered.
As it turns out, that’s what he was going for. Ted Thornhill and Peter Allen, Daily Mail:
Renald Luzier, the cartoonist who drew the cover image under the pen name ‘Luz’, said it represents ‘just a little guy who’s crying’. Then he added, unapologetically: ‘Yes, it is Mohammed…’
‘It is not the cover that the world wanted us to do,’ he said, tearfully putting his head down on the table at one point as colleagues embraced him in a group hug.
I think he’s probably right. Speaking only for myself — as usual — I was expecting some show of defiance. Perhaps the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) having his buttocks bared for the reader and being paddled by a prim schoolmarm. Or maybe they’d show him being flipped the bird by a little fellow with a thin mustache, a striped shirt, and a black beret. Something of that nature. Other people probably wanted some depiction of violence, or graphic sexuality, or something shocking like that.
Instead, here’s what poured out of this grieving man’s heart through his pen:
“All is forgiven.”
After his beloved friends and colleagues have just been massacred by stupid zealots in the name of their god, Luz forgives them. Using the image of their own prophet. Which was the purported reason for the massacre in the first place.
Whether he meant it or not, and I can’t even imagine what’s going through the poor man’s mind right now, the cartoon he’s drawn is a statement of defiance. It’s a sort of dare: “You say ‘Islam’ means ‘peace.’ Well then, prove it. Tolerate this. Enough.”
It’s absolutely not a white flag of surrender, as easy as that joke is. Yes, the author intends it as a symbol of forgiveness. And yet it’s also a line in the sand, a plea for reason in the face of madness, a defense of free speech no matter who it offends, a metacommentary on the very medium in which it’s presented… It’s all these things, and probably much more.
It’s Art with a capital A. It proves that the pen truly is mightier than the sword. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
No wonder all these cowards are blurring it out.
You can’t get it anywhere in America, of course. But I’ve got my subscription. I can wait. If not for this issue, then at least the next 52.
Update: Is the New York Times revolting? Against its management, I mean.
Update: This guy works for the NYT.
This gem, buried on the letters page of Fridays paper, by the man who defended the nyt in the pentagon papers case. pic.twitter.com/iU0yRjWDhF
— Larry Buchanan (@larrybuch) January 13, 2015