Breaking News! 6 February 2006

Breaking News!
Art Schools, On-Line, Matchbook, "Learn To Draw" Courses Flooded With New Muslim Students

Some Say Alternative To Building Burning; Caricature of Danish Queen Most Requested Program

As the furor and violence over the of printing of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad continues to grow, Art Schools and other learning organizations are reporting a "flood of applications and inquiries" coming from Muslims all over the world.

From some of the most prominent universities and museums, to on-line, self-taught and matchbook cover programs, Muslims are requesting information on "how to draw cartoons", with an overwhelming number of inquires specifically asking about learning to draw Denmark's Queen Margrethe II.

Officials from the "Learn To Sketch" correspondence course that appears on millions of matchbook covers and in the back of comic books said they are being besieged with applications.

Administrators for the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago and California Institute of the Arts all report that they website and switchboards "have been completely overwhelmed" since last Friday.

One official for the Museum of Fine Arts indicated that "nearly every one of the thousands of inquires we received about courses asked, specifically, on being taught to draw or sketch Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Outraged Muslims are protesting the reprinting of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, with outbursts of violence in India, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Indonesia, Kashmir, with with thousands jamming the streets and the burning of Danish embassies.

Per Stig Moeller, the Danish Foreign Minister has called the backlash "shocking".

"We were all surprised, also the leaders of the region, that's why these embassies were not correctly protected."

Danes in Syria and Lebanon have been ordered to leave the region or stay indoors.

The cartoons, one showing Muhammad wearing a bomb for a turban, first appeared in a Danish daily, Jyllands-Posten, last September.

After the initial Muslims protesting began last week, newspapers in Germany, France Spain, Switzerland, Hungary and Norway reprinted the cartoons, a series of 12 cartoons Jyllands-Posten commissioned in September to directly challenge Islam's ban on depicting the prophet. calling it an issue and matter of free expression. On Saturday, two New Zealand newspapers reprinted the cartoons.

U.S. Sides With Muslims; Okays Lincoln Group To Write Anti-Danish, EU Propaganda

State Department spokesperson Kurtis Cooper said ""We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression, but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

The United States has sided with Muslims outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion.

In Washington this morning, a surprise announcement came from the White House, when it was released that both the State Department and President Bush is authorizing the Lincoln Group, and James Frey, to eschew their normal, pro-American stories for the Iraqi media this week and can spend time writing anti-Danish and European propaganda.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that "we're letting them loose".

Neither the White House or the Department of Defense would say if Reverend Pat Robertson will be joining in the ganging up on of the Danes or Europeans.

"We know that Reverend Robertson is pretty bush with his other work."

When apprised of the flood of applications to art school and courses by Muslims, Boucher indicated that the United States would "do what we can to help these students of art".

Later, Boucher released a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that said "after talks, the Etch-A-Sketch company will be donating and shipping over 25,000 units to the Middle East to get the ball rolling, so to speak"