Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times, ‘Let’s be honest about cartoons’, February 11, 2006:
“Then there’s the question of why there was no reaction whatsoever when Al Fagr, one of Egypt’s largest newspapers[!], published these cartoons on its front page Oct. 17 — that’s right, four months ago — during Ramadan. Apparently its editor, Adel Hamouda, isn’t as sensitive as his American colleagues.”
‘Cartoon protest planned for Pretoria’, iafrica.com, February 10, 2006:
“According to reports, the images were reproduced in an Egyptian newspaper four months ago, in the middle of the fasting month of Ramadan. Protests there went largely unnoticed by the rest of the Muslim world. Only last month did international Muslim anger surface after rioting in Gaza. Yosra Zahara[?], editor[!] of Al Fajr [sic], said Egyptians held a day of fasting on Thursday in response to the cartoons.”
‘Protesters torch Danish mission in Beirut, Interior minister resigns (AP)’, Khaleej Times Online, February 6, 2006:
“…an independent Egyptian weekly newspaper known for dealing with sensational topics published the upper half of some of the controversial cartoons, omitting any facial representations. Adel Hamoudah, editor of Al Fagr (The Dawn), said he took copies of the cartoons from the Internet for the Tuesday edition and published them as a means of emphasizing their “impudence.” He did not explain, however, why he chose only to print the upper half of the caricatures.”
*Note the date of publication of this article: February 6. Note also the dates upon which both “Freedom for Egyptians” and “Rantings of a Sandmonkey” claim to have made their ‘discovery’: Tuesday, February 7 and Wednesday, February 8, respectively. (Both published their extracts from the paper on February 8.)
*Finally, an article from the Norwegian press — available here — supposedly contains confirmation of the story by the Danish ambassador to Egypt.
A translation would be nice!
For more: Man…, three…, I am….
[Update 20/2/06: gray has also kindly translated this article, Muhammed cartoons printed in Egypt: “An Egyptian newspaper printed six of the controversial Muhammed cartoons already in October 2005 in connection with an article that condemned the caricatures and regarded them as an offensive or insulting act against Muslims and Islam. Ritzau was informed of this by the Danish Ambassdor in Egypt, Bjarne Sørensen. As far as he was aware, the printing did not lead to any debate or other reactions in Egypt.” After having been snubbed by the BBC, I’m still waiting to hear back from the Danish Embassy in Egypt on this one(!).]
