Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! is a cartoon and the suggestion in it for "everybody" to draw an illustration on May 20, 2010, representing Mohammed, the founder of Islam. The suggestion, put forward in April 2010 by a Seattle, Washington cartoonist, was made in response to a perceived threat issued by radical Islamists against the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, for creating an episode featuring a character who purported to be Mohammed.

The alleged threat, carried on U.S.-based website RevolutionMuslim.com, said that the two television cartoonists could wind up like Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker murdered by Muslim extremists for depicting Muhammed. Those running the website denied that their statements were a threat.

The Seattle cartoonist, Molly Norris, drew the cartoon to look like a poster promoting an event, complete with a fictional sponsoring organization. She explained in the text of the cartoon that if millions of people draw pictures of Mohammed, terrorists would not be able to murder them all and Islamicist threats to do so would become unrealistic.

Norris' idea became popular on Facebook and was supported by numerous bloggers within a week, generating coverage on the websites of major United States newspapers. As the publicity mounted, however, Norris disassociated herself from the idea, as did the man who initially created the Facebook page.

Cartoon description
Norris drew the original, poster-like cartoon on April 20, 2010. The cartoon declared May 20, 2010 "Everybody Draw Mohammed" day. The drawing showing various objects, including a coffee cup, a tomato and a box of pasta, some anthropomorphized with legs, arms and faces, and each claiming to be the likeness of Muhammed. Across the top of the illustration was the message: "In light of the recent veiled (ha!) threats aimed at the creators of the television show South Park [...] by bloggers on Revolution Muslim's website, we hereby deem May 20, 2010 as the first annual 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!' Do your part to both water down the pool of targets and, oh yeah, defend a little something our country is famous for (but maybe not for long? Comedy Central cooperated with terrorists and pulled the episode) the first amendment." The poster claimed to be sponsored by "Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor or CACAH (pronounced ca-ca)", which Turner later said was a joke, not a real organization.

Background
Episode 201 of South Park, broadcast in early April 2010, featured a character in a bear costume who various other characters stated was Mohammed. Before the broadcast, news of it sparked statements on the RevolutionMuslim.com website. The group running the website said it was not threatening Parker and Stone, but the website included a gory picture of the Dutch filmmaker, said Parker and Stone could meet the same fate and posted the addresses of Comedy Central’s New York office and the California production studio where South Park is made.

Comedy Central broadcast the episode by removing the word "Mohammed" from dialog and removing a speech about intimidation and fear.

Creation
Within days of drawing the cartoon, Norris told a radio station, "As a cartoonist I just felt so much passion about what had happened I wanted to kind of counter Comedy Central's message they sent about feeling afraid." On her website, Norris stated that the idea was not to disrespect Islam, but to support everybody's freedom of expression.

On April 23, Norris told a Seattle radio talk show, "as a cartoonist, I just felt so much passion about what had happened..." noting that "it's a cartoonist's job to be non-PC." Turner sent a copy of her illustration to Dan Savage, who posted it on his blog.

Publicity received
An "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" Facebook page was created soon afterward by Jon Wellington. By the evening of April 24, the page had fewer than 1,500 "confirmed guests", but the number had grown to almost 6,000 by the morning of April 26. By April 25, someone had started a "Ban Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" page on Facebook, which had 800 confirmed guests by that point.

Bloggers at The Atlantic, Reason, National Review Online and Glenn Reynolds in his "Instapundit" blog, all posted comments and links about the proposed day, giving it wide publicity. Blogs at the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times websites also posted news about the idea.

Cartoonist and Facebook page creator end involvement
On April 25, Norris wrote on her website that the response to her idea had surprised and shocked her: "I did not intend for my cartoon to go viral. I did not intend to be the focus of any 'group'. I practice the First Amendment by drawing what I wish. This particular cartoon of a 'poster' seems to have struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for. I am going back to the drawing table now!" As of April 26, she had also written on her website: "I am NOT involved in "Everybody Draw Mohammd [sic] Day! I made a cartoon that went viral and I am not going with it. Many other folks have used my cartoon to start sites, etc. Please go to them as I am a private person who draws stuff [...]"

Turner asked Savage to replace the original illustration she had given him with another one she drew that was tamer, but Savage refused. Turner told the Los Angeles Times, that she hadn't wanted or expected her idea "to go viral". Asked why she initially publicized it, she replied, "Because I'm an idiot. [...] This particular cartoon of a 'poster' seems to have struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for."

Norris said the campaign had grown much bigger than she initially intended, and that her cartoon was being used in ways she couldn't control. "I just want to go back to my quiet life", she told the writer of a blog about comics at the Washington Post.

Wellington announced on April 26 that he, too, was dropping out of the movement he started. "I am aghast that so many people are posting deeply offensive pictures of the Prophet," he wrote. "Y'all go ahead if that's your bag, but count me out."

Commentary
The idea for the May 20 protest received support from Kathleen Parker, an opinion columnist for the Washington Post: "Americans love their free speech and have had enough of those who think they can dictate the limits of that fundamental right. [...] Norris's cartoon was a fine idea, but she should be relieved of further duty or responsibility. As for the rest of you characters: Draw to any heart's discontent. It's a free country. For now."

The idea also received support from prominent bloggers and bloggers on prominent websites, such as Michael C. Moynihan at Reason magazine's "Hit & Run" blog, who encouraged his readers to send him their drawings.

Law professor Ann Althouse rejected the idea because "depictions of Muhammad offend millions of Muslims who are no part of the violent threats." James Taranto, writing in the "Best of the Web Today" column at The Wall Street Journal, also objected to the idea, not only because depicting Mohammed "is inconsiderate of the sensibilities of others", but also because "it defines those others—Muslims—as being outside of our culture, unworthy of the courtesy we readily accord to insiders."

Helge Rønning, a professor at the Institute of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, said the offense to Muslims was outweighed by freedom-of-speech concerns. "Indignation from those who claim the right to engage in criticism of religion is as important as the indignation that comes from the Muslim side," he told the NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation). "I think that this is an attitude that goes deeper than whether these drawings are blasphemous or not." Vebjørn Selbekk, a Norwegian editor who was threatened in 2006 after he reprinted Danish cartoons of Mohammed in his publication, supported the May 20 protest. "I think maybe this is the right way to react—with humor, and also to spread this number, so it isn't only a few who sit with all the threats and all the discomfort associated with defending our freedom of speech in this area," he said.