Prophet or Profit?

Even though not much surprises me anymore, I still couldn’t help raise an eyebrow when I read that replicas of the “Sudanese teddy bear” (you know the one) are now being sold online:

What is interesting about Teddy Bear Muhammad is its resemblance, in its own softer, fuzzier way, to the Danish cartoon imbroglio of 2006, in which a newspaper intentionally printed insulting cartoons of the prophet Muhammad merely in order to show it could. Here, the anonymous marketers of Teddy Bear Muhammad (the website is registered through a proxy) attach the name Muhammad to their product as a “protest” against intolerance, but again, largely to demonstrate that the “we” of the tolerant West feel comfortable in using the images and names of sacred figures–particularly, but not solely, those of other peoples’ traditions–any way we jolly well please.

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