VOA标准英语2010年-Cartoonist Defender Asks Muslims to Ac

A media rights activist¹ who defends political cartoonists who come under attack for their work says Muslims should try to better understand the western idea of free speech, even if they find the message offensive to their religion.

Police in Ireland earlier this month arrested seven people, including an American woman, in connection to what they say was a plot to kill Lars Vilks.

He's the Swedish cartoonist who an al-Qaida linked group wants killed for depicting² the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

Irish authorities tie at least some of the suspects to another American woman who U.S. officials say tried to recruit people for the assassination³ plot.

That woman, Colleen LaRose, calls herself Jihad Jane, and is charged in the U.S. with conspiring⁴ to give material support to terrorists.

Former U.S. State Department official  Robert Russell said he understands why Vilks' cartoon in 2007 offends some Muslims. "In Islam, pigs are considered haram, taboo⁵, dirty. Many people don't understand in the West that also dogs are haram. Dogs are considered dirty and haram just like pigs," he said.

Russell heads the Cartoonists Rights Network International, and counts among his clients, cartoonists who have been imprisoned⁶, tortured, even killed.

Russell says Vilks may have gone too far in making his point about freedom of speech, but those allegedly involved in a plot against him are even more misguided.

Russell collects drawings. He shows one of the first controversial cartoons published in the U.S. related to fears over Islam. "Bob Gorrell published this. Now this is not supposed to be the Prophet Muhammad. This is just a cleric. This is just any Islamic cleric, of course, with a bomb in his headdress," he said.

The picture looks similar to one of the cartoons of Muhammad published in Danish newspapers in 2005. That one showed the prophet with a bomb in his turban and lead to deadly riots. 

Russell says people angered by such cartoons should resort to freedom of expression themselves, not fatwas, or death threats. "I think the best advice I could have for Muslims is please exercise your freedom of speech as the cartoonist was exercising. Please exercise your own freedom of speech, take your own cartoonist to do some drawing and write articles and send them to the newspaper," he said.

Russell organizes cartoon events at college campuses across the United States. Here at American University in Washington, cartoonist Joel Pett shows how he draws U.S. President Barack Obama.

"Big ears, big old jug⁷ ears like that," he said.

Pett says, cartoonists are essential to showing the lighter⁸ side of life, especially in difficult times.  "The fact of the matter is you might as well laugh as cry and the tragedy that is the human condition invites sarcasm⁹, invites irony¹⁰, invites satire¹¹, invites laughter. What else are you going to do?"

Back at his home and headquarters in suburban¹² Washington, Russell says Muslims should  understand that western societies fought for specific rights during hundreds of years of war over religion. "We learned that a secularly¹³ based freedom of speech guarantees access to everybody, by everybody and that no religious sensibility and no religious feelings should trump¹⁴ the ability of the individual to express themselves freely," he said.

So, Russell says, even if in the Vilks case, he does not defend the particular cartoon in question, cartoonists around the world should keep their right to draw and provoke, and ask questions about the world we live in.
 

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 depicting   

描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• a painting depicting the Virgin and Child 一幅描绘童贞马利亚和圣子耶稣的画
• The movie depicting the battles and bloodshed is bound to strike home. 这部描写战斗和流血牺牲的影片一定会取得预期效果。

3 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

4 conspiring   

密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They were accused of conspiring against the king. 他们被指控阴谋反对国王。
• John Brown and his associates were tried for conspiring to overthrow the slave states. 约翰·布朗和他的合伙者们由于密谋推翻实行奴隶制度的美国各州而被审讯。

5 taboo   

n.禁忌，禁止接近，禁止使用；adj.禁忌的；v.禁忌，禁制，禁止

参考例句：

• The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
• Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里，婚前的性行为犯禁吗？

6 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

7 jug   

n.(有柄，小口，可盛水等的)大壶，罐，盂

参考例句：

• He walked along with a jug poised on his head.他头上顶着一个水罐，保持着平衡往前走。
• She filled the jug with fresh water.她将水壶注满了清水。

8 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

9 sarcasm   

n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic）

参考例句：

• His sarcasm hurt her feelings.他的讽刺伤害了她的感情。
• She was given to using bitter sarcasm.她惯于用尖酸刻薄语言挖苦人。

10 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

11 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

12 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

13 secularly   

现世的，俗界的； 长期的，长久的； 不朽的； 一世纪一次的

参考例句：

• Ours is a secular society. 我们的社会是个世俗社会。
• We live in an increasingly secular society. 我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。

14 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。