HALAB, Syria. Angered by a cover of The New Yorker magazine that shows Barack and Michelle Obama dressed as terrorists, demonstrations erupted here and elsewhere throughout the Arab world due to lack of anything better to do.
The offending cover
“Michelle Obama is shown without a burqa, in violation of hijab,” said Hosni Abdu Saleh. “Also, that Afro makes her look like Minnie Riperton, or maybe one of The Delfonics.”
Minnie Riperton, The Delfonics
The Arab world has taken a keen interest in western journalism since a 2005 incident in which the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammed, in violation of some interpretations of the Koran. Arab leader Anwar Hemeti said he had reviewed the cartoons in the offending edition of The New Yorker, and found them “troublesome”.
New Yorker cartoon
“I don’t get them,” Hemeti said. “Usually there’s a guy on a psychiatrist’s couch, or maybe a talking dog. It’s not at all like Ziggy, which is my favorite.”
His friend, Saad al-Sabah, echoed those concerns. “They could have put the Obamas in one with a panhandler on the curb holding a sign that said ‘Donate to Obama ‘08 here or on-line’, something like that. That would have been a lot funnier.”
Arab demonstrators: “Who the hell is Eustace Tilley?”
The crowd dispersed after a while when television crews from western media outlets began to pack up their equipment in order to meet deadlines for 7 o’clock news broadcasts back in the U.S. “What are you gonna do tonight?” al-Sabah asked some of his colleagues.
“I don’t know,” Hemeti replied. “I could either go demonstrate against a Commentary symposium on the future of Israel, or there’s a photo spread on Jamie Lynn Spears’ baby in this week’s People Magazine that kinda ticked me off.”
