Zapiro on free speech and “scary” death threats
Controversial South African cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro says he satirises “all religions”
Jonathan Shapiro, the controversial South African cartoonist who goes by pen name Zapiro has told the ̳ that he does not know what “standing by” his values “will bring” him.
Speaking about threats to his life which followed his depiction of the Prophet Muhammad more than a decade ago, Shapiro said “it’s scary because look what happened to Salman Rushdie” (referencing the attack on the author last August).
In an interview with Stephen Sackur from his Cape Town studio, Shapiro explained that his cartoons have “outraged Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists”. But he insisted that he does not “do it as a gratuitous insult”. He said that he only draws cartoons which could offend religious sensibilities “if there is some reason that I feel that they are preventing freedom of speech, or if I feel that they are being homophobic…. being politically reactionary”. Such things happen in “in all religions”, he said.
In 2010, Shapiro joined other “editorial cartoonists around the world” in depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a protest in favour of free speech. Shapiro felt that he was “part of a freedom of expression community” who were “outraged that there are religious demagogues” who try to control the way “anyone can say something”.
Shapiro said he “did expect” the Prophet Muhammad cartoon to “cause outrage and South African police subsequently told him that they had uncovered a plot to kill him.
“I don’t even know what my standing my these things will bring” he said, adding that he wanted to stand by others “trying to fight for freedom of expression”.