[Islam]

Political Cartoons: Pro.


Across the Muslim world, riots are breaking out over political cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. I'll admit I was slow to get to the issue--but then, so was everyone. The cartoons were published four months ago, on September 30, 2005. They depict Muslims or Muhammad in various states of threat. (Here's a FAQ; you can see the cartoons here.) In solidarity, many Europeans republished the cartoons, and this is what seems to have been the main spark. Curiously, American papers have not republished them.

Rioting Muslims have called them an affront to Islam for a couple reasons. Depicting Muhammad is explicitly forbidden in Islam, but more to the point, it seems like the generalized anger comes at being made sport of in the Western press. Of course, in Islamic countries, depictions of Christian and Jewish imagery is common--and it's occasionally vile stuff.

So the question arises: should Western papers publish these cartoons when it will clearly infuriate Muslims worldwide and destabilize an already rocky relationship between the West and Islam? The answer, for anyone who believes in the enlightenment, in the public exchange of ideas--pretty much anyone who believes in democracy--must be yes.

I've seen some liberals stumble on this point out of misplaced sensitivity to culture mores. But democracies must never place the rights of some citizens above those of others, which is what the rioters wish--they want speech silenced so that they can be free from offense. For those of us in democracies, this has to be a paramount point, and I criticize the US press for dropping the ball. (The Philly Inquirer did publish one cartoon and is being lightly protested.) No one has the right not to be offended in a democracy--and no one in a totalitarian theocracy gets to dictate what free societies print in their own newspapers.



[Update: Pretty good post and discussion at My Very Brain.]