Muhammad and the cartoonists: Is satire now a capital offense?

Jyllands-Posten

Worth killing for?

Featured Topic | Posted 28 weeks 1 day ago

Muhammad and the cartoonists: Is satire now a capital offense?

It was two years ago this month that the Islamic world erupted over 12 Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. The message: the cartoons are blasphemy and blasphemy is a crime punishable by death. The blogosphere rallied to the cartoonists' cause, but very few Western newspapers published the offending images for fear of further backlash.

The cartoonists went into hiding, and for good reason. On Tuesday, Danish police said they had arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill Kurt Westergaard, the man who drew the iconic cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.

Should religious sensitivity trump free speech? Are the cartoons a poke in the eye or a blow for free expression? And does the murderous response to the cartoons create a greater rift between Islam and the West?

Ben likes: Solidarity

Ed Morrissey/Captain's Quarters

The latest incident has clarified issues regarding Islamic aggressiveness in intimidating people into silence. CNN notes that the arrests have made it clear to Europeans that Islamists intend on suppressing speech in order to keep criticism of their actions to a minimum.

Unfortunately, American newspapers and media outlets do not appear interested in expressing the same solidarity.

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The Nation

Defending free speech means defending the rights of those with whom we disagree most profoundly, whether they are cartoonists who would have us believe that Muhammad is the forefather of today's suicide bombers, marchers who argue that "blasphemy" is not covered by freedom of speech or Holocaust revisionists on trial in Europe, where some speech is not protected.

The cartoon scandal is about much more than freedom of speech. At its heart the controversy is about power -- the power of images; the power that divides Muslim and non-Muslim Europeans, the West and the Middle East; the power of radical Islamists to silence more moderate voices -- and the responsibility that comes with power.