Why The Muhammad Cartoons Are A Part Of The War On Terror
An op/ed from the Danish editor who published those now-infamous Muhammad cartoons and kicked off an Islamic firestorm across the globe:
Read the whole thing.
I believe that standing up against Muslim anger in this row over these cartoons is just another part of the war on terror, because these Muslims who are angry about the cartoons - those, at least, who are using violence and intimidation to express their anger - are terrorists. Perhaps not terrorists on the same scale as the Muslims who crashed jets into American buildings on 9/11, but terrorists all the same in that they are trying to use our fear to subjugate us to their view of the world.
When we embrace our freedoms and liberties in the face of their thug tactics we are standing up to terrorism. By suggesting that printing these cartoons was some how wrong we are giving in to terrorism.
It is that simple.
Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech.
I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn't mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.
But the cartoon story is different.
Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.
Read the whole thing.
I believe that standing up against Muslim anger in this row over these cartoons is just another part of the war on terror, because these Muslims who are angry about the cartoons - those, at least, who are using violence and intimidation to express their anger - are terrorists. Perhaps not terrorists on the same scale as the Muslims who crashed jets into American buildings on 9/11, but terrorists all the same in that they are trying to use our fear to subjugate us to their view of the world.
When we embrace our freedoms and liberties in the face of their thug tactics we are standing up to terrorism. By suggesting that printing these cartoons was some how wrong we are giving in to terrorism.
It is that simple.
