Overcoming fatwah fear

To publish or not to publish those Danish Mohammed cartoons, that was the question. In "Clash of Civilizations" this morning The Philadelphia Inquirer's blog blinq -- a new discovery in our Site Meter stats -- reports:

Newspapers across Europe are reprinting cartoons that ridicule the prophet Muhammad in solidarity with papers in Denmark and Norway that have become the subjects of widespread protests in the Muslim world.

Yesterday Judith Apter Klinghoffer of the History News Network challenged our own MSM outlets to stand up and be counted, and this morning we learn from The Editors Weblog -- another great new find! -- that the Los Angeles Times is jumping on the bandwagon this weekend. Could it be Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" at work, with market forces -- the need to boost sagging sales -- overcoming fatwah fear?

We were sorry to see that France Soir, the French paper that had been first outside of Scandinavia to publish the cartoons, got cold feet yesterday, firing their managing editor and apologizing to "the Muslim community."  A bad move not only in terms of spine but also financially. As EuroSoc reported before they caved:

The newspaper -- in financial trouble and with a circulation of 60,000 (low even by French standards), ran the drawings across two pages in its February 1 edition . . . Editor Serge Faubert . . . thundered:

"There is nothing in these incriminated cartoons that intends to be racist or denigrate any community as such. Some are funny, others less so. That’s it. That is why we have decided to publish them . . . We will never apologise for being free to speak, to think and to believe."

Unfortunately, the French Government blinked, as "France's Foreign Minister made the following statement concerning the reprinting of the cartoons":

France is a country where respect and tolerance are associated with freedom of expression . . . France condemns everything that wounds individuals' beliefs or religious convictions.

Too bad about the French. They've come down yet again on the wrong side of history. Meanwhile, the story is number one at Technorati, and, more importantly, Michelle blogs that she has "contacted several newspaper op-ed editors urging them to run the Danish forbidden cartoons along with my column this week." We're going to post this now so we can head over to her latest post, "In search of a brave American newspaper," for all the latest news and opinions. Prepare for MichelleLanche!

Update: Master of the Catblogosphere Laurence Simon in an email has the last word:

I think the Danish ambassador should issue an apology. In the largest Christian church in Saudi Arabia.

Update II: WretchardLanche!

Comments

[amba]

I'm not posting on this (at least not so far), but have been saying in comments that, while we may think moderate Muslims have it coming because they tolerate terrorism in their name, still, we would not tolerate cartoons mocking Christ on the cross, and we do not tolerate cartoons showing stereotypical hook-nosed Jews. (In fact we know that the latter can be heralds of violence against innocents.) Today all the Joint Chiefs of staff jumped on a cartoonist who'd drawn a bandaged soldier-amputee with a caption describing him as "battle-hardened."

I know it's nearly irresistible to poke the hornet's nest of touchy Muslim pride, and watch them spend way more energy howling with grievance and issuing death fatwas than they generally do getting their act together to do anything constructive. But, since we have a choice, should we? A little like condoning torture, doesn't this create an "all's fair" atmosphere that could come back to bite us in the ass?

[Mooiness]

I'm all for freedom of speech but doesn't the old adage "think before you speak" apply here anymore?

Why provoke militant Muslims any further than they already are? I've seen Arabic cartoons playing up the stereotypes as mentioned by the commentor above, but does it mean we should sink to that level ourselves too?

[TigerHawk]

Whoa, Sissy, a Wretchardlanche! Good job.

[Holger]

Go to http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freespeech1
to sign a petition supporting Denmark.

[Patricia]

I wonder if Newsweek will publish them. AFter all the fake "Koran flushing" incident was deemed newsworthy. Let's see what they do when their butt is on the line.

So far CNN and NBC have chickened out...

[DSmith]

We would not tolerate mocking of Christ? What about "Piss Christ"? We not only tolerated that, it was *government-funded*. Mocking of Christians and Christian beliefs goes on all the time in the West. It doesn't happen much in Muslim lands, true, but that's because Christianity is banned in most of them, often on pain of death.

Arab and Muslim newspapers regularly run cartoons that do more than "mock" Jews

Arab and Muslim TV networks, including government-funded ones, regularly publish "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which is a heck of a lot worse than "mockery" of Jews. I see no outpourings of outrage from the West over this.

We want to make a little statement, we publish cartoons. They want to make a statement, they cut off heads on TV, and then brag about it.

The Muslim world has *no room* to complain. As to "stirring them up", good. Let's have more of it, so that all who have their head in the sand about the true nature of Islam will be forced finally to recognize the ugly truth.

[Laurence Simon]

I've been asked if I will offer an apology as well.

Sure. On the steps of the largest synagogue in Riyadh.

[pst314]

Muslims who convert to Christianity are in great danger of being arrested and executed, or just killed out of hand. So much for Muslim respect for other religions.