>>6
Now that I have seen the cartoons myself I'm just about as offended as all of these Islamic "extremists." If a cartoonist were ever to portray Jesus and the foundation of Christianity as vulgarly and stereotypically as these cartoons did with Islam I'm sure the whole of the United States press would be up in arms.
These cartoons were drawn with malice, hatred, and misunderstanding. As the US courts have demonstrated through hundreds of years of cases: there is a distinction between 1st amendment rights and pornography. These cartoons demonstrate no coherent opinion, no truth, and above all they serve no purpose. They are insultory attacks against a religion as a whole, not even against religious extremism. They're mindless pulp garbage. Is this really something we want to defend the freedom of the press with, Anti-Islamic propaganda? Is that the solution?
I thought Europe was more sensible than this. I can see why there's little defense more than: we can say what we want. The Danes are withdrawing and suffering, it's unfortunate the newspaper is the only one responsible.
Cartoons translated here:
http://democracyfrontline.org/blog/?p=133