Here's an update on why a Brit paper (the Spec) pulled the cartoons: fear. Geoff http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoonprotests/story/0,,1706060,00.html Political magazine pulls cartoon after police warning Stephen Brook Thursday February 9, 2006 Politics magazine the Liberal has followed the Spectator in publishing then hastily withdrawing from its website one of the controversial Danish cartoons featuring the prophet Muhammad. ... Following the withdrawal of the cartoon, Ben Ramm, the magazine's editor, announced on the website: "Despite our wishes and convictions, for reasons of safety the magazine will no longer carry the cartoon itself."
This is an excellent demostration of a central theme of this crisis; one that many people fail to get: There's a difference between not publishing something because, say, good taste forbids it, and not publishing something because of fear of reprisals. Some people, including people here, seem to think that if Jyllands-Posten does the former (by not running the forthcoming Iranian anti-semitic cartoons) then their demonstration of the latter occuring in danish society is somehow meaningless. Nothing could be further from the truth. They don't print pornography either; does that mean that their point on freedom of speech is invalid? Of course not, because they aren't putting the limits of freedom of speech to the test: They are pointing out that freedom of speech is under attack by the implicit threat of violence.
All it'd do is put the "official" stamp of us heading towards the second Dark Age. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! - N
