Europe Can Take Pride in Defending Cartoons - New York Times

Europe Can Take Pride in Defending Cartoons - New York Times: A thoughtful article on the Islamic rioting in the Muslim world. Westen peoples must wake up and repel these murderous Islamic fundamentalists. They must be restrained at all costs at every turn. The civilized world cannot condone terrorist and murderous riots by these fanatics, otherwise it will cease to be civilized.

"It is against this backdrop that the decision of Jyllands-Posten, and later other European papers, to publish the depictions of Muhammad must be seen. If the initial publication was a provocation, it was also a willed one, an act of defiance, a statement that Europe will not be cowed by fear into putting such sacrilegious images off limits.

As Denmark's principled prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has put it: 'I will never accept that respect for a religious stance leads to the curtailment of criticism, humor and satire in the press.'

Rasmussen is right; Europe has to make clear where it stands on its freedoms. And what, say critics, of anti-Semitic cartoons, or insulting depictions of Roma? Why are they not published, too? Are images offensive to Muslims not just a reflection of Europe's disdain for Islam?

These arguments might carry more weight if radical Islam were not one of the most potent global forces today, its fanatical followers invoking precisely the words or traditions of the Prophet to justify heinous acts.

By what right can such acts, and their supposed holy inspiration, be ruled unfit material for the political caricaturist or satirist? If moderate Muslims will not rise in unison against this abuse of their religion, it is inevitable that Western observers will seek to express their unease."