And it looks like the cartoon debate will rage on forever! Editor, please move on to some fresh topics.

Did the Badger Herald comic publication spur debate and conversation? Yes.

Did the Herald silence critics of its decision like the University of Illinois’ paper? No.

Job well done.

Concerning the publication of the controversial Muhammad cartoon, too often an issue is made in the name of free speech. It is a privilege to have this right. But people should also ask: “Is such a move smart and wise, as well as good natured.”

Philip Portoghese BS 1990

The cartoon does not paint muslims as violent and blood thirsty. The muslims do a good job of this on their own.

For further proof that this has nothing to do with “free speech” we need to look no further than to our neighbors to the south. I believe that it is pretty well known by now that the two editors of the Daily Illini at U of I were suspended for their reprinting of the cartoons. Yesterday the newspaper ran an editorial about the decision to run the cartoons and described how everyone else at the paper was left out of the loop about what they were doing and why they were doing it. After this was posted the lawyer for the editor called the letter “defamatory” and threatened legal action if this was not removed. Just to clarify, the lawyer for a man who is claiming freedom of speech allowed him to post those cartoons is trying to put a muzzle on the rest of the newspaper because he believes their comments are harmful to his client.

I am a UW alumni from the 1960s and would like to offer an opinion. George Will recently wrote a thoughful piece on the topic of the cartoons exploring the concept of self-censorship. I would like to see the Badger Herald re-publish the Danish cartoons with an additional cartoon showing a picture of Christ with thorns shown as TNT sticks illustrating abortion clinic bombers carrying out their task in the name of Christianity. The two together should get the point across to all parties about how we wish to communicate in the future. I would appreciate a response on your decision. Thanks.

It’s called free speech, and it’s a harmless cartoon.

Oh!! What joy from one of the Islamic countries!! We have Salman Rushdie smiling in his “grave.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060217/aponremiea/prophet_drawings

Since when is Islam a race? I thought people of all races could be Muslims.

“a choice of either giving up their dignity if they want to live in America or move back to some other dignified place.”

If ‘dignity’ means that you need to be in some place where blasphemy is punishable by law, then the answer is obvious. I would hope that the USA never has laws against blasphemy.

ps. People of which religion are famous for attaching bombs to their bodies to blow up women and children? I don’t know of any case where an atheist has done that, but then they don’t believe in god or Paradise.

Either there is freedom of press and expression or there is not. Islam is imposing its views upon the world, rather like an angry brat in an out of control family.

Whatever principle you are attempting to make about the freedom of expression is insignificant compared to the disrespectful and dehumanizing expressions you are making about the religion of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad…

Haha-hahhhaaa. Dehumanizing expressions about the religion of Islam as depicted in a cartoon?

Maybe you should be more worried about the “dehumanizing exressions” MUSLIMS are making about the “religion of Islam” such little nuances as:

Kidnapping relief workers beheadings hanging a 17 year old who was DEFENDING HERSELF AGAINST RAPE destroying the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan bombings of hotels, schools, daycare centers, embassies, hospitals, police stations and it would seem might near anything you might park a car next too

Yep how dare they use a cartoon of all things to bring “bad light” upon the dufus Muhammed and his followers. Seems to me your so called “religion of Peace” has a hell of a lot more strikes against it than a stupid cartoon that doesn’t even do a good job of depicting Muhammed (a bomb for a turban would be better presented as Muhammed wearing a vest of c-4 explosive)….

There is no need to “equally offend” by putting in a Jesus cartoon as suggested above. Would you not need to include an offensive cartoon for every popular religion, then? These cartoons are extremely newsworthy and are not obscene by Western standards. Therefore, any Western news organization should publish them. Similarly, one could not hope to understand the Abu Ghraid situation without seeing at least a portion of the photos. Any organization that won’t show these cartoons is run by cowards.

What is more demeaning to Islam - re-publishing newsworthy satirical cartoons of the Prophet or violent rioting about cartoons?

The so-called “Danish cartoons” reveals less about Islam or the nature of terrorism than it does about the media that decided to publish them.

These cartoons have all been published in the name of “free speech” and abhorrence of self-censorship. Free speech is of course legally guaranteed, and self-censorship- not censorship, with which it is being confused- is practised everyday all around us; we do not call our ethnic and religious minorities by the pejorative names by which they were formerly known. Therefore, these reasons are specious at best, and malafide at worst.

What is the effect of these cartoons? In my opinion, it is to force moderate and even non-practising Muslims, on one side, and an otherwise reasonable Western (for lack of a better name) polity, on the other, into defensive stances. As all of us know, “getting all defensive” rarely engenders healthy, friendly discussion. For example, it seems that right now the entire discussion has been hijacked by the embassy-burners and the so-called “free speechers”.

And that is why, after having seen all this go down across the pond, the decision of the BH to still go ahead and publish the cartoons seems rooted not in principle, but in either naivete or malice.

Rakesh Sarda Madison

I cant beleive people are still complaining about those well drawn cartoons to me they get the message accros well the cartoons are just saying what the rest of the world is thinking and that is for the muslim religion to quit hideing behind a prophet that promotes murder of innocent people. the worshipers of this religion sathey are insulted by them I am insulted by their actions and views towards christians and the west

It’s nice that they have “Islam is a Religion of Peace” signs in their hands as they riot and burn down the local fast food joints.

And this sounds not so peaceful:

“He said the mosque and the Jamia Ashrafia religious school he leads would give a $25,000 reward and a car for killing the cartoonist who drew the prophet caricatures — considered blasphemous by Muslims.”

Quoting: People of which religion are famous for attaching bombs to their bodies to blow up women and children? I don’t know of any case where an atheist has done that, but then they don’t believe in god or Paradise.

I am wondering if you went to a college or are accessing it outside UW? Oh, may be you did not care to study the world outside the 1 mile by 1 mile radius of your apartment/house.

Ever heard the Japanese pilots committing suicides using their plans and killing people in the World War?

Ever heard about Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka strapping bombs to their bodies and killing innocent people (and btw they are the pioneers of this in case you did not know)?

Ever heard about the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil Tiger woman using bombs strapped to her body?

Now let me ask you this. Were any of these muslims? To make it easy on you: No!. So if these people who kill innocent people using bombs strapped to themselves do not define aethists and Japanese and Sri Lankans, why should the same not apply to Muslims?

Please try to educate yourself. Part does not define the whole and if you cannot understand this point, then you are nothing but a learned ignorant!!!

The Tamils (at less than 3.5 million) make up 0.05% of world population. I’m not concerned that they want to conquer my country. They just want their independence. They don’t kill because the other fellow is the wrong religion. They don’t kill for blasphemy. They don’t want to tell me what I can say or write, upon pain of death. It’s not a valid comparison to the Moslems.

I must say that I was surprised to find out that the Muslims copied the suicide bomb technique from the Tamils and that some of the Tigers' innovations—such as the "jacket" apparatus worn by individual suicide bombers—have been copied by al-Qaeda, the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, and Palestinian groups such as Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. I had thought the Muslims originated the idea. I stand corrected.

Comparing Japanese military pilots attacking warships to the killers who are murdering women and children is just stupid.

Make it easy on me - tell me why it it right that anyone should die simply because of what they have said. Educate a poor ignorant atheist.

Well, the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers could have pioneered suicide bombings, but who has found a religious motivation for it by calling it “jehad” and “mujahideen”?? Who talks about 72 houris in jannat?? Which “race” flaunts their new-borns in suicide vests and jackets?? Which religion has institutionalized “Kill the kafirs!” and is unrelenting in ensuring that infidels convert?? Is not there Dar-ul-Islam (the House of Submission) and Dar-ul-Harb (the House of WAR)??

Are all those fighting for the sake of Islam, fighting for Palestine?? Wherever, the Muslims live, they find perceived causes of pain and anguish, and want the wrongs done right, if at least by violence! If I am stereotyping, give me a peaceful Islamic place.. Either Muslims kill other folks who do not believe in different versions of Islam, or kill kafirs!! Shia-Sunni is just the tip of the iceberg.. What do Ahmadiya, Ismaili, Ahl-e-Hadith, Barelvi, Deobandi etc mean??

Noone is stereotyping Islam, but the actions of Muslims leaves nothing easy for us kafirs!!

In fact, the Eelam Tigers have been trying to quit this circle of violence and have been trying peace talks these days.. Tell that to our Palestinians, Chechens, Talibans, Jemaah-Islamiyah and other folks..

Pre-1947 Pakistan had 24% Hindoos, but present day Pakistan has hardly 1% of them.. Ditto with Bangladesh, albeit on lower levels, because of a less virulent version of Islam.. Ethnic cleansing or forced conversions should not be abhorred if it is just Bosnian Muslims, but the other way too..

When the day comes, when Uncle Sam gets to realize all these and stops funding fundamentalist Islamic hordes in the name of oil security, things will become more normal and we will have tolerance from the Wahhabi ilk.. Else it is Dar-ul-Harb all over again!!

If all suicide bombers are either Moslems, Tamil Tigers or Japanese kamikaze pilots I wonder who is most likey to kill the most people this year?

I am not sure about the Tamil Tigers and their relation to Islam but they do share a similar ideology. Fascism which is what is found in a relegious form throughout the Muslim world. As for the Kamikaze pilots of WWII I don’t recall them flying suicide missions into a Pizza Hut but maybe the press at the time hid these acts. Of course, they performed these acts of violence against military vessels on behalf of the Emperor their fascist leader/god. A pattern begins to emerge.

Martrydom comes in many forms from many relegions. Christianity spent the lives of many “heathens” in the process of converting them. The symbols of sacrifice in the christian tradition do not routinely include the murder of those opposed to the teachings of Christ. But more than a few times have words been twisted to give sanction to bad behaviour. I am not sure that the convert or we will kill you mantra has been prevelant in the Christian world for a few hundred years but hey we still can look to David Koresh, or Jimmy Jones for unstable behaviour.

I think this is why the Relegious Right scares the willies out of many Americans. We recognize that Fascism comes in many forms and that it results not in greater happiness but in death. Which is why many conservatives have problems with Relegion in the Republican party. Of course, are alternative choice is not grounded in reality and spends more effort blaming the United States for the worlds problems.

Instead of all this protesting and letter writing back and forth, why don’t the people who are offended that Mohammed is linked to terrorism debate someone on the opposite side of the question?

Stop talking at each and start talking to each other.

I AM WRITING THIS JUST TO SAY I BELIEVE THAT IT WAS NOT AND IS NOT WRONG TO PUBLISH THE PICTURE OF MUHAMMED WITH THE TURBAN BOMB. ISLAMISTS TAKE THE TIME TO DISPARAGE THE RELIGIONS OF CHRISTIANS, JEWS, HINDUS AND MANY OTHERS BUT NO ONE CAN SPEAK OF OR DRAW ANYTHING THAT MUSSLIMS DEEM OFFENSIVE TO THEIR BELIEFS. THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN AMERICA IS GUARANTEED IN THE CONSTITUTION AND DEFENDED BY EVERY LAWYER IN THE COUNTRY.IF I AM TO BE TOLD BY A RELIGION THAT I CANNOT TALK ABOUT IT, THEN WHY DO I GO TO A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY.A UNIVERSITY WHICH VALUES ITS STUDENTS RIGHT TO QUESTION ANYTHING AT ALL AS LONG AS WE CAN BACK OUR ARGUEMENTS WITH FACTS THE ADMINISTRATION WILL BACK OUR RIGHT TO QUESTION ANYONE ABOUT ANYTHING. FROM RELIGION TO… OOPPPPS I FORGOT THIS INSTITUTION ALSO SAYS THAT RELIGION HAS NO PLACE IN MY STUDIES. SO WHAT ARE WE DOING TALKING ABOUT RELIGION IN A UNIVERSITY SPONSORED FORUM. BUT THEN SHOULD’NT WE QUESTION THAT. A PUBLIC SCHOOL THAT SAYS WE SHOULD ASK ONLY CERTAIN QUESTIONS ON CERTAIN SUBJECTS. THAT SOUNDS A BIT CENSORISTIC TO ME. THINK ABOUT IT MY BADGER CLASSMATES AND ALUM.

We didn’t say you don’t have a legal right. We said a newspaper has a moral obligation. And if they want to publish racist, bigoted, or anti-minority stuff, they can, but we are going to hold them to it. This is where students on this campus get their news, and we don’t want them feeding lies.

And to think that WWIII could start over a bunch of cartoons! Is this what Islam is really all about? That’s it, I have no more sympathy for Muslims or whatever they complain about! A religion of peace and they want to kill!

I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it. -Voltaire

HEAR HIM!!!

NYC Organizers say the protest will be peaceful, unlike riots in other parts of the world this week.

ISLAM WILL DOMINATE ALLAH’S WRATH IS ON ITS WAY

Sample signs in demonstration at the Danish Consulate - this is peaceful? Atleast they haven’t burned the place down , yet.

On The Other Hand: At least 9 died and dozens were injured after protesters stormed an Italian consulate in Libya, setting it ablaze. It was the latest deadly protest over Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Also, a Pakistani cleric offered $1 mil to anyone who kills a Danish cartoonist.

Drawing cartoons, ANY CARTOONS, is very peaceful compared to rioting crowds who are burning things down and demanding that cartoonists be murdered.

It’s in Danish but you’ll have no trouble understanding it.

http://www.novatv.nl/index.cfm?ln=nl&fuseaction=artikelen.details&achtergrond_id=8350&CFID=2735238&CFTOKEN=57221010

I wonder why this doesn’t come up more? Are the Egyptians racist too?

Freedom For Egyptians reminded me why the cartoons looked so familiar to me: they were actually printed in the Egyptian Newspaper Al Fagr back in October 2005. I repeat, October 2005, during Ramadan, for all the egyptian muslim population to see, and not a single squeak of outrage was present. Al Fagr isn’t a small newspaper either: it has respectable circulation in Egypt, since it’s helmed by known Journalist Adel Hamoudah. Looking around in my house I found the copy of the newspaper, so I decided to scan it and present to all of you to see.

http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html

Please try to educate yourself.

While Europe Slept : How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within by Bruce Bawer

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385514727

From Publishers Weekly Having recently published an indictment of Christian fundamentalist intolerance in the U.S. (Stealing Jesus), New York native Bawer relocated to Europe with his Norwegian partner in 1998 and found an even more dangerous strain of religious and cultural bigotry ensnaring Western Europe. A swarming menace called radical Islam, he writes, rings Europe’s cities in smoldering Muslim ghettos, provoking everything from so-called honor killings and political assassinations to the Madrid subway bombings and the massacre of school children in Beslan. Worse, the Taliban-like theocracy Bawer sees looming inside backward immigrant populations resistant to integration flourishes under the protective wing of Western Europe’s America-bashing, multicultural, liberal establishment. The latter correspond to the appeasers of Nazi Germany, in Bawer’s view, since he believes that radical Islamism is every bit the threat to Western civilization that Nazism was.

From Booklist Particularly alarming was the fact that Muslims were never criticized, Muslim-committed crimes largely overlooked. Brought to trial, Muslims were often acquitted on peculiar grounds and enjoyed all of Western Europe’s welfare, which they take disproportionately to their numbers, including government subsidization of mosques. Bawer cites instance after instance to bolster his contention that Western Europe is on the brink of losing Western European ways of life, beginning with personal liberties.

You can kiss this kind of thing goodby once Sharia law come to town! And don’t think it won’t, out-lawing blasphmey is just the start of eliminating freedoms.

Porn Stars, Sex Toys Part of Yale Program

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1632314

The Badger Herald were most definitely in the wrong when they printed the cartoons. The first letter above recognizes that BH has the right do so as defended by the constitution of this great country. Yet, he/she goes on to question whether is morally correct? I would ask anybody who doubts the BH’s moral character to read the editorial that was posted alongside the cartoon. The editorial quite clearly states that they are not printing this to malign any religio. The staff of BH are quite simply saying…hey somebody published these cartoons in a danish paper; months later, muslims around the world are protesting about these…some in a peaceful manner, others in a barbaric manner (i’m sorry, but blowing up embassies is nothing but barbaric). the herald is reporting that these are the cartoons that has upset people. that is all. now if somebody reading the herald decides, that the herald is spreading hate, they are quite clearly choosing what to look at in the paper (the cartoons and not the accompanying editorial).

as for the people who first published the cartoon…they again were just expressing their views. surely it is no co-incidence that all regions (and i challenge you to find me exceptions) where islam is a dominant religion, violent protests are the order of the day. how can they complain about not being recognized equally as other religions, when their very own religion does not tolerate infidels. now i am not saying every muslim is a terrorist, and i’m sure neither was the person who originally published those cartoons. is it really asking too much of people to look at the meaning of these pictures? if this argument doesn’t appeal to you..well, hey freedom of speech trumps it all.

The blood of the Vikings run thin in the face of Jihad.

Norway’s submission to Islam is complete. http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2006-02/15/article04.shtml

“And it looks like the cartoon debate will rage on forever!”

Probably longer.

TEHRAN: Iran said yesterday that the fatwa, or religious edict, condemning British author Salman Rushdie to death over his novel The Satanic Verses will remain in force forever.

The announcement was made on the anniversary of the February 14, 1989 edict issued by the leader of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“Imam Khomeini’s fatwa on the apostate Salman Rushdie will remain in force for eternity,” said the Martyrs Foundation, which has offered a $2.8 millon (BD1m) bounty for Rushdie’s head.

The novelist sparked fury from Muslims worldwide who burned his book because of alleged blasphemy and apostasy.

“I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses book which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran, and all involved in its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death,” the ayatollah said in the fatwa.

So was Salman Rushdie a racist? Maybe he wasn’t diverse enough?

Maybe Islam is just barbaric?

How convenient it is for people to blame the Sri Lankan tigers to justify suicide-bombing? The Tamils, an ethnic minority of Sri Lanka, form a majority of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu from where they migrated to North Sri Lanka around 1000 years ago. The Tamils also live in places like Malaysia, Singapore, and you can see a load of them in Madison, as a matter of fact.

The fact is, despite all that the Tigers do in the name of Eelam, not many (to be read as not more than a significant minority) Tamils support them, and then, an even smaller fraction actually support their violent acts. Can that be said for the Muslims, where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares Israel shoud be shifted to Oirope, Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah all taunt their AK-47s and shoulder-fired missiles? Before someone here tries to compare their ills with others’ ills, they need to ask if that justification is sane enough.

Violent protest and threats of murder- it’s not just for cartoons. There are Christian fundies who are nasty to gays, but as far as I know they have not called for flogging and murdering them.

Chief Mufti of Russia Urges Violence Against Gays

Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia’s Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead. “If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that — Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike … [The protests] might be even more intense than protests abroad against those controversial cartoons.”

“According to Tadzhuddin, the Prophet Muhammad taught that homosexuals should be killed, since their activities lead to the extinction of the human race.” “Umar Idrisov, head of the Muslim Religious Directorate in the Nizhniy Novgorod region,” is also reported to have said, “Homosexuals ought to be stoned,” and not in the Bob Dylan sense, I think.

Educate yourself before you make generalizations.

More Moslem murder and mayhem. I wonder if they had any “Religion of Peace”(tm) signs with them?

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria - Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.

It was the first major protest to erupt over the issue in Africa’s most populous nation. An Associated Press reporter saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city center with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tire around a man, poured gas on him and setting him ablaze.

Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order, Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Security forces arrested dozens of people, Iwendi said.

Chima Ezeoke, a Christian Maiduguri resident, said protesters attacked and looted shops owned by minority Christians, most of them with origins in the country’s south.

“Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters,” Ezeoke said. Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.

Ah, so the cartoon violence is to work as general threat to suppress all sorts of behavior. Religious fanatics with no power to force others to adopt their religion use violence and threats of violence to force others to behave as if they were followers of that religion.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2006/02/if-they-come-out-on-to-streets-anyway.html

“Educate yourself before you make generalizations.”

This comment is propably from someone that supports burning down fast food joints in SW Asia because some cartoons were printed on the other side of the world.

Destroy all infidels seems like a pretty big generalization, but that’s what allah says - right?

We are in a civilized society. Respect and understanding the other culture and sentiments are one of our basic principles. If so call responsible persons start abusing others without knowing them properly makes our society a dangerous place to live. Why our media and responsible persons are inflaming our society by doing irresponsible things. I respect the western media because at least they have sense to understand our society scientifically. But doing such type of blunder in the name of freedom of speech is only going to make our society a vulnerable place to live. That brings hatred and division in our society. Media should play positive role to minimize our difference within our society. I have no idea that what is the main motive behind these cartoons, especially the person who fought and sacrificed his whole life for the cause of human kind and spread love within the society, where people were always fighting to each others. One of the program, I was seeing on the TV in which anchor was saying Muslims are always causing disturbance without seeing the books and cartoon against them. I am asking the same question to the main stream media that why are they writing or printing about the great personality like Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) without knowing him properly. If you are really a great journalist then it is you responsibility to know about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the great personality of all the time, before going to write about him. Everybody knows that how much Muslims sentiments are attached with Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). I am going to ask you one question before stopping here that what will you do if somebody hurt your beloved one?

We are in a civilized society. Respect and understanding the other culture and sentiments are one of our basic principles. If so call responsible persons start abusing others without knowing them properly makes our society a dangerous place to live. Why our media and responsible persons are inflaming our society by doing irresponsible things. I respect the western media because at least they have sense to understand our society scientifically. But doing such type of blunder in the name of freedom of speech is only going to make our society a vulnerable place to live. That brings hatred and division in our society. Media should play positive role to minimize our difference within our society. I have no idea that what is the main motive behind these cartoons, especially the person who fought and sacrificed his whole life for the cause of human kind and spread love within the society, where people were always fighting to each others. One of the program, I was seeing on the TV in which anchor was saying Muslims are always causing disturbance without seeing the books and cartoon against them. I am asking the same question to the main stream media that why are they writing or printing about the great personality like Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) without knowing him properly. If you are really a great journalist then it is you responsibility to know about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the great personality of all the time, before going to write about him. Everybody knows that how much Muslims sentiments are attached with Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). I am going to ask you one question before stopping here that what will you do if somebody hurt your beloved one?

Anonymous (February 18, 2006 @ 4:32pm): Educate yourself before you make generalizations.

Excuse me! What the heck does that mean? Educate myself, I have! And I know that Islam is as rabid and insecure a religion as it can get. An analogy perhaps is my younger brother in his early teens, who would whine around town in the hope that me (the elder brother) would bestow upon him niceties and my parents would connive at his whines. Fortunately he grew up and unfortunately, the “peaceful religion” has not. Insecurities seem to be THE defining clause of Islam and more so with the right-wing Christianity. Why would you want to proselytize people when your goodness (if there is one) cannot win followers on its own? And why should someone threaten violence if I do not accept Islam is peaceful? Insecurities, written on the face of it all.

It doesn’t bother me that an individual might exercise their right to spew racism. Or even that a paper won’t be stifled when blowing the whistle on something or questioning the government (a founding idea of the freedom of the press). What bothers me that the Badger Herald, a representative of the UW community at large and an institution that should know better, would go out of its way to publish racist and offensive sentiments just to prove it can. Intelligent people such as the Herald staff should be able to differentiate between the ability to do something and whether doing so is appropriate. Had it been printed in the context of actual news rather than some arrogant editorial about how you’re all such noble journalists that are protecting our freedoms, that would be a different debate entirely. Instead, the Herald is an embarassment to us all and has contributed to the misunderstanding of and discrimination against approximately 1 billion people who are nonviolent and only wish to worship in peace. What was the point anyway? If they’re extremely offended, they’re extremely offended. It’s not my place to judge what Muslims should and shouldn’t take offense to, so the only purpose it served was to further offend them. Congratulations; mission accomplished.

So, therefore, I hope that as one of the very public faces of the UW community, the Herald owns up to its poor judgement and abuse of the 1st Amendment, and offers at least one of the following two things: 1. an apology to the one billion who aren’t causing violence that it needlessly harassed or 2. the printing of images that are equally as offensive to Christians. (I don’t think even dynamite in place of thorns matches this level; perhaps a sexual image of Jesus to represent the hypocrisy of many Christians on campus would do?) Prove the Herald is an equal opportunity offender—I dare you (in the name of the freedom of the press, of course). Quite frankly, I’ll believe it when I see it.

-A UW-Madison senior and Lutheran

To print this in the insensitive way the Badger Herald did makes them no better, philosophically speaking, than those who disrupted the grieving at funerals of straight soldiers with anti-gay rhetoric. Or those use the First Amendment as a shield for activities like KKK participation. Hateful rhetoric, and its repetition, without reasonable justification—legal, but deplorable, morally reprehensible, and shamefully unenlightened.

“I am going to ask you one question before stopping here that what will you do if somebody hurt your beloved one?”

No one can possibly SAY or PRINT anything about anyone or anything that would justify murder.

IT. IS. JUST. THAT. SIMPLE.

ps. I have yet to understand how anyone could consider any of these cartoons racist - Islam is a religion, NOT a race.

pps. Maybe printing pictures of those great works of “art” the “Piss Christ” or the “Elephant Dung Madonna” would satify those looking to offend Christians? What - you haven’t heard of them? Maybe it’s because the Christians didn’t riot, burn and murder when they were printed. Maybe the “Religion of Peace”(tm) is trying educate the ignorant Christians on the proper way to conduct yourself when offended?

Hey Lutheran,

You think any modern day moslem “Luther” would survive nailing blasphemy on the door of a mosque?

Islamists hide behind the ignorance of how they conduct themselves in the countries that they control. When you show how cruel, aggressive, intolerant and illiberal Islamist Shariaized regimes like that urged by the various Islamist pressure groups, they begin to lose the war of ideas. The supposed “moderate” groups headed by Muslim Brotherhood types need to be exposed for the fifth columns that they are. There are very few Muslim organisations that have not been subverted by Islamists, in a similar manner to past communist/socialist subversion of NGOs and the general tendency of any pressure group to be made up of the most extreme individuals of the cause that it purports to represent.

We need to vigorously stand up to Islamists and those that demand that we abide by their religious taboos simply because they are sincerely held. Peaceful protests and denunciations are fine, as are demands that “blasphemy” not be publicly funded, but if you want others to abide by your taboos you need to come up with arguments grounded in reason and outside argument, rather than simply holding the appropriate holy book.

Love or Hatred

Hatred ever kills, love never dies ..

The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) the great Prophet of Allah Subhanatallah, All I can wish that the people of west must take a closer look on the reality rather then believing what they usually hear.

With only a small roll of brave journals, mainly in Europe, to salute, we have seen the proud Western tradition of a free press bow its head and submit to an Islamic law against depictions of Muhammad. That’s dhimmitude.

Not that we admit it: We dress up our capitulation in fancy talk of “tolerance,” “responsibility” and “sensitivity.” We even congratulate ourselves for having the “editorial judgment” to make “pluralism” possible.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060209-100253-3900r.htm

The press corps that noisily champions “the public’s right to know” about a minor hunting accident simultaneously assures the public that they’ve no need to see these Danish cartoons that have caused riots, arson and death around the world.

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.

By liberalism I specifically include the "diversity" and political correctness memes that liberalism has sprouted. One wonders just how many reminders we need of this basic truth, and just when those not entirely enthralled with these imbecilities will wake up and do something about it?

And perhaps we never will recover. It is difficult to see how England can recover, given how far gone is that land of hope and glory.

‘The day is coming when British Muslims form a state within a state’

“The whole approach towards Muslim militants was based on appeasement. 7/7 proved that that approach does not work - yet it is still being followed. For example, there is a book, The Noble Koran: a New Rendering of its Meaning in English, which is openly available in Muslim bookshops.

“It calls for the killing of Jews and Christians, and it sets out a strategy for killing the infidels and for warfare against them. The Government has done nothing whatever to interfere with the sale of that book.

“Why not? Government ministers have promised to punish religious hatred, to criminalise the glorification of terrorism, yet they do nothing about this book, which blatantly does both.”

“For example, one of the fundamental notions of a secular society is the moral importance of freedom, of individual choice. But in Islam, choice is not allowable: there cannot be free choice about whether to choose or reject any of the fundamental aspects of the religion, because they are all divinely ordained. God has laid down the law, and man must obey.

‘Islamic clerics do not believe in a society in which Islam is one religion among others in a society ruled by basically non-religious laws. They believe it must be the dominant religion - and it is their aim to achieve this.

That plan, says Dr Sookhdeo, is being followed in Britain. “That is why you are seeing areas which are now almost totally Muslim. The next step will be pushing the Government to recognise sharia law for Muslim communities - which will be backed up by the claim that it is “racist” or “Islamophobic” or “violating the rights of Muslims” to deny them sharia law.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/02/19/nsharia219.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/02/19/ixnewstop.html

Once you cease offending Islam you will be a good dhimmi, but only if you practice an approved religion. Athiests will be put to the sword or enslaved (yes, muslims still keep slaves, even today).

Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, “protected people,” are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur’an’s command that they “feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, are part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.

http://jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

Destroy all infidels seems like a pretty big generalization, but that’s what allah says - right?

wrong

I think Islam is the true gutter religion. I call for a “jihad” against Islam and all their sympathizers, especially all these hippy morons here in the US who support those wackos. It is time!

The cartoon intifada has taught us that Muslims all over the world believe that they have the religious obligation to reach in to Western countries and nullify our most cherished rights. Not only does the “Muslim street” think this, but we have endured the absurd spectacle of Arab kings lecturing the Danes and other Europeans about respect.

The dominant idea in the Muslims' worldwide view is that all of humanity must obey the rules of their religion, whereas they owe no respect to the religions of others. Indeed, showing such respect would make them apostates meriting instant execution. Muslim "tolerance" is a one-way street; they demand it for themselves but rarely extend it to others.

Anxious to show tolerance, the Pope permitted — even encouraged — the erection of a mosque in Rome, the city where Saint Peter is buried. But no Christian church could be built in Mecca, or anywhere in Saudi Arabia, for that would profane the land of Muhammad.

http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/02/realigning-tolerance-our-options-in.html

Why I Published Those Cartoons By Flemming Rose Sunday, February 19, 2006

The idea wasn’t to provoke gratuitously or to insult Islam — but simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.

Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702499.html

In fact, in line with the dhimmitude stuff comes this piece from an Indian sports commentator who made a recent visit to the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan).

http://indiauncut.blogspot.com/2006/02/jaziya.html

Note that NWFP is an Islamic hell-hole, and pre-1947 there used to be many Hindoos and Sikhs there (around 20% of the population), before being driven to India in the partition riots that took place which made life unlivable in such areas. For those Pakistanis who want to argue that there was a reverse migration, India still has ~15% Muslim population to this day (and that is only smaller than the Indonesian Muslim population in the Islamic world or otherwise), whereas in these hell-hole lands where a few Sikhs, Christians and Hindoos stayed back, they had to pick a secondary role in life, politics and government. In fact to this day, they have to pay JAZIYA, the religious tax for dhimmis, to survive. My heart bleeds for them, despite the fact that I cannot do much!

While calling Islam a peaceful religion may hoodwink folks who know nothing about the politics and history of Islam, aka Americans and West Europeans, it surely does not convince me!

Some responses:

Moammar Aziz: “Respect and understanding the other culture and sentiments are one of our basic principles.” Response: Please, can you tell this to your brothers in the Khyber and Zoljila areas, where a mountain range is named as HinduKush (meaning “Hindoo killer”)?

MA: “I respect the western media because at least they have sense to understand our society scientifically.” R: Wow!! At least they have to!! While you and your fellow Islamic media will hide behind the burqa of Islamic “peacefulness.”

MA: “Media should play positive role to minimize our difference within our society.” R: But is not the Prophet Mohammed (SAW) the final prophet and is not Islam THE only true religion. How can there be not any differences? Are we folks not the kafirs and the idolators, who celebrate the pagan gods? How can the media minimize these differences? Are we going to have a fatwa wherein you guys will let me in without performing the shahada? Please enlighten this poor brained wasp.

MA: “I have no idea that what is the main motive behind these cartoons, especially the person who fought and sacrificed his whole life for the cause of human kind and spread love within the society, where people were always fighting to each others.” R: I will enlighten you about the tribe called Banu Quraysh and the 80 other wars our peaceful Prophet (PBUH) fought. For more information, please consult http://biblia.com/islam/history.htm

MA: “I am asking the same question to the main stream media that why are they writing or printing about the great personality like Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) without knowing him properly.” R: I am not the mainstream media, but I wish they knew half as much as I do!!

MA: “If you are really a great journalist then it is you responsibility to know about Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), the great personality of all the time, before going to write about him.” R: I am not a great journalist, but I do know the guy who stands next to PolPot, Stalin and Hitler in jahannum.

MA: “Everybody knows that how much Muslims sentiments are attached with Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). I am going to ask you one question before stopping here that what will you do if somebody hurt your beloved one?” R: This is like asking me if I will not love my father if he was a pedophile, a war-monger, and a Machiavelli? No Sir, I will not!! If I had a brain and I was rational, I would move as far away from him as I can, lest I hurt him. And I will cry about fate that my father was so.

Moammar, Please tell your mullahs and maulanas to spew less venom and treat us as we are. We may be idolators, but we are not wasps! We exercise caution, but 11 of us may gang up and as Surah al-Ma'idah:45 says, “And we ordained therein for them. Life for life, eye for eye, nose for nose, ear for ear, tooth for tooth, and wounds, equal for equal,” implement Al-Quran! Peace be upon you! And me too!!

And for a fact: There are regular portrayals in Western Europe of Hindoo Gods and Goddesses in toilet seats, sandals and what not, which insults us Hindoos. We get offended and seek a hearing from the people who either wilfully or inadvertently may have done these acts. We never chant “Death to the insulters.” That is the security that a religion of at least 4000 years offers over the 1500 year old religion.

Lutheran: “Intelligent people such as the Herald staff should be able to differentiate between the ability to do something and whether doing so is appropriate.” R: If intelligent people like you can figure out the BH has been less intelligent, why do you need affirmation for your conclusion? Do I see an insecurity that you may be wrong? This is called “mullah’s rhetoric,” if you did not know this before.

Lutheran: “Had it been printed in the context of actual news rather than some arrogant editorial about how you’re all such noble journalists that are protecting our freedoms, that would be a different debate entirely.” R: I wish you would tell me this, when “Americastan” becomes a reality and you are forced to pay a jaziya! Peace be upon you!!

Lutheran: “Instead, the Herald is an embarassment to us all and has contributed to the misunderstanding of and discrimination against approximately 1 billion people who are nonviolent and only wish to worship in peace.” R: Embarassment to you, perhaps! Not to me. I wish someone wrote this before. One billion people does not mean they are right if they scream “Death to the Kafir.” Is this “equal-equal” because there is one thing common between Christians and Muslims: proselytization? And how come you came to the ugly conclusion that every Muslim wants to only worship in peace. Even if there were just 0.01% of the population that are the “Kill em!” types, you have 100,000 mujaheeds waiting to kill the kafirs, right? How many religions have institutionalized shaheed and promised and brain-washed folks with sexual luxuries and happiness in the after-life, so much so, that it clouds these believers? How many of these peaceful Muslims have stood up and condemned unequivocally those shaheeds that pursue violence and abuse their “peaceful” religion? Is silence to condemn a crime, maybe not, but is conniving at crimes a crime, possibly?

Is not the justification for 9/11 in the Islamic world, Palestine or Kashmir? Aint it hard-coded in Al-Quran that “Fight fire with fire?” How come they then demand a peaceful hearing?

Lutheran: “Congratulations; mission accomplished.” R: Thank you, Sir!!

Lutheran: “offers at least one of the following two things: 1. an apology to the one billion who aren’t causing violence that it needlessly harassed or 2. the printing of images that are equally as offensive to Christians.” R: So, did you attend one of those Muslim forums where they demanded this solution? Please excuse me, where did you get your lobotomy done? AFAIK, if there is one thing the Muslims have to offer, it is an apology to their co-religionists who they regard as kafirs and dhimmis, and who have been treated worse than slaves!

Challenge this if you disagree: http://www.challenging-islam.org/library/lal/indianmuslims.htm

Lutheran: “Prove the Herald is an equal opportunity offender—I dare you (in the name of the freedom of the press, of course).” R: This is precisely the way Islamic people demand that stuff be done. QED (Quaid-e-Dum).

February 19, 2006 Fatwa Adds Riot Duty as Sixth Pillar of Islam

The fatwa has been issued, the statement said, "to codify the official silence of major Muslim leaders over the bloodshed and property damage caused by our followers as they valiantly try to shelter Allah (the great and powerful) from devastating emotional harm caused by these vicious cartoons."

http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2185

THERE IS NO GOD BUT

that’s all, just that there is no god.

fine, but this isnt about taboos. its the way the prophet was depicted, not that he was depicted

I don’t care if Mohammad was depicted getting screwed by a dog it is still not worth killing anyone.

Come on people. Didn’t your momma/poppa ever teach you: two wrongs don’t make a right!? The Badger Herald was wrong in what it did.

There is dignity in admitting a mistake and MOVING ON, there is nothing but moral self-destruction in arrogantly denying it!