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Cartoonish Violence

by John F. Tamburo, Editor in Chief, Publisher
Originally Posted: 2/6/2006 11:40:18 AM

Muslims all over Europe and the Middle East are breaking out in violence because a Danish newspaper ran some cartoons that depict the person, called by Muslims "the prophet," upon whom Islam is based (I do not use his name because I cannot in good faith attribute the Islamic blessing and I don’t want to be killed for what I write or think).  The protests have caused the British to use hate crime laws to censor free speech.  People are picketing with signs urging that those who insult Islam’s prophet ought to be beheaded.  At least one person has died from these protests.  At the same time, Michael Moore calls the red states "Jesusland" and "Dumbf*ckistan," implicitly if not explicitly saying that Christians are inherently stupid.  A cartoon in the Post horrifically insults our brave servicemen, and implies that Donald Rumsfeld and the leaders of the military don’t care what happens to the troops.  The protests in this country include picket signs showing President Bush’s severed head, dripping with blood.  The media in this country, for the most part, accuse us of insensitivity to the Muslims’ concerns.

"Apparently, free speech permits any sort of sacreligious or blasphemous display that ridicules or even persecutes Christians.  However nobody ought to dare to insult Muslims!"

Apparently, free speech permits any sort of sacreligious or blasphemous display that ridicules or even persecutes Christians.  However nobody ought to dare to insult Muslims!  Our military leaders can be abused in print and cartoon to no end, but we ought to end our free speech rights when it comes to Muslims.  That is the mindset of the Left, and they are dead wrong.  In fact, that mindset lays the groundwork for the constructive eradication of the Bill of Rights.

First, although I think that the severed-limb cartoon, and Michael Moore’s rantings, are disgusting and unjustifiable.  I also think that some of the Islam-denigrating cartoons, especially the one where the prophet’s turban looks like a bomb emblazoned with Arabic holy words, are equally disgusting.  That said, I must support everyone’s free speech rights, or I will lose my own.  I may despise every word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.

"The European and Middle Eastern Muslims are resorting to terrorist tactics.  In essence, they demand censorship on pain of violence.  They seek to terrify people into accommodating their hypersensitive mindsets."

The European and Middle Eastern Muslims are resorting to terrorist tactics.  In essence, they demand censorship on pain of violence.  They seek to terrify people into accommodating their hypersensitive mindsets.  This presents a disturbing tension, not unlike that felt by non-Nazi Germans in the 1930s, as the National Socialists ascended to power.  Who would support the Jews when such would likely earn one a beating from the brownshirts?  We went to war and bled and died to protect the world from that sort of terrorism.  Again, as I write this article, we’re bleeding and dying, although in much smaller numbers than World War II, to protect the world from terrorism.

People are likely to capitulate to this terrorist tactic.  These muslims, driven on by those who are so insecure in what they think and believe that they’ll resort to violence to squelch any other viewpoint, are akin to a hive of killer bees.  Pass too closely by the hive, and they will swarm and attack.  The trouble is that people are not supposed to act like killer bees.  As we Christians take the rantings and cartoons and jokes and epithets that insult Jesus Christ with a grain of salt, the Muslims need to do likewise.  The Muslims could have responded with angry articles and cartoons, explaining the sacrilege that depictions of their prophets represent to them.  They could have responded with cartoons of their own.  Their response has, however, been violent.  And that violence will chill free speech more than any anti-speech law could.  The Muslims’ violence is just as bad as the Chinese Internet censorship, perhaps worse.

The cartoons are bad.  I don’t like them.  However, I will fight for the rights of the publishers because terrorism is the most evil manner of gag in the mouth of freedom.