I’ve received numerous emails asking why I hadn’t written about the uproar over the Danish publication of a few cartoons of Muhammed.

Many of you wanted to know which side of the fence I stood on in the debate:

• 1) that publishing the cartoons is an afront to the Muslim faith, and shouldn’t be done out of respect for their beliefs, or
• 2) that the reaction to the printing of these cartoons was so overblown, so uncivilized, and so barbaric, that the cartoons must be republished and posted ad naseum to show that the freedom of speech and our right to criticize is not defeated by some religious extremists.

Does this answer your questions?

I’m appalled by the cowardice of nearly every MSM outlet in this country over their fear of offending the religious beliefs of a group who thinks that cutting off our heads and burning down buildings is an appropriate response to the drawing and publishing of cartoons. Especially because the fear isn’t in offending a religious group (which is a daily practice when the religious groups being offended are either Christians or Jews), it’s in having that religious group show up at your office with sharp knives and molitov cocktails in hand.

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William J. Bennett and Alan M. Dershowitz, usually on complete opposite sides of the fence on any given political matter, are in complete agreement concerning the failure of the media in this matter.

Over the past few weeks, the press has betrayed not only its duties but its responsibilities. To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have they done? They simply printed cartoons that were at the center of widespread turmoil among Muslims over depictions of the prophet Muhammad. These papers did their duty.

I usually hate my local paper, the Austin American-Statesman. But I applaud them for their courage in this instance, even though it was highly unpopular in über-liberal Austin.

What has happened? To put it simply, radical Islamists have won a war of intimidation. They have cowed the major news media from showing these cartoons. The mainstream press has capitulated to the Islamists — their threats more than their sensibilities…

…When we were attacked on Sept. 11, we knew the main reason for the attack was that Islamists hated our way of life, our virtues, our freedoms. What we never imagined was that the free press — an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms — would be among the first to surrender.

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MORE: ALa at Blonde Sagacity answers some questions about her thoughts on the comic jihad.

As usual, the biggest roundup of responses and reactions can be found at Michelle Malkin

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 | Trackback |