2005-2014

That began as an act of not-so-innocent bravado in Denmark last September has ceased to be a laughing matter – what with sundry ministers in Uttar Pradesh negotiating terms for contract killers. Yet, amid all the outrage, indignation and hysteria, people haven’t entirely lost their sense of humour. There are at least two interventions in the fiery debate over blasphemy worthy of a chuckle. Both...

The board of Finnish culture magazine Kaltio decided Friday to sack its chief editor, Jussi Vilkuna, after he refused to remove a cartoon featuring the Prophet Muhammad from the magazine's website. The cartoon appeared in the Finnish culture magazine Kaltio's website last Friday. On Thursday, Finnish insurance firms Tapiola, Sampo and Pohjola withdrew their advertisements from the Kaltio website...

Two student newspapers at Clemson University have reprinted the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, upsetting Muslim students on campus and drawing a rebuke from the school’s president. The papers, the conservative Tiger Town Observer and the liberal Clemson Forum, are not funded by the school, but the Observer has an on-campus office. In an open letter e-mailed to Clemson...

One wonders what it will take for newspapers in this country to endorse the notion of a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq starting, oh, how about now? I’ll take speedy (the Murtha plan) or slow and steady (the realistic idea). But some-time-in-our-lifetime (the default position) doesn’t quite cut it, especially after the events of the past two days in Iraq. Readers will likely not respond to a call for...

GOOGLE'S PROGRAM TO SELL PRINT ads in consumer magazines moved forward Thursday, when the search giant closed the bidding in an auction for inventory in 26 magazines. Ellegirl, Motor Trend, and PC World, among others, will learn early next week which marketers won print ads. Jeff Edman--president and CEO of PC World, one of three International Data Group magazines that took part in the pilot--said...

I think as I please And this gives me pleasure. My conscience decrees, This right I must treasure. My thoughts will not cater To duke or dictator, No man can deny - Die gedanken sind frei. (Sixteenth-century German peasant song revived as a protest anthem against the Nazi regime) The news on Monday that an Austrian court has sentenced crackpot British historian David Irving to three years'...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A prominent Malaysian newspaper avoided punishment for publishing a cartoon about the Prophet Muhammad drawings controversy, offering an apology accepted by the government Friday. The New Straits Times angered many Muslims groups in Malaysia by running the Non Sequitur strip on Monday, even though the cartoon did not show the prophet. Muslim groups said it mocked Islam...

(AXcess News) Washington - Some editorial cartoonists and other journalists Friday applauded U.S. newspapers that reprinted the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. "Our newspapers ought to have shown the cartoons to say this is what has caused so much trouble," said Signe Wilkinson, a Pulitzer Prize wining cartoonist for the Philadelphia Daily News. Wilkinson said U.S. newspapers...

STOCKHOLM: As the uproar over Prophet Muhammad cartoons continues to roil the world, the crisis has come home to the region where it originated, striking a major blow to traditional Scandinavian solidarity. Despite the strong historical and cultural links the countries share - and their centuries of close cooperation, known here as "Nordism" - Sweden and Norway have carefully chosen to distance...

I wholly sympathise with those anguished editors, who have demanded that the PoMo Muslims, my acronym for poor and moderate Muslims, ought to speak up more often. However, the PoMo Muslims are so called because of the poverty of what they have left to say. Besides they are easily outnumbered by the genuine PoMo Muslims. On the other hand, for the last 25 years, more particularly in the last five...