Today, an online newspaper with links to Michigan State University’s journalism program became the first news outlet in the state to publish controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The online publication drew immediate complaints from local Muslims and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Dawud Walid, Michigan director for the group.
Calling the cartoons offensive and the decision to post four of them in an online newspaper needlessly provocative, Walid said, "We want the cartoons taken down immediately.
"There is a very large Muslim student population at MSU," he said. "You would think that a student newspaper would be sensitive to their own student body."
However, Bonnie Bucqueroux, an MSU journalism instructor who pays for the online publication, called SpartanEdge, said she believes there’s a big difference between printed newspapers and news publications online.
"What we are doing is very different than a newspaper printing them, because if you open the pages of a newspaper, you’re going to see the cartoons," Bucqueroux said. "It’s different than a TV station broadcasting these, because you don’t have a choice about what’s on the screen."
On the SpartanEdge Internet site, Bucqueroux said, "You have to choose to see them."
The top of the SpartanEdge home page today features a blue box and a photograph of Muslim protesters in Europe burning a Danish flag. The box contains the words, "Those infamous Danish cartoons – it’s your choice. Click here to see what the furor is all about – or don’t, if you would be offended."
Clicking on the box brings up four of the most provocative Danish cartoons, including the image of Islam’s founder, the Prophet Muhammad, with a bomb in his turban.
MSU officials today distanced themselves from the Internet site, pointing out that it is not an official university publication. Bucqueroux pays for the site privately and the students working on the site are not doing so as a class project.
Bucqueroux said the site is an outgrowth of a 2005 journalism class. The site is staffed by more than 20 MSU students and was launched in mid-January. The current version of the site is slated to be online for about two weeks, she said.
"We’re dealing with a number of free-speech issues in this special issue and this is currently the biggest free speech issue of our day," she said. "We need to learn how to talk to one another in this culture, but we also need an informed debate."
In response to the site, Walid said, "Today’s publication is irresponsible. It’s like publishing racial slurs and saying, If you don’t want to hear them, just put your fingers in your ears.’ It’s preposterous that they’re calling this a free speech issue."
Walid said that, in addition to asking MSU officials for help in trying to remove the cartoons, he plans to ask the instructor and her students for a meeting with CAIR representatives to discuss the issue.
Terry Denbow, MSU vice president for university relations, said he welcomes the call for discussions. "We are a university, and if education can go on instead of confrontation, I’d be very very happy," Denbow said.
Contact DAVID CRUMM at 313-223-4526 or dcrumm@freepress.com.
