The Cartoon Row

A DANISH lawyer was shot and several Muslim demonstrators died as protests against the publication of cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad continued around the world yesterday. The lawyer was wounded in an incident in a Moscow cafe by a man from the Muslim Caucasus region of southern Russia. Meanwhile, the prime minister of Chechnya announced that Danish humanitarian organisations would be...

When I first saw them, I was struck by their crudeness. Surely Jyllands-Posten could have hired better artists. And surely cartoonists and editors ought to be able to spot the difference between Indian turbans and Arab ones. In some ways, that was the essence of the problem to begin with. It is this patronising tendency - stronger in Denmark than in countries such as Britain or Canada - that...

Mainstream British Muslim organisations yesterday publicly distanced themselves from further violence over the Danish cartoon issue by backing a rally in London in support of political and religious dialogue. Muslim leaders said last night they expected the rally would draw support from "across the political spectrum" in a clear signal of opposition to the way they believe a minority of extremists...

Web giant Google and incendiary "Muhammad cartoons" have more in common than 2.7 million search hits that phrase produces. Google - which self-censors in order to do business in China - and the toon tumult point to a need for smart sensitivity in exercising freedom of expression. Media such as Google or the newspapers that printed the cartoons must exercise responsible judgment, whether they flex...

YEMEN closed down a small newspaper and ordered the arrest of its editor today for reprinting caricatures of Prophet Mohammad that have caused outrage across the Muslim world, the official Saba news agency reported. "The Ministry of Information issued a decree annulling the licence of al-Hurriya," the agency said, referring to the small independent weekly with a circulation of around 2000. The...

WE ALL know September 11, 2001, transformed the US. But will historians say that in the long run it transformed Europe just as much, even more? It is a question worth asking as the fire lit by the publication of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad continues to burn. Because a straight line runs from September 11 to here. September 11 enraged Pim Fortuyn and drove him into politics. Fortuyn was the...

The outbreak of violent demonstrations against the reproduction in Western Europe of a series of editorial cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed seem to reflect a profound misunderstanding of the relationship between the state and the press in established democracies, the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) has said. Democratic governments may neither censor nor dictate content to independent news...

Religious humor has become commonplace in the secular West, but it came with a price. More than any people on Earth, the Danes should know the terrible price of religious humor, for the first great Christian humorist arose from their dour midst as if by immaculate conception. "Humor is intrinsic to Christianity," wrote Soren Kierkegaard, because "truth is hidden in mystery". But Kierkegaard the...

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressec concern at the Yemeni government's decision to revoke the license of the private weekly Al-Hurriya Ahliya and issue an arrest warrant for the paper's editor. The actions came after Al-Hurriya became the third Arab newspaper to publish controversial cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed. The public prosecutor ordered the arrest late Monday of...

In belated response to a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish paper and subsequently reprinted across Europe, scenes of outrage filed out of London, Beruit, and Damascus, among other cities this weekend. Flags and embassies burned. Placards (in London!) read: "Behead those who insult Islam." In light of the anger unleashed, National Review Online asked some experts on Islam...