The Muhammad cartoon controversy, beyond underscoring the obvious cultural divide between the Muslim world and the West, has put a spotlight on the power of editorial cartoons.
These drawings, a centuries-old staple of newspapers, can be used to incite and inflame – as they’ve clearly done in this case, whether that was the original intent or not. Violent protests have broken out across the globe as Islamic fundamentalists vent their anger over the depiction of their prophet, which they consider blasphemous.
The caricatures, originally published last year in Denmark and recently reprinted elsewhere, are unremarkable except for their offensive nature. They don’t make particularly interesting statements, and generally lack sophistication. It’s hard not to conclude that their main purpose was to offend, thereby making a larger statement about freedom of expression.
That freedom, of course, is cherished in the West – as much as religious piety is among Muslims. Memorials throughout the West honor the millions who have died defending liberty. Responding to free speech through acts of violence can never be tolerated.
It’s one thing to have the freedom to publish offensive cartoons, however, and quite another to use it recklessly – as in wantonly disrespecting a major religion. Newspapers have the freedom to publish profanity and gruesome crime-scene photographs, too, but most refrain out of a sense of taste and respect for their readers. It’s called editing.
This page subscribes to syndicates that represent 20 North American cartoonists and others from overseas. Occasionally, we publish the work of local free-lancers. We look for cartoons that advance this page’s mission: to facilitate a thoughtful, constructive, inclusive discussion of issues that affect our readers’ lives. We believe such a discussion can be sharp, direct and challenging without completely surrendering civility.
The Muhammad cartoons were not available to us originally, and we would not have published them if they had been. We will not publish them now, because we believe they have been described sufficiently in news accounts, and publishing them would deeply and needlessly offend some members of our community. That doesn’t contribute to a constructive, inclusive discussion; it kills it.
Sharp points about the larger clash of Eastern and Western values will continue to be made here, as in the cartoon in our Sunday print edition, by Cam Cardow of the Ottawa Citizen. It does what editorial cartoons are supposed to do: it provokes thought on a current issue by making a strong, effective point. And it does so, in our opinion, without going too far.
If it offends some, they’ll have to get over it.
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