A world of controversy

Saturday, February 11, 2006

The cartoons on this page will offend many people - there is no getting around that fact. A few should offend everyone, they are so obscenely outrageous. Yet they've appeared in publications around the world and we present them today in order to make several points.

First, many U.S. editors are kidding themselves and misleading their readers when they say they won't republish any of the Danish cartoons that sparked riots and the torching of embassies because they don't believe in offending people's religious beliefs.

Some editors certainly hew faithfully to that position, but many American newspapers publish cartoons on a regular basis that offend large groups of believers. The depictions on this page of Pope John Paul II, Southern Baptists and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin brandishing the Torah are just three examples of savagely critical cartoons from among what are most certainly hundreds published in this country over the years.

Second, many Muslim critics - and especially Middle Eastern governments - are hypocritical in demanding that Islamic sensibilities be spared since cartoons in the state-controlled media of those nations portray Jews, Christians and others in absolutely despicable terms. The example on this page - Israeli soldiers slaughtering Palestinians while other Jews drink their blood- is so typical of the gruesome genre that we concluded it would be superfluous to publish more than one.

Third, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad (see the nearby example) are no harsher than those likely to offend the followers of other religions. All such cartoons paint with a broad brush and are unfair to some degree - grossly unfair, we'd argue, in all five examples on this page. Yet only one has provoked riots, murder, and demands from various governments to suppress a free press. Why?

We've published a number of commentators who've tried to answer that question, and today we offer two more perspectives- from men who differ on every important point. Daniel Pipes is an exponent of the view that the West is engaged in a clash of civilizations with Islam, whether we recognize it or not. Rami Khouri insists that Muslim reaction to the cartoons is a sign of resentment against neo-colonial policies and attitudes. As with all of the material we publish, we urge you to read them and judge for yourself.