The Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy has not died down, and now a new one has begun in Norway. This is an element of free speech in the West: attempts to curtail it will inevitably meet resistance. The resistance, meeting the muzzling attempt head-on, will often look like a deliberate provocation. The Norwegian magazine would most likely never have reprinted the Danish cartoons of Muhammad if the Muslim reaction to their first printing hadn’t been so disproportionate and ominous in its implications. “Norwegian Muslims Blast Magazine Over Prophet Cartoons,” from IslamOnline, with thanks to Fjordman:
CAIRO, January 11, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) — Norwegian Muslims on Wednesday, January 11, blasted an obscure magazine for echoing a Danish daily and publishing a set of caricatures offending Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
“The Supreme Islamic Council (SIC) condemns in the strongest possible terms the publishing of such offensive cartoons by Magazinet,” SIC Head Mohammad Hamdan told IslamOnline.net over the phone from Oslo.
The Christian magazine on Tuesday, January 10, published the same cartoons that caused uproar in the Muslim world after first emerged in Denmark’s mass circulation Jyllands-Posten last September.
It printed the blasphemous cartoons in the name of “freedom of expression.”
“What on earth does freedom of expression mean?” A furious Hamadan wondered.
The fact that you don’t know, Hamadan, is part of the problem.