Common sense. “If Islam were treated equally, Mohammed would be fair game,” by Lorne Gunter in the National Post, October 20 (thanks to Twostellas):
During the controversy over cartoons of Mohammed that appeared in a Danish newspaper in 2005, I received an email from a reader insisting, “This is about treating Islam equally! I am a Muslim and all we want is for our religion to be treated with the same respect as other religions.”
The problem with his demand is that the cartoonists in question did treat Islam in the same way Western culture treats Christianity, Judaism and other faiths. The media typically reserves no special reverence or respect for the major Western religions (including their Prophets). And so if Islam were treated “equally,” then Mohammed would be fair game, too.
How many times in the past decades can you remember lib-left media commentators disparaging the way Christian fundamentalists propped up George Bush — typically in language that implied Christian voters were less intelligent than most? Read the Toronto Star on any day and there will be two or three references to Christians and the Harper government that drip with sneering disdain for the views and brains of both.
Of course there are also Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ photograph and Chris Ofili’s Holy Virgin Mary, made in part out of dung, among other artworks that have challenged Western notions of faith and perception.
Few Western media outlets would censor cartoon depictions of Christ. Danish publishers merely wanted the same lack of courtesy extended to Islam and its prophet….
If there is any justice in the Netherlands, or enough backbone to defend Western civilization, Mr. Wilders will go free.