danish cartoons: essay link

[cimorene]

this link, germanely provided by therightdress, leads to a messageboard associated with what claims to be "the world's most popular muslim online magazine".

It is a sad, unfortunate fact that the conservative and fundamentalist strains of Islam, more than any other religious force, are the single greatest antagonists towards free expression in the free world. It is the position of all four main schools of Islamic thought, not to mention Wahhabism, that apostates are to be put to death, and that blasphemy is punishable by death. [...] I contend that in the free world, publically criticizing or insulting Islam is the most dangerous form of free expression. [...]

Such a religious tradition must be defied openly and without apology. It would be cowardly not to do so. Yet it was this tradition that made the prospect of mocking Islam terrifying to most artists or writers in Europe, who were increasingly censoring themselves, not out of respect or sensitivity, but out of fear.

This was why those cartoons were published.

there's a discussion thread attached to it which is so far neither very long nor very controversial, but which i still found interesting.  there's also a repost of the "danish paper rejected jesus cartoons" article, which the op says doesn't change their argument.