Hypocrites
“What’s the threshold for igniting this kind of outrage in the Muslim world? These cartoons were first published five months ago in a Danish newspaper with a circulation of 150,000. What if they had first been published on my blog, circulation 17? Is there a magic number of people a cartoon has to reach before it sets off a violent reaction?”
Today, we get the answer: the cartoons were published in an Egyptian newspaper in October 2005, and no one made a peep.
No boycotts, no protests, no rioting, no deaths. And this was in October, only a month after they were originally published in Denmark and months before all the outrage.
So what’s the answer to my question?
If a western newspaper publishes offensive cartoons of Mohamed, it’s sacriligeous and merits an ugly, violent response across the Muslim world. If an Egyptian paper does it: no big deal.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of newspaper in the United States (land of free speech) declined to print the images even after the story became worldwide news. They continued reporting on the violence, the protests, and the boycotts without showing readers the images that incited such a response, citing lame excuses about editorial discretion.
Cool. Glad we got this all straightened out.
Freedom of speech: 0
Violence, intimidation and hypocrisy: 1
Well, at least we can try to get some of those laid-off Danish workers their jobs back:
