The news of the Cheney shooting has hardly detracted from the coverage of the publication of cartoons insensitively depicting the Prophet Mohammed. The anger has spread throughout the Middle East, and there has been backlash against publications in the United States that have published them, to inform their readers about what has ignited the crisis.
We would never suggest that these drawings are inoffensive to the world's billion followers of Islam. But, the newsworthiness of the cartoons is unquestionable. The fundamentalist clerics who have incited the rioting and violence cannot be allowed to influence what American news outlets, protected by the First Amendment, can publish. Self-censorship imposed by the news media out of fear of retribution by the Muslim world is unacceptable and prevents intelligent discourse about this clash of cultures..
Had these cartoons been published before the invasion of Iraq, it is unlikely they would have elicited the same global. No one would have noticed, and the Danish nationalist party would suffer in elections there. These riots have grown very much from Western occupation forces in the region, and the policies that brought them there. Over the weekend, Dick Cheney shot a man in the face. It is impossible that this conflict is about a few offensive cartoons.
