> draw the line for hateful, obscene, and defamatory speech. I don't have a 
> particular position on where the line should be drawn, but I doubt it would 
> go over very well in the West if a Muslim paper published a cartoon of Jesus 
> raping a four-year-old.

Au contraire!!	Muslim media does much worse (eg, reporting as if fact 
that Jews ritualistically kill children [1]) and the West is all but 
unfazed.

Quick response to Erica: I agree and am a card-carrying member of the
ACLU [2] but this particular battle has particular symbolic significance.

(I'm still digesting everyone's responses and haven't quite made up my 
mind how I feel about all this, but I think I may disagree with most of 
you...	more later...)

Danny


[1] this is known as the "blood libel" and has been around for a thousand 
years.	Does anyone recall the source for the instance of this in the 
popular media in the middle east sometime in the last year or so?

[2] I also support the ACLU in their defense of religion [3] and find it 
very hypocritical that most of the religious right doesn't.

[3] for example, 
http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/gen/10925prs20020108.html?ht=christmas%...
as


> Chris
>
> Matt Rudary wrote:
>> I completely agree with you that newspapers shouldn't be intimidated into 
>> not printing this. It's a real shame, though, that the cartoons aren't 
>> terribly clever or funny. This may be the reason that they haven't been 
>> reprinted in US newspapers -- why print something insulting to people 
>> without making a point? Further, I don't think US newspapers have as much 
>> to worry about with respect to freedom of the press as European papers do. 
>> It's thus more important to the European papers to assert that right.
>> 
>> Matt
>> 
>> Daniel Reeves wrote:
>>> And by the way, I'm completely serious about this. I think this is a way 
>>> that improvetheworld can literally improve the world.
>>> 
>>> Also, please don't be shy about chiming in on this.  Once the first 
>>> message is sent it's really no more burden for people to delete the whole 
>>> thread (as long as you leave the subject line intact).
>>> 
>>> 
>>> (PS, I can see from the web logs that lots of you have viewed the pictures 
>>> already so don't pretend you're not listening! :)
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --- \/   FROM Daniel Reeves AT 06.02.04 17:03 (Today)   \/ ---
>>> 
>>>> A Danish newspaper recently published cartoons depicting Mohammed and 
>>>> muslims as terrorists.  Muslims are up in arms about it.  In fact, 
>>>> they've burnt down the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria, as a 
>>>> start.
>>>> 
>>>> It's all over the news but no US newspaper has the backbone to print the 
>>>> cartoons.	I guess terrorism works. So this is an opportunity to fight 
>>>> for free speech by helping make sure the agenda of the radical religious 
>>>> right backfires.  And so, improvetheworld brings you:
>>>>
>>>>  http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/itw/mohammed
>>>>	(or google improvetheworld)
>>>> 
>>>> Oh, and since muslims are calling for boycotts of Danish products in 
>>>> response to those cartoons, you should also buy more Danish stuff.  Like 
>>>> Legos.
>>>> 
>>>>  ,
>>>> Danny
>>> 
>>> 
>

-- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"

"I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and
then I thought:  What the hell good would that do?"
   -- Ronnie Shakes