Cartoons, Faith And Rioting

Should newspapers run the Danish cartoons of Mohammed? Hugh Hewitt spent the last hour of his show trying to convince us the answer is no.

I remain unconvinced.

Obviously, free speech considerations are paramount to the discussion, making straight, factual discussions of the matter moot. So let's move beyond that.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present as people's evidence #1 this cartoon. Prepare to be offended:

Hey, Muslim buddies, it's the West. We have to put up with trash like cartoons of Jesus turning his "water" into wine. When it happens, we don't run into EU offices flashing guns. We don't call in ambassadors for a drubbing. If idiots like this cartoonist had something to sell, we'd boycott it, but that's the full nexus in our reactions.

Muslims in the West seem to get this, because they're not the ones who are protesting. Muslims in Muslim-dom are the ones who are all in a tither, like they were when Newsweek falsely reported Korans were being mishandled.

If our freedoms offend them, we should consider that in making our editorial decisions, but it's their religion and their offense, not ours. Ultimately, we are not responsible to them. Let us honor our right to print items that are in really bad taste. East is East and West is West, and I'm all for keeping it that way.

Besides, Muslims are spending a lot of money and effort to recruit Westerners to their ranks. The more they behave violently to the exercising of freedoms we cherish, as they are over the Danish cartoons, it hurts their recruiting. Which just might help us -- after all, we're seeing converts to Islam as suicide bombers.