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UCI shows courage over cartoons Congratulations to UCI and the student groups (including the college Republicans) for conducting an open debate on the Muhammad cartoon controversy ("Cartoons bring debate to UCI," Orange County Register, Local March 1). The Register, for all its claims of libertarian principle, couldn't find the courage to show how little is behind all the manufactured outrage. The cartoons, with the possible exception of the one showing a bomb in the turban, are innocuous. Muslims are forbidden to depict anyone as an image, not just The Prophet. We, however, are not Muslims, and neither were the Danish cartoonists who now have a price on their heads. There is no justification for punishing, let alone killing, a non-Muslim who violates such a rule. The fact that militant Muslims are attempting to force non-Muslims to obey Islamic law by threats of force or murder makes it even more important to exercise our freedom of speech. The First Amendment is of no value if it only allows speech that is inoffensive to anyone. The Register's weak excuse that "printing them was not necessary to an understanding of the news story" is not only cowardly; it is false. Readers may assume that the cartoons were really offensive. The fact that the radical Danish imams felt it necessary to manufacture three additional really offensive cartoons to increase outrage illustrates how phony the claim is. If the Register had any courage, it would show these inoffensive cartoons and show this whole controversy for what it is – an attempt to impose Islamic law on non-Muslims through force. I am really impressed with the courage shown by UCI. |
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