Isaiah 14:16

In the King James Version: "They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;"

Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff of the German newspaper Die Zeit, explaining why his paper printed the cartoons of Mohammed:

But the criteria change when material that is seen as offensive becomes newsworthy. That's why we saw bodies falling out of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. That's why we saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. On such issues we print what we usually wouldn't. The very nature of the discourse is to find parameters of what is culturally acceptable. How many times have we seen Janet Jackson's breast in the course of a discussion of the limits of family entertainment? How many times have we printed material that Jews might consider offensive in an attempt to define the extent of anti-Semitism? It seems odd that most U.S. papers patronize their readers by withholding cartoons that the whole world talks about. To publish does not mean to endorse. Context matters.

It's worth remembering that the controversy started out as a well-meaning attempt to write a children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. The book was designed to promote religious tolerance. But the author encountered the consequences of religious hatred when he looked for an illustrator. He could not find one. Denmark's artists seemed to fear for their lives. In turning down the job they mentioned the fate of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist for harshly criticizing fundamentalism.

Jack Kelly has more on this.

What I think most non-Muslims see in these cartoons is pretty mild stuff, and the reaction of radical Muslim to it is mystifying. It further divides people from each other.

Anyone who reads this blog knows I'm a Hugh Hewitt fan, but I'm not sure how to take his criticism of the Danes for publishing these cartoons. I wouldn't have published them because they didn't seem to have any point other than to poke all Muslims in the eye with an implication that the clerics who preach hatred and violence are right about what Mohammed taught. We ought to remember those Muslims who are moderate, modest and pious, and offer them respect. We need to separate them from the radicals and Wahhabists. There are people like Grand Ayatollah Sistani:

Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned the publications as a "horrific action."

But in remarks posted on his Web site, al-Sistani referred to "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community whose actions "projected a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood."

Indeed.