Editor's blog John Temple is the editor, president and publisher of the Rocky Mountain News. You can e-mail him at editor@rockymountainnews.com. He also writes a weekly Saturday column.

The Rocky today published an editorial about the Danish cartoons that are in the news because of violent protests in the Muslim world. With the editorial, we printed one of the cartoons, showing the prophet Muhammad on a cloud welcoming a line of suicide bombers. He is saying, "Stop stop we ran out of virgins."

We've been linking from our Web site to all 12 cartoons since Thursday. I think it's important for people to be able to see them.

The cartoon we ran fell well within the range of commentary we would find acceptable to publish. For example, one cartoon we ran relatively recently showed a cathedral with a sign in front saying "You must be 18 or accompanied by an adult to enter," with threatening eyes in the dark of the entry. More recently we ran a cartoon of a man in a confessional saying, "Forgive me, father, I'm gay and I feel as though the church no longer wants me." The priest behind the screen responds, "I can relate."

I frankly don't understand why more American papers haven't shown their readers at least one of the Danish cartoons.

READER COMMENTS

i think the News should have been satisfied with web links to the cartoons...it's not so much the content of one or two of them, as much as the fact that the cartoons came as a response to an "experiment" - to see if people would say anything (read: anything negative) about Islam by invitation...lo, and behold, that's just what happened...the invitation nor the response should be seen as acceptable...in some parts of Europe, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust - imagine a call to cartoonists to address this - and would the News dare think to publish such a cartoon? I think not...

The cartoons are offensive. So is some porn. So is the anti-semitism that's rabid in the Arab press. But only the first is leading to death threats and arson.

Along the same lines, you might be interested to know that Northwestern has its own Ward Churchill:

http://www.askderekscruggs.com/northwesterns-own-ward-churchill.html

John,

Where is the cartoon you say is published "with the editorial?" I linked to the editorial yesterday (http://thedrunkablog.blogspot.com/2006/02/just-trying-to-move-another-disturbing.html) but saw neither the cartoon nor the link to the other cartoons. Nor could I find them today. What's up with that?

John,

I've updated my post to include Linda Seebach's reply.

Hello Mr. John Temple,
The cartoons that the Danish newspapers Jyllands-Posten published were a cruel way of using your freedom of speech and press. I am a muslim that lives here in Colorado and has been hurt but not totally angered by the cartoons. I understand my freedoms as a citizen. And now everyone has the right to these freedoms, but when you insult the prohpet it is like insulting my own mother or father and I won't let that happen. And if you truly loved them neither would you. As you might have noticed the arab and muslim newspapers didn't and won't insult any of the other religons and their prophets because we believe in them. What truly angerd us muslims is how you refer to Mohamed (pbuh) as a terrorist with the bomb on top of his head like a turbin. Many people that reply to these kind of posts don't understand Islam. Every single religon in this world I respect. And I promise most if not all muslims will not critcizes any religon. The past posts that I read sound like kids fighting over a toy. Most of the people are one-sided. A common saying from where I come from is "God gave you 2 ears to hear from and one mouth to make your judgement, use that to your advantage." I can go on and on, on this subject, but one last thing I want to say is I am 15 years old and Islam is a religon of peace and is the fastest growing religon. And I promise you by God that it will remain like that till the end of time.
Thank you for letting me post my thoughts and God Bless America and the Rest of the World.

If the Muslim relegion is meant to be of peace why is that they are burning down building rioting and killing one another? It seems so to me the Danish newspaper proved its point regarding the relegion. One of violence. One cannot continue to defend the peace in the Muslim relegion if continues to kill, burn, and threaten other relegions, and countries over one cartoon. In America and much of the rest of the free world we believe in Freedom the Press, Relegion and right to arms, but the Muslim relegion despises that, and wants America, and the rest of the free world to sensor what we say and hear regarding the Muslim relegion. Kudos to the Rocky Mountain News to allow us Americans to see the cartoons, and to see that it's really not that big of a deal. The Muslim relegion cannot control themselves and have to resort to violence. If they wanted to be better than the newspaper they would not have been violent. The Muslim relegion has a lot to learn from Ghandi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Violence is not the best way to prove you are the better man.

Thank you for taking this stand.

I'm concerned that more publications are not doing the same. I don't want to see Muslims offended, but I don't want Free Speech to be held captive to Muslim threats.

To the Muslims who are offended all I can say is get over it.

I've been offended many times at how Christ has been depicted. I figure Christ is able to defend Himself.

Surely Mohammed is also able to defend
himself too. Violence and threats, by Mulims, are not needed.

Firstly, I really appreciate all the ideas and comments about Islam. To be honest, Islam unfortunately appears in a negative light in the media and newspapers because what we see and read about are events like suicide bombing and raids and more. Everyone should understand that the actions of a few individuals cannot represent Islam.
We need to know the truth and the core of Islam, to read more about the miracle of Islam - the Holy Quran, which Prophet Mohammed used to teach the Muslims how to live and to be the strongest power in world history with justice, peace and compassion.

POST A COMMENT