The Need to Discuss the Cartoons

Two editors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Daily Illini student newspaper have been suspended after “breaking ranks” to republish the controversial Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons, without the knowledge of the editorial board, in the February 9 edition of the paper, according to a press release from the paper.

I was just reading this article at the University of Chicago newspaper.

Acton Gordon, the suspended editor-in-chief of The Daily Illini, said he decided to print the cartoons because he felt “nobody understood what was going on” without seeing the cause of the uproar.

“I wanted to fill a hole that the mainstream media refused to fill,” Gordon said. “The only way to fill people in is to publish the cartoons.”

---SNIP---

“If people are afraid to publish something that is critical of Muslims, the terrorists are winning,” he said.

Indeed. Which is precisely why we all NEED to be talking about this...knowledgeably.

Of course, not everyone agrees with me on that point...

Hasan Ali, president of the Muslim Students’ Association at the U of C, said he strongly disagreed. “I don’t think it requires a discussion to say, ‘This is wrong and should be denounced,’” he said.

Ali is right. It doesn't require a discussion -- unless, of course, you don't think that publishing the cartoons should be denounced! Does this jackass have any clue that his statement arrogantly illustrates the fascist in Islamofascist?!? There's no need to discuss this...I just said it's wrong!

Let's check in with another MSA leader, shall we?

Shaz Kaiseruddin, president of the Muslim Students’ Association at UIUC...

“Instead of promoting understanding, the editors effectively through their reprinting promoted more stereotyping and hatred,” she said.

She added that her organization did not wish to limit the first amendment, but rather was concerned with issues of “responsible journalism” and “human decency.”

jour·nal·ism
1a : the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media b : the public press c : an academic study concerned with the collection and editing of news or the management of a news medium
2 a : writing designed for publication in a newspaper or magazine b : writing characterized by a direct presentation of facts or description of events without an attempt at interpretation c : writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest

I'd say that the editors at U of I and Harvard practiced journalism in its purest and most literal form: they presented the facts through the media, leaving the opinion-making to their readers.

Islam
Muslim
Violence
Danish Cartoons
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Dhimmitude
Terrorism