Last Monday, this page defended the right of newspapers to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, which have sparked outrage from Muslims around the world. As we felt it was important for our readers to understand the source of this outrage, we briefly described the most controversial image as showing “a man with a bomb for a turban.”
Visualizing this cartoon is essential for a proper understanding of a story that has dominated headlines in recent weeks. Was ours a sufficient explanation of the image? We believed that it was. And while we understood that nothing can replace actually seeing the image that has led to such a firestorm, we decided that the value of reprinting the cartoon did not outweigh the potential offense it would cause to Muslims, who consider any depiction of Muhammad to be blasphemous.
Last week, The Harvard Salient, a conservative, biweekly newspaper at Harvard University, thought differently. It republished the image of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, in addition to three other cartoons at which Muslims have taken offense, calling it “a risky, but honest and necessary, business” in an accompanying editorial.
While many European newspapers have republished the cartoons as a sign of solidarity with the Danish paper that originally published them last year, only a handful of American papers have followed suit; most U.S. papers have rightfully maintained that to do so would just add fuel to the fire of controversy, and wouldn’t be worth the potential fallout.
It seems, then, that the Salient is only reprinting the cartoons as a means of attracting attention, and it has succeeded; the Boston Globe and CBS4 Boston political analyst Jon Keller both reported on the Salient’s actions yesterday, and the paper will join the relatively small ranks of U.S. papers that have decided to reprint the cartoons. While the paper may draw some flak for its decision, there is little chance of any serious repercussions for the small-time publication.
In contrast, the editors of The Harvard Crimson opted not to reprint the cartoons, evidently believing that such a decision would cause unnecessary offense and sully the reputation of one of the most respected and well-read college dailies in the nation. This is not to say that the Salient is unread or without merit, but it is not a strong voice within the Harvard community — and even less so outside the Harvard bubble. With all due respect for the Salient, it is a virtual unknown, and it’s easy for such a paper to take risks that other papers would be unwilling to take.
One likely reason for the Salient’s decision was that, as the paper stated in its editorial, it believes the cartoons are “relatively innocuous.” This ridiculous assertion indicates that the paper has no grasp on the gravity of the situation. However misguided Muslim outrage over the cartoons may be — they certainly don’t justify violent protests, burning down embassies or calling for further terrorist attacks on the West — we cannot deny the reality of Muslims’ outrage. The cartoons are far from innocuous, and the Salient should have known better when it decided to print them.
But if this is the case, how can the Salient and every other newspaper reporting on the issue fulfill their responsibility to inform their readers about the issue as fully as possible? Is it not necessary for readers to see the images, especially ones of such magnitude?
In this day and age, any image is easily accessible via the internet; for tech-savvy college students, the Muhammad cartoons are only a quick Google search away. Nevertheless, we feel it is our responsibility to facilitate readers’ understanding of this important news story as much as possible.
We therefore provide links to two websites on which the images of Muhammad can be seen. If you are interested, please visit these sites and see the cartoons for yourselves. If you are likely to take offense at them, we will not shove them in your face.
The Daily Free Press seeks a balance between respect for religious sensibilities and disseminating information that is relevant to students at BU — indeed, relevant to people everywhere. With that in mind, we leave it up to our readers to decide whether they want to see these images. It is the best way for us to serve you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_drawings.jpg http://www.uriasposten.net/pics/JP-011005-Muhammed-Westerga.jpg