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US Newspapers Should Publish Cartoons, Conservative Group Insists
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
February 7, 2006

(CNSNews.com) -- A conservative advocacy group says Americans should rise up and demand that their local newspapers reprint cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

The cartoons, first published by a Danish newspaper in September and then reprinted in other European newspapers, have prompted rioting in the Muslim world as well as debates about freedom of speech.

"Americans need to see for themselves what has outraged Islamofascists in certain parts of the world," said William Greene, president of the online organization, RightMarch.com.

"Many Christians and Jews have had to endure the satirizing of their own religious figures. It's called the free expression of ideas. We shouldn't apologize for freedom -- we're trying to spread it, and an honest public debate is at the very center of that freedom."

Some, but not all, interpretations of the Muslim faith forbid the publication of images of the prophet Mohammed. (See related story)

"After 9-11, Americans didn't take to the streets to burn down embassies, attack civilians and spark riots. We showed great restraint and courtesy to the foreign dignitaries living as guests in our nation. It's not weakness; it's strength, and the ultimate test of freedom, which is God's gift to man," Green said.

Although the cartoon depictions of Mohammed are all over the Internet, most major U.S. newspapers have declined to reprint them as part of their coverage of the Muslim protests.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted one of the cartoons on Saturday, but the editors of other newspapers, including the Washington Post, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times, have decided not to do so, citing cultural sensitivities, "standards," and good taste.

The Boston Globe reported that more than two dozen Muslims picketed the Philadelphia Inquirer's on Monday, after the newspaper reprinted one of the cartoons -- the one portraying Mohammed with a lit bomb as a turban.