I am a lifelong atheist. I insist on the freedom of art and argument against religions, be them misinterpreted as blasphemy (Rushdie's Satanic Verses or Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ) or true attacks on religion and religious people (Life of Brian, meteor-stricken Pope etc.). I also agree that the publication by Jyllandposten and all re-publishers including Sirocco is permissible. But I don't think any of it is commendable.

While Jyllandposten framed its original provocation in terms of fighting for freedom of speech, I don't think it was really that. And I don't think this started half a year ago, either.

First, the cartoons weren't merely blasphemous, and not just distasteful, but as DeAnander and some others argued, they were borderline racist.

Jyllandposten took the freedom of speech as a superficial excuse to 'stand up to the Muslims'. I see this primarily in the framework of the six-year-ongoing anti-immigrant 'debate' by the Danish Right - which is also the reason behind the three-year-ongoing Danish majority support for the US neocon fight against the 'Islamofascists' in the Middle East, in particular Iraq. 'Stand up to the Muslims' is not at all anti-authoritarian but a big 'fuck you' to all those nasty suspicious immigrants, whether they issue death threats or not, going well beyond the intentions of the children's book publisher taken as ocassion.

In this light, I found the tone of some posters, especially in response to what Migeru digged up on the pre-internationalisation history of this affair in Denmark, truly sickening. The defense of freedom of speech has become an acceptable form of open xenophobia.

But I feel equally bad about the response of newspapers and diarists here, who think permissible becomes commendable just because there are radical forces who used this semi-racist bile for their own propaganda on the opposed side, and other, in-government forces made demands beyond their juridiction which weren't followed upon. This entirely misses the point, constitutes joining in in a cultural war, and only gives food for the racists.

A true fight against censorship would be to publish something that was actually subject to censorship-by-threats, or publish something in similar vein (which Jyllandposten's caricatures weren't), or to fight actual attempts of censorship by your own state. Neither the original publishing of these caricatures, nor any of the re-publishings were examples of this. Newspapers across Europe weren't boldly defying intimidation tactics, they were posturing and confirming perceptions of a broad Islamophobia, racism and ignorance.

At least this is my opinion.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}