Daily Illini prints anti-Islamic cartoons to prove how vile the images are

If you've every spent time in Champaign-Urbana, you know how politically correct the University of Illinois campus can be at times. So, I was a little surprised to discover that the student newspaper decided to publish the cartoons that Islamic radicals are using as an excuse to forment rioating in Europe and elsewhere:

These cartoons are bigoted and insensitive to the Islamic faith because they are depictions of the prophet Muhammad. In much of the Muslim faith, there is an absolute ban on drawing or portraying religious figures. I agree they are bigoted and insensitive, as do many others.

All across this nation, editors are gripped in fear of printing ... for fear of the reaction. As a journalist, this flies in the face of everything I hold dear. By refusing to print these editorial cartoons, we are preventing an important issue from being debated openly by the public.

If anything, journalists all over this country should be letting the public decide for themselves what to think of these cartoons.

I agree. One of the reasons I didn't reproduce them was that I thought they were a bit bigoted and not funny, although they are far less offensive than others I've seen.

I debated whether I should run them too, just as a show of solidarity with those who risked their lives running these cartoons, and to protest the destruction of embassies across the world at the hands of haters being urged on by governments that support terrorism.

But in the end, I decided against it.

I've worked next to people of the Muslin faith who were the kindest, nicest people you would ever want to meet. I just do not buy the argument that there is something inherently flawed in their theology.

History has shown that all faiths can be perverted.

I don't need to reprint Nazi or Klan propaganda to make the point that these movements are as evil as as the perverted brand of Islam being practiced by some. A lot of the sites that are doing so are doing it because they belive that the entire Muslim faith is ... just wrong. And THAT is wrong.

Yes, most terrorists are Islamic. But not all Muslims are terrorists.

What happened to the idea that in America, people are supposed to get along with each other, regardless of their faith or lack thereof? Religious strife is something we need to leave back in The Old Country.

We don't need to resort to bigotry to fight these people. In fact, doing so tends to discourage good-hearted, moral people from entering the battle. Resorting to bigotry to fight terrorism only helps the terrorists.

How very, very sad if one of the things destroyed on 9-11 was religious tolerance.

Hat tip: Next Frontier.

Originally posted at Peoria Pundit.

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