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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Swedish-american here. I think it is crossing the line to display these images publicly. I am not muslim--but I find such disregard for their religion and culture highly offensive. The French people are completely tone deaf and arrogant wrt to their treatment of minorities in their countries. They are hiding behind the cloak of "free press" and it is outrageous. And yes, I'm aware that Scandinavian countries are as bad on this issue if not worse.[/quote]

I am from Europe and I realize that for Americans may be difficult to understand how people in Europe may have a different approach. Americans are way more prude (and this explains why some posters said that the cartoons were X-rated - while they are certainly not for young kids, and are provocative and may be considered offensive by many even in Europe, in Europe they are not considered porn stuff. they would not fly in the US, but you need to understand that they published in France not in Montana - here people fainted when a nipple was seen for 0,5 seconds on national TV during the superbowl, in Europe nobody would have noticed, no right or wrong simply a different sensibility).  also, it seems that somehow Americans have internalized and accepted the type of censorship that the Islamic terrorists were trying to impose on CH and on European press in general, and this may explain, in addition to fear, the reason why the cartoons were not widely published in the US, even the first time around.  you talk a lot about freedom of speech and expression, but the truth is that your newspapers shy away from satire about religions, not just Islam but also Christianity.  after all, you elected an AA president, but would you ever have elected an admitted atheist? in my coutry nobody has to get the photo take with the prund family leaving Sunday service as part of a political campaign, religion is considered a personal matter and electing an atheist is totally normal.  there are profoundly religious people in Europe, there are atheists, agnostics and whatever but mocking religion, any religion is accepted.  tons of people don't like it (catholic groups sued CH many many times and always lost) but so far radical Islamists are the ones who reacted with violence. this is why was so important what CH and other magazines did in Europe, they tried to resist against the imposition of a censorship that you Americans have simply accepted and embraced.  this same battle has been waged against the Catholic church before, there were times when publishing cartoons or anything else offensive to the church could result in death or imprisonment, and against the political establishment (CH, at that time under published under another name, was banned by the French government decades ago for a cover deemed offensive of Charles de Gaulle).  the issues with radical Islamists is that they live in Europe but do not want to accept the rules by which people live there.  if you don;t like a cartoon, sue the magazine and if you lose then move on with your life the cartoon can be published.   what happened is a tragedy because radical Islam is trying to put a muzzle on our freedom of speech and expression and they are succeeding because not that many people are willing to die for a cartoon. this is why I really admire the CH cartoonists and all others who did not bow.  [/quote]

I am European as well, and I don't think you understand Americans very well -- and I think you are probably slightly oblivious to the rise of Xenophobia and the treatment of minorities in Europe.[/quote]

I agree with PP. I have lived in Europe for several years and I am amazed at how overtly racist France, and other countries, are. There's no real discourse on prejudice in the same way there is in the US. Which is why in the US we don't parody people by exaggerating their physical features in cartoons -- we have actually talked about it and the vast majority of Americans recognize that caricature drawings are offensive and don't add to the "joke." And we do satire all the time -- we just know better than to generalize about whole races and cultures.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/hijackers-surprised-to-find-selves-in-hell,1445/[/quote]

I love how Americans who live in de facto segregated communities, send their kids to de facto segregated schools, don't see a problem with white men hounding down and shooting unarmed black kids, stand by idly as minority voting rights are eroded but occasionally do take-out Chinese in the name of diversity like to pontificate about racism in other countries. But discourse away, my friend.[/quote]

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