Giving the Philly Inquirer Credit

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran the Muhammed "offending" cartoons last week and was met with a few hundred protesters.

John Grogan writes:

The protesters spoke their minds - loudly and forcibly - and made their disgust known.

Elsewhere in the world, Danish embassies have been burned, and riots have turned bloody. And that is hugely ironic, considering the whole point of the cartoon is that Islam has been hijacked by a minority of violent extremists who act inconsistently with the religion's tenets.

What better way to sustain post-9/11 stereotypes of Muslims as prone to religious violence than to protest an image by... turning violent?

Fortunately, that did not happen in Philadelphia. Not even close. While there was some hostility in the crowd, everyone behaved.

There were some who shouted ugly things and distributed unsavory images, but they were in the minority. And even the worst of it fell well within the bounds of a cherished democratic tradition: the right to free speech and open assembly. The right to disagree and be heard.

Some protesters called for a boycott of the newspaper, and for readers to cancel their subscriptions. It's all fair game, and a rich part of that crazy, messy, not always pretty institution known as democracy.

Amen.

Jihad Posted by AlexC at February 14, 2006 12:28 PM