Mailbag
From the April 2006 Print Edition
Finding support in the least likely of places
Thank you for defending freedom of speech and publishing the Danish cartoons as an unswerving matter of principle. As co-founder and acting director of the Objectivist Club of Berkeley, I want you to know that you are not alone in recognizing and acting on this crucial matter of freedom. Two weeks ago the club distributed 500 special-issue fliers from The Undercurrent, a national Objectivist newsletter for college campuses. The fliers addressed the very same issue of freedom of speech, and reprinted one of the Danish cartoons. I am heartened to know that at least two campus organizations embody the irreplaceable virtue of standing up for this core American value, right, and freedom.
In solidarity,
Katie Brakora and the Objectivist Club of Berkeley
A free press is true liberalism
You are the true liberals, daring to publish despite the objections of the politically correct. Good job.
M. Pavlovich
Manhattan
Contextual analysis
I was really disappointed in your article on the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. First, you failed to even mention the Koran’s prohibition of graven images. You glossed over the growing disdain Europeans feel toward their Muslim minorities, which the cartoons reflect. Most importantly, you ignored the context behind the riots. The cartoons might have been the spark, but the fuel that kept up this violent reaction was unique to each country in which it took place.
In Libya, for example, the security services opened fire and killed nine protesters when a protest against the cartoons started to resemble an anti-government protest. In Syria, the government staged protests to counter increasing pressure from the U.S. and Europe. In the Gaza Strip, protesters attacked EU institutions out of frustration of the lack of progress toward a Palestinian state. In Pakistan, protests lashed out at the U.S.-backed dictator canceling the elections.
I believe newspapers have a right to reprint these cartoons in the name of education. But your oversimplified display of “solidarity with the Danish people” only muddied the waters.
Rich Cain
undergraduate
Freedom to print, freedom to criticize
It is extremely ironic that Landaw should criticize the publication of Holocaust cartoons in Iran in the same Cal Patriot issue which has printed the Danish cartoons in order to defend “free speech.” Peculiar standards of free speech are being applied throughout this Patriot, and an explanation is absolutely necessary.
Yaman Salahi
undergraduate
No mainstream media here
Thank you for showing solidarity with free speech, the first hallmark of a free society, by having the guts to print the infamous cartoons (two of them anyways). If only the mainstream media were not abdicating their responsibility.
You have my support, and the support of most Americans! THANK YOU, PATRIOTS!
Joe VanHecke
A word of thanks
I simply want to commend you for having the courage to reprint the cartoons which caused such a ridiculously unwarranted clamor among Muslims around the world. Thank you for standing up for the First Amendment and rational thinking.
Marvin Thomas
San Francisco
An entreaty to turn the other cheek
I am writing to request that the Cal Patriot not republish those horrendous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). On your Web site, you say that you respect every peace-loving Muslim, and as Muslims, that is all we want. I do not agree with the violent actions that occurred in the Middle East, as the Prophet Muhammad even rejected such actions when people had insulted him.
If you respect the peace-loving Muslims here at campus and around the world, I ask you that you please respect their holy beliefs and not republish the cartoons, as it is offensive to ANY Muslim, whether they be peaceful or violent. Muslims are really close to their religious beliefs, and attacking the second most important thing to them in Islam (the prophet) is attacking them as a whole.
Going as low as to republish the cartoons “in retaliation” to the Muslims in the Middle East is doing the same horrible thing that the violent Muslims did, and that is to hurt innocent people (such as those not responsible for the cartoons at the embassies). How would republishing the cartoons in retaliation be any different than those who retaliated with violence? It is going as low as they did.
So please, do not hurt us innocent Muslims here at Berkeley, and refrain from publishing the cartoons. Thank you very much and please do what Christ would have done. Let’s both, peaceful Muslims and Christians alike, turn the other cheek to the ignorant violent Muslims, and just let it go. Thank you once again. Peace be with you.
Sincerely,
Kamran Wally Haikal
undergraduate
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