“Cartoon protests” just doesn't sound serious enough.

[ewx]

• The timing of this could perhaps have been a little better.
• Yesterday's commentary but I thought it was fairly good.

Quite a bit has been made, perhaps in some quarters more than others, of the absence of British publications from the ranks of those that have re-published the infamous cartoons. It seems that there's a counterexample, as it happens, but the continental examples have been national papers rather than student ones, as I understand it.

There's a problem that anyone who fails to publish the cartoons out of genuine desire not to cause offence, for instance, or because they think that there are better uses of newsprint than cartoons that anyone can easily find on the web, will be criticized for cowardice: though the motives of those levelling such criticism might be worth examining. Indeed, I think free speech has been quite adequately upheld in this particular case; I'm sure there are plenty of other cases where it could do with some support if any British editors are feeling combative.

I'm sure many Muslims are indeed genuinely offended to greater or lesser extent (i.e. and not merely looking for an excuse to have a go at the West). I don't want to dismiss the widespread feelings of ordinary people entirely glibly (a cartoon response to a cartoon protest?), but really, there's an awful lot worse out there; genuine and active racial or religious persecution is much, much nastier than this.

I remain highly skeptical about the motivations of protesting governments in this case (though I may have more to say on this point in a while when I've finished a particular book).