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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Costello: Mocking Christians OK, but …

In his Saturday column for the Lewiston Tribune, Michael Costello comments:

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." Everybody Draw Mohammed Day was the brainchild of Molly Norris, a Seattle-area cartoonist who conceived the idea after Comedy Central had censored an episode of South Park in which Mohammed was represented. Comedy Central self-censored its own show shortly after Muslims around the world had rioted following the publication of cartoonish images of Mohammed in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. In truth, the original cartoons incited nothing and the troublemakers had to create their own cartoons that depicted Mohammed as a pig.

But suddenly, proudly profane leftists around the world, who had previously enjoyed mocking Christianity for decades, were swept up in a gust of cultural sensitivity and were censoring images of Mohammed wherever they might appear. For example, the Associated Press announced that it would not distribute the Jyllands-Posten cartoons because they had developed an acute sympathy for religious sensitivity. At the same time that they refused to distribute those pictures, the AP was still offering for sale glossy reproductions of Serrano's "Piss Christ," an alleged work of great artistic value that was simply a photograph of a crucifix submerged in a jar of the "artists" own urine.

It seems that a credible threat of violence marks the surest path to gaining international respect for one's religious convictions. More here.

Agree/disagree?



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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