Violence and Fear Escalate in Wake of Cartoon Controversy

Free Speech or Blasphemy? Censorship or Discretion?

Click here for a statement from NCAC on the controversy surrounding the Mohammed cartoons, featured in Censorship News #101.

We are presenting here a selection of the material published on the issue, and reports of incidents of censorship in connection with the cartoons.

An extraordinarily thorough summary of the controversy is available at Wikipedia.org, including an authoritative collection of links to news and background online — as well as a list of newspapers around the world that have, despite the pressure to self-censor, gone forward and reprinted the cartoons
Cartoon Body Count (no longer active): a blog tracking lives and livelihoods lost as a result of the cartoon controversy
A timeline of the controversy and ensuing violence, assembled by CBC News Online
See the images in question, posted on Wikipedia.

March 29, 2006: NYU Objectivist Society Barred from Displaying Cartoons at Campus Event
March 22, 2006: Swedish Foreign Minister Resigns Over Cartoon Debate
March 21, 2006: Student Editor Fired After Publishing Mohammed Cartoons (from SPLC)
March 9, 2006: Minnessota Professor Prevented from Showing Cartoons
February 10, 2006: Cartoon Editors Face Mixed Fates
February 9, 2006: Student Union Supports Ban on Cartoons
February 2, 2006: Gunmen Shut EU Gaza Office Over Cartoons

Jyllands-Posten editor Flemming Rose responds to the controversy
"In Defense of Free Thought", by Robert Scheer on Truthdig.org
"Satirical Images Prompt Debate Over Censorship ", by Heidi Benson on SFGate.com
"The Media is So Sensitive — Maybe Cartoonishly So", by Stu Bykofsky for The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Cartoons Merely Fed Muslim Fury", by Kwame Anthony Appiah for The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Danish Cartoons: Free Press or Hate Speech?", by Louay Safi at Middle East Online
"Drawing Fire and Blood: Free Speech and Religion" by Paul K. McMasters for the First Amendment Center
"In Defense of the Right to Offend" by Charles C. Haynes for the First Amendment Center
A statement from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Two Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists speak out on the topic:
- An interview with Signe Wilkinson by Steven Heller, for Design Forum
- "Them Damn Pictures" by Doug Marlette for Salon.comIn context and in contrast:
A compendium of depictions of the Mohammed, illustrating the wide variety of images (religous, artistic, satirical, etc.) of the Prophet from both Islamic and Western societies.