Insulting the Prophet

"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." This quote from Thomas Jefferson is the slogan of this magazine. Jefferson, in his 1800 letter to Benjamin Rush, was referring to the establishment of a state church. About this subject, he would later coin the well-known phrase "wall of separation between church of state." Jefferson, though an unorthodox Christian himself, was a vigorous defender of a secular America in which I am free to blaspheme, as I sometimes do in these pages.

I take no pleasure in offending anyone. I generally avoid doing so, though I write on provocative topics in this magazine. I certainly have no desire to offend Muslims, several of whom I know personally and whose religious beliefs I respect. In this article, however, I will reproduce an admittedly offensive cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The heinous murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was beheaded in France this week for having shown Muhammad cartoons to his students, demands a gesture of solidarity.

Paty is not the first victim of reprisal for the exhibition of Muhammad cartoons. In 2015, twenty-three people at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris were shot for having "insulted the Prophet."[1] Protests in 2005 over the publication of cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper took place across the world, many of them turning violent and resulting in more than 200 deaths.[2]

This is the cartoon from Jyllands-Posten. This is the reason that more than 200 people have died. I understand that many Muslims felt that this and similar cartoons denigrated Islam, nevermind that the artist has stated it is directed only at radical Islam. But even if we accept this is denigrating, the freedom to blaspheme is, and ought to be, cherished in the West. Subjecting Islam to satire is a way of including Islam in a culture that is shamelessly irreverent.

The Standard condemns the murder of Samuel Paty. This was an act of savage violence directed not only at Paty, but at the freedom of speech itself. We must resist any and all attempts to compel us into fearful submission and self-censorship. This violence is a form of "tyranny over the mind of man," against which this publication has sworn eternal hostility.

That is why, as a publisher, The Standard feels it is necessary to reproduce this cartoon.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/charlie-hebdo-french-satirical-magazine-paris-office-attack-leaves-casualties/
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/danish-cartoon-controversy