that cartoons back

[Touchstone]

No, no, no, I'm not saying that at all. I clearly said freedom of speech must be absolute. But if you are going to play with fire, and these cartoonist are, then they need to expect (not deserve) to get burned ...

Sorry, I misunderstood. That's a fair point.

I'm trying to understand the motive of these cartoonists. Is it purely for a laugh? Freedom of speech rights? Are they trying to educate? Or are they arrogant and selfish attention seekers willing to push their idea no matter what the costs?

Different people will have different motives. One thing you can be sure of though--they are reactionary, they are not the initial provocateurs. They (at least in most cases) wouldn't be doing the cartoons if they hadn't been told (by someone who has no authority to tell them) that they shouldn't. Whenever someone tells people they cannot do something it seems to be a natural human reaction to do it.

Of course not. Even a radical extremeist would understand the source (a child). These cartoonists are not children. They are adults, adults lacking descretsion, and respect towards others imo.

But the point is that they aren't saying "you should only draw the Prophet if you are young or doing so respectfully" they are saying "you should not draw the prophet, period". That's an absolute which they have no right to even try to impose upon people who are not part of their group.

Look at it this way: the Nazi's said "we find homosexuality offensive, so we're going to kill anyone who indulges in it." The Muslims say "we find cartoons of the prophet offensive, so we will kill anyone who indulges indulges in drawing them". The Nazi's were far stronger and more willing to wage war than the Muslims, yet we stood up to their intolerance. To kowtow to Muslim intolerance because we're scared of what they might do to us is spineless and in our worst interests. I don't by any means want a war, or any violence, but if there is violence it will be wholly the fault of the people who have attempted to restrict the freedoms of others, not of those who have attempted to fully utilize their freedoms.