In 2006, radical Islamists around the world launched a long series of riots in response to a cartoon from Denmark portraying Islam’s founder Muhammad. Most Westerners in the advanced world were left bewildered at how so much violence and death could erupt over a mere cartoon. .Despite the widespread curiosity, nearly every single media outlet on the planet refused to reprint the blasphemous cartoons that were at the heart of the biggest story in the world for months on end. .Every single media outlet in Canada – and almost globally – except for one: The Western Standard. .While the Toronto Star and CBC were cowered by “cultural sensitivity” (sensitivity that they showed for no other group), the Western Standard ran an entire special edition on the cartoons, including the front cover. . Danish flag burnRioters burn the Danish flag in protest of cartoons .This simple act of journalism landed the Western Standard in the courts, as the Canadian Human Rights Commission tried to enforce what amounted to a medieval blasphemy law under the guise of “inciting hate”. .The cartoons were perhaps offensive to some, but they hardly constituted “hate”. In reality, this was the Canadian justice system enforcing Islamic law’s forbidding of any portrayal of their prophet..I was a chirpy student at the radical-left Carleton University at the time. I remember proudly posting a few of the cartoons clipped from the magazine on a wall, just to see what happened. .Since then, there have been a long string of murders related to these cartoons, and others, like the mass murder of Charlie Hebdo staff in 2015. .In October 2020, the cartoon-blasphemy murders continue..Reuters wire service is reporting that a Paris-area school teacher was brutally beheaded by an Islamist extremist. His crime? During a class on freedom of speech, he showed his students the cartoons forbidden by God. .The man is believed to have screamed the traditional battle-cry, “Allah Akbar!” before beheading the blasphemer. .The alleged killer’s Twitter account posted, “o Macron, the leader of the infidels, I executed one of your hellhounds who dared to belittle Muhammad.”.Several reports out of Europe claim that the attacker managed to upload a picture of the beheading to his Twitter account before it was taken down..He was apprehended by police, and resisting while still armed with his knife, was shot dead. .Blasphemy murders happen more frequently than we in North America know, because most of them are in Europe. Only when the body count reaches toward the double-digits (like the Charlie Hebdo massacre) do we read about it here..The 2006 blasphemy charges against the Western Standard were dropped in a humiliating retreat for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and since then, there is reason to hope that at least segments of the Canadian (and Western world’s) media have been shamed out of their complacency. The coming days will tell. .But we owe it to the victims of these murders, and to our own fundamental freedoms, to openly defy threats from medieval thugs that would take would take them away. Media outlets that claim to defend freedoms of speech and of the press, have a duty to publish them; or in the case of the Western Standard, republish them. .Understandably, some media outlets will fear for the lives of those working there. This is a very real threat. And I can understand not publishing the cartoons on those grounds. It isn’t the right thing to do, but it is understandable. .But media that refuse to publish these cartoons – that continue to reverberate around the world – on the grounds of sensitivity, should hand in their “free press” credentials now, and apply for a government media license. .In honour of the victim of today’s blasphemy murder, and in defence of a free press, I have decided that the Western Standard will again publish some of the cartoons that have motivated the murder of so many. .This has nothing to do with Islam, or religion for us. If anyone was murdered for displaying Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, we would would publish it as well. Allas, 33 years and counting, nobody has..So sit back, lock your doors, and enjoy some blasphemy..Derek Fildebrandt is Publisher of the Western Standard and President of Wildrose Media Corp. dfildebrandt@westernstandardonline.com. mohammadMuhammad cartoon . Muhammad cartoon-2Muhammad cartoons . Muhammad cartoonMuhammad cartoon from Charlie Hebdo . Muhammad cartoon-4Muhammad cartoon from Charlie Hebdo after the mass-murder of its staff . Muhammad cartoonMuhammad with Jesus and the Buddha in South Park
