Matthew T. Russotto
They can find the images on Google. I have taken a look at them and I can certainly say that anyone who claims that they weren't meant to offend is disingenious at best and outright lying at worst.
From the results, it appears that publishing the cartoons has weakened the Jordanian editors' position. Had they not, it's entirely possible that their point would actually have been read.
The fact is that there are people out there who demonize Islam for whatever reason (some even on this newsgroup). Relatively liberal Muslims like myself may get annoyed and engage in a possibly heated debate online about the subject. More conservative and less intelligent Muslims will find other ways to deal with the issue.
The problem is that you have to deal with the reality that there are many of those who fit into the latter group (as there are in any religion or ethnic group ... e.g., the LA race riots a little over a decade ago).
Perhaps if people would take a less confrontational approach when dealing with the issue, then these things wouldn't happen. For example, if you have to deal with a person you don't particularly like, do you think the best way to start out is to insult him and say that you have the right to say whatever you say about him, or do you try to act friendly towards him and camly explain your point of view? Use your imagination to extend the example based on ethnicity or religion or any other factor you can think of.
