Perry de Havilland (who returns to the subject today) noted back in November that the row got started when:
Flemming Rose, an editor from Denmark's largest newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, reacted to news that Danish cartoonists were too afraid of Muslim militants to illustrate a new children's biography of the Prophet Mohammed, by doing exactly that, putting Denmark's policies of tolerance to the test by commissioning a series of illustrations of Mohammed.Two things occur to me which (even without the benefit of hindsight) should, I think, have been obvious to the editor of Denmark's largest newspaper:
(1) Few of the pictures seem suitable for inclusion in a children's biography of the Prophet Mohammed.
(2) If Danish cartoonists are going to draw offensive images of Mohammed then they are right to be afraid of a backlash - not just from Muslim militants but from millions of ordinary Muslims around the world who take great offense at such things.
This doesn’t look like an issue of free speech to me, it looks like a lack of editorial judgement.
