This got me thinking about my own country. If you you were to publish a racist cartoon in a mainstream newspaper (assuming, for the sake of this discussion, that such a media outlet would touch it with a ten foot pole), you might not have your throat cut in public, but you would have torpedoed your career at the very least.

Let me hasten to explain that I do not object to this state of affairs. Racist cartoons are vulgar and hateful. They rip off the scabs of old untreated wounds. Only a racist and a moron would create one, let alone publish it for all to see. For what I assumed was the overwhelming majority of my fellow citizens — although I am no long confident about that — such expressions of racism are simply beyond the pale. The cartoonist who published one and as a result was, let us say, beaten to a pulp by a Black coworker, would be looked upon as having brought it on themselves. I would be surprised if even the current occupant of the White House would rush to their defense — but then nothing should surprise me when it comes to that guy. But oh, I don’t know, Nixon. Even Nixon would not have defended it.

We don’t publish such cartoons, or walk around referring to people as “n****rs” because a significant minority very strenuously and justifiably objects, and most of us want to be nice, or so I thought. Anyway do you get where I am going with this? There are a lot of Muslim people around so that’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed. There are a small number of deadly fanatics out there so it can be downright dangerous. The rest of the Muslim community surely does not feel good about seeing the one they revere above all so portrayed. So why do it? Put yourself in their shoes. How is this hard?