Angry in the Great White North

As best as I can tell, no major (or even minor) Canadian press outlet has posted the Muhammad cartoons. It might be that the editors are considering the domestic reaction:

Syed Soharwardy, of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, appeared on Canada AM Friday saying that Canadian Muslims were upset but that they were dealing with the situation constructively, by emailing and phoning officials.

"The Muslims in Canada, they are outraged," Soharwardy said. "They are expressing their anger through peaceful means… they are protesting against these horrible cartoons that have offended Muslims around the world."

Canadian Muslims leaders seem willing to leave the controversy in Europe:

[Javed Akbar, director of outreach at the Pickering Islamic Centre,] said he doubted the cartoons would get more than a passing mention at prayers in Canada, saying imams here would want to steer away from the topic, for fear of being associated with the protests of the Middle East.

Canadian papers seem to have taken the approach that they will react as the domestic situation changes:

Toronto Star editor-in-chief Giles Gherson said yesterday it's unlikely the paper would run an editorial cartoon that was "gratuitously offensive," to a segment of the population.

Once that cartoon becomes global news, however, the question becomes more difficult. Should it be reprinted so readers can understand the news?

"We're going to describe in text the cartoons," he said yesterday. "We're going to see if we can explain to our readers what the issues are, what happened, what is portrayed in the cartoons, without actually showing the cartoons if they are inherently deeply offensive to a segment of our society. That would be our preferred approach."

The preferred approach to a difficult question. But if Canadian Muslims start to rally and demand beheadings and extermination as they have been in other countries, that approach might be deemed insufficient. And the Toronto Star won't promise not to publish them:

Even so, some of the cartoons are gratuitously offensive. The Star would not have published them, although we affirm our right to do so.

If a crowd assembles in front of Queen's Park and demands that Canadian laws be changed to give special protection to Muslims from anything published in the media, I think Star is suggesting that it will respond to affirm the right to publish. The only way to do that is, of course, to publish.

Though it might be nice to see Canada's media stand by their European colleagues, sending a message to Canada's Muslim community that a reasoned response to insults pays more dividends than a violent one is important too. The trick is not to betray your journalistic freedoms. We'll see if Canada's media maintains the balance, especially if the reaction from the Canadian Muslim community escalates dramatically.

So far, though, it seems like Canadian Muslims are playing by the rules, and the media is trying to recognize that.

[Complete list of posts on the topic of the Muhammad cartoons]