It should not be necessary, but just to make it perfectly clear, I do believe in freedom of expression and freedom of speech and I do not think it is a good idea to kill others over religious believes (or other believes for that matter…)
I don’t want to go into the current reprinting, but I would like to take a look back to the original cartoons controversy.
In Universitetsavisen issue 2 from February 2006 on page 24 (the very last page) there is a story of how in 2003 (two years before the printing of the Mohammad cartoons) Jyllands-Posten politely rejected a few cartoons of the resurrection of Jesus.
The rejection was motivated by this (my rough translation):
Thank you for the offer. I don’t think the readers of Jyllands-Posten would be amused by that drawing. Actually I think it would provoke an outcry. That is why I wont use it.
So when cartoons make fun of Jesus and the average reader of the paper might be offended the wish to challenge the freedom of speech is none existent. But when it came to provoke a minority, it was all done in the name of free speech.
Again, I’m not trying to challenge the fact that Jyllands-Posten can print what ever they might like, and I’m not defending the voiltent reactions that have followed – but it seems to me that challenging your own culture and religious dogma seems somehow more brave than poking fun at someone else’s.