In a similar vein: The bishop of Iceland made a controversial statement about the civil rights of gays a few weeks ago. Should we allow our concern for the bishop's feelings to outlaw any kind of discussion about gay people's rights to religious marriage?
As far as I know, gays having any kind of civil rights will offend fundamentalist Christians, be they in Iceland or elsewhere. If these people came forward with vandalism against reporters who write on gay rights or artists who include gay people in their artwork, would we Icelanders be willing to succumb to the violence and make gay people and their lives a taboo in order not to offend a particular religion?
Peaceful demonstrations and dialogue are not religious bullying. Death threats and acts of violence are. By giving in to religious bullying we are only asking for an escalation of the problem. I think that this is the road down which we are headed if we go with the claims that publishing these cartoons was wrong. In a society with free speech, you have to accept the fact that at some point you are going to get offended. You might not like everything that you see and hear, but you do not have the right to prevent people from expressing their believes and ideas. If one group comes forward and bullies the rest of society into following their particular rules, we won't have to wait long until another one does so, and then another and another. Where will multiculturalism be then?
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