Students to be disciplined for publishing Mohammed Cartoon

While the French establishment was leaping to the defence of Charlie Hebdo, the authorities at Clare College were considering taking disciplinary action against students who published one of the Mohammed cartoons in the college magazine. The magazine, Clareification, had been renamed Crucification for a special issue on religious satire.

According to the local paper, the student who wrote the piece containing the cartoon is in hiding and the college chaplain has met leaders of Cambridge University's Islamic society and local Imams in an attempt to reduce racial tension. 

This may just be a precaution but the college clearly has some concern that the cartoon might provoke a violent response from Muslims at the university or in the town.  Even so, most of the authorities' wrath has been directed at the students who produced the magazine. Clare College fellows have called for a Court of Discipline to be convened, something which has not happened for many years. Officials of the college, the students union and Cambridge University have queued up to condemn the publication of the cartoon.

Printing this cartoon may have been an irresponsible act but if you can't push the boundaries of free speech in an academic environment, where can you do it?  Universities are supposed to be places where people experiment, test ideas and think the unthinkable. If people are not free to defy conventions and make themselves unpopular in a university,  they will not be free to do so anywhere.  The university authorities should be saying that they disapprove of the cartoon and find it in poor taste but are nevertheless duty-bound to defend the students' right to publish it. 

The great and good in France may still appreciate the importance of defending free speech.  Cambridge University, the second oldest in the English speaking world, now seems to have other priorities.

Update: Local Muslim leaders have expressed outrage over the printing of the cartoon and are demanding public apologies from all the students involved. 

Update 2: Clare College has withdrawn funding for Clarification. The senior tutor, Patricia Fara, said:

The college finds the publication and the views expressed abhorrent. Reflecting the gravity of the situation, the college immediately began an investigation and disciplinary procedures are in train.

The National Secular Society (H/T: G. Tingey in the comments) has written to Ms Fara, to the college master, Professor Tony Badger, and to the president of the Students Union, Calum Davey, protesting about the proposed disciplinary action.

If you would like to do the same, the email addresses are:

The Master, Professor Tony Badger: 

master@clare.cam.ac.uk

The Senior Tutor, Dr Patricia Fara: 

pf10006@hermes.cam.ac.uk

Students' Union President, Calum Davey: 

cd361@cam.ac.uk

Please, if you do write, be polite. Diatribes of foul language do not help the cause of free speech. In any case, Tony Badger once had the unenviable task of trying to teach me American History, so he has suffered enough already.   

Comments

[B4L]

Do you know which particular cartoon was published in the magazine? The tone of the CEN article is extraordinary, so it would be good to be able to confirm it was in fact one of the milder ones.

[John O'Connor]

Are these appeasing academics the same people who, just before WW2 declared they would never fight on behalf of King and Country? They must be very old by now.

[alison]

LOL John. Mind you to think bloody Monty Python had its roots in Cambridge Uni. They should all be utterly ashamed.

[G. Tingey]

Try this?

http://jesusandmo.net/

and all the other cartoons here ...

Better still, dump a load at Clare college, and tell them not to be so stupid.

Does Clare College have a readily-available web-address for comments?

[BNP and me]

The religion of peace.

[G. Tingey]

Update:
The National Secular Society are sending a formal protest to the college principal.

[j0nz]

I just don't know what to say. I'm dismayed. And frustrated by the response of those levels of authority, wherever they be, who seem to treat anything to do with Islam or Muslims with golden kid gloves.

They appear to be coming down on the wrong side almost everytime.

No freedom to mock belief systems - well only if that belief system is Islam.

[ladycatnip]

I have a feeling that these same people who intend to discipline these college students for printing the Muhammad cartoon were supportive of the artistic expression of Maplethorpe's twisted denigration of Christ, or the virgin Mary out of elephant dung, or Piss Christ. Had they been as sensitive to offending the feelings of Christians worldwide, I wouldn't have a problem with their sensitivity to muslims.

[John C. Randolph]

Freedom of speech is a very important thing, and it's not to be abandoned just because some bloody thug threatens to behave like a bloody thug when you poke fun at his superstitions.

Perhaps it's not the wisest policy to acquiesce whenever someone throws a tantrum.

-jcr

[Bill Cross]

All of which is why I bought a case of Carlsburg beer (even though I favor wine versus beer) after the Danish Mo imbroglio.

[Guest]

Vilify Christians? No problem. Jews? No problem. Muslims? Big problem.

Cambridge is a state institution and therefore a state actor. Their actions clearly favor one religion, namely Islam, over all others. That is state establishment of religion.

Apparently these morons have never heard of the First Amendment, have they?

I hope the student gets a good lawyer and sues the crud out of these Islamofacist-appeasing barking moonbat academics.

PS Why Islamofacist? What other word accurately describes so-called Muslims who would threaten violence over a cartoon?

[Lithcol]

The motivation of the Cambridge university authorities probably has more to do with loads of Saudi money than it does for its proclaimed reasons.
What are our universities becoming? Indeed what is happening to our supine media?

[MoonbatBane]

Publish a cartoon -- a stinking cartoon -- of Mohammed, and Cambridge will drop a hammer on you.

However, feel free to host a conference accusing Israel of apartheid and Lord knows what else: http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2007%20News%20Archives/February/9%20n/University%20campuses%20in%20UK,%20USA%20and%20Canada%20launch%20Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week.htm

Yup, that Cambridge, they sure are a shining example of an institution of clear unbiased intellectual thought. NOT. Actually, they are a perfect example of the intellectual rot that has infected academia in America over the last couple decades.

[Peter]

Don't blame the state for succumbing to the threats of immigrant guests in their country...the people have a say in everything that has been happening since England decided to give away their country.

By allowing these adherers of the "Religion of Peace" to continuously slag the country and make death threats, you have asked for it and now you are receiving it.

How much more are you going to give away before citizens of your country that believe in your country are going to open their mouths to protest? I don't see any of that happens, therefore Dhimnitude will prevail in your country.

[P]

Is there any URL with the published material we can see before deciding to write the various authorities about a matter we're not fully informed about?

[voon]

I remember when i was an undergraduate we took for granted the freedom to say controversial things to make a point, even if sometimes it was just plain dumb. That was the Golden Age, before islam took over and determined the public dialogue. Funny thing, we always thought it would be the dreaded right wingers or capitalists who would take our freedom away - never dreamed it would be cowardly and pathetic university administrators.

[Jonny Newton]

Thanks for that invaluable info. I'm at Cambridge at the moment and just sent an email to the master of Clare giving my considered opinion.

[j0nz]

Good stuff Jonny, let us know if you get a reasoned response.

[mohammed_al_dura]

"Apparently these morons have never heard of the First Amendment, have they?"
_________

Actually, no. The Clare college is in Cambridge, UK and not Cambridge, Massachusetts. Brits don't have a First Amendment.

The nanny-state the British live in doesn't allow freedom of speech.

[Andy Gilmour]

"The nanny-state the British live in doesn't allow freedom of speech."

hmm.

Ever tried openly being an atheist/supporting abortion rights/gay marriage/etc in the US mid-west?

That can be an interesting lesson in the practical value of the first amendment...

motes & beams, I'm afraid.

I for one know that I can comment in public far more freely here in the UK...

Anyone has contacts within Clare College who can pass the cartoon on for bloggers to publicize? This is too important to be buried.

[Gabriel Hanna]

Ever tried openly being an atheist/supporting abortion rights/gay marriage/etc in the US mid-west?

There are millions of atheist/openly gay/supporting abortion rights/gay marriage Mid-Westerners.

Maybe Mr Gilmour could try visiting the Mid-West instead of operating on the basis of stereotypes.

Perhaps he's too busy rioting at soccer matches and eating fish and chips with his bad teeth to bother to inform himself about America. :)

Now, if he'd said that about the South, he'd have more of a case--as long as he exempted Charlotte, Atlanta, Austin, etc, etc.

Even in Anson County, North Carolina, I met an openly gay couple--and since they'd always lived in the area, their neighbors left them alone. My stepfather never understood it, despite having known one of them all his life--he assumed that the guy turned gay because his wife let herself go, and we could never convince him that wasn't it.

[Gabriel Hanna]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=410150&in_page_id=1770

A teenage schoolgirl was arrested by police for racism after refusing to sit with a group of Asian students because some of them did not speak English.

This, Mr Gilmour, happened only in October of 2006, in Manchester.

In the United States, sir, the police will not arrest you for anything you say, whether it is pro-gay, pro-abortion, whatever, not even in "the Mid-West".

The reason that I know you know nothing whatever about America beyond stereotypes, is because you use "the Mid-West" as the land of backward Jesus-lovers.

But an American, who wanted to say what you said, would have said "the South". Because an American knows the Mid-West better than that.

I myself hail from the Pacific Northwest. But I lived in the South and in the Mid-West for a time, you see.

[Rastaman]

"Printing this cartoon may have been an irresponsible act"

Awww Steve, COME ON! Only in England would it ever be considered "an irresponsible act" because you are all so dhimmified.

How can you even give that much lip service to the muslim bastards? If you believe in freedom of speech, then you know damned good and well that printing those Mo cartoons is a PUBLIC SERVICE. Unless, of course, you're hedging your bets so some bomb-belter doesn't show up on your doorstep, huh?

How many of you are too scared to wear a tee shirt with the Mohammed Bomb-head cartoon on it in public? The answer is, every single one of you. That's what you've let them do to you.

You have no freedom of speech. You no longer have a clue what freedom of speech even is, with your stupid religious hatred laws and your overweening nicey-nicey, don't dare step on any toesy-woesies political correctness.

The muslims would stop taking over your country if you'd stop kissing their asses and fight back instead of cowering behind your bullshit pacifism as if it was mommys dress.

Rastaman the Free

[BNP and me]

Hey rastaman, i have worn that exact tee shirt with a splodin mo head on it (you can see a photo of me wearing it here)

http://bnpandme.blogspot.com/2006/03/support-from-far-away.html

And whats more, i have worn it while out leafleting for the BNP :) The far left guy who barged past me didnt seem to see the funny side :)