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Muhammad cartoons in Clemson newspapers
The State ^ | Feb. 25, 2006 | JOHN C. DRAKE

Posted on 02/25/2006 11:15:17 AM PST by aomagrat

Two student newspapers at Clemson University have reprinted the controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, upsetting Muslim students on campus and drawing a rebuke from the school’s president.

The papers, the conservative Tiger Town Observer and the liberal Clemson Forum, are not funded by the school, but the Observer has an on-campus office.

In an open letter e-mailed to Clemson students and staff, president James Barker said he was disappointed that the papers printed the cartoons, which were first published in a Danish newspaper and have sparked deadly riots around the world.

“While I wholeheartedly support freedom of the press and the right of student media to operate independently of administrative oversight and censorship, student journalists must understand that with rights come responsibilities, including the responsibility to be respectful of different faiths and beliefs,” Barker wrote.

The letter said the cartoons were published in both papers Friday.

Mehmet Babacan, a student from Turkey who is president of Clemson’s Muslim Student Association, called the cartoons “disturbing.”

“I just can’t understand, what’s their aim?” he said. “Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”

He said the group planned to issue a formal statement.

Muslims believe any image of Muhammad is sacrilegious. One of six cartoons published in the Observer depicts the prophet with a bomb in his turban.

Andrew Davis, editor of the Tiger Town Observer, said the staff agreed unanimously to publish the cartoons because the mainstream media’s refusal to print them meant most of the public had not seen the drawings at the center of the controversy.

“We feel it is our duty as journalists to disseminate information to the public,” said Davis, a senior political science major from Surfside Beach.

Davis said both papers publish monthly. “This is our first issue since this whole fiasco has begun,” he said.

Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said he is aware of only one other newspaper in the state that published any of the cartoons: the Columbia City Paper, a seven-month-old, locally owned weekly.

That paper’s publisher, Paul Blake, said he felt the paper had a responsibility to print one of the cartoons to illustrate a column on the topic.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: cartoons; clemson; islam; muhammad
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Are the muslims going to riot in South Carolina?
1 posted on 02/25/2006 11:15:21 AM PST by aomagrat
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To: aomagrat
Are the muslims going to riot in South Carolina?

See my tagline.

2 posted on 02/25/2006 11:17:05 AM PST by Clint Williams (Why Islam? Jesus saves and Moses invests, but Mohammed's a riot.)
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To: aomagrat

I sure hope so (grin.)


3 posted on 02/25/2006 11:17:05 AM PST by zerosix (Native Sunflower and avid ironer)
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To: upchuck

SC ping!


4 posted on 02/25/2006 11:17:14 AM PST by Slings and Arrows ("I'd rather hunt with Cheney than drive with Kennedy." --fanfan)
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To: aomagrat

“Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”

Since when do Muslims have a genuine interest in understanding Americans?

If the Mohammedans attack Clemson students over cartoons, they will continue to prove what mindless and intolerant pigs they are.


5 posted on 02/25/2006 11:18:12 AM PST by Emmet Fitzhume (Mohammed was inspired by Satan; Read 2 Corinthians 11:14 for more information.)
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To: aomagrat
respectful of different faiths and beliefs

Does it ever reach the point, Mr. Barker, when a faith is unworthy of respect?

6 posted on 02/25/2006 11:18:22 AM PST by Minn
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To: aomagrat
Some students may be waking up to the understanding that the cartoon riots are not about intolerance for Islam. The cartoon riots are about Muslim intolerance for Western ideals.
7 posted on 02/25/2006 11:18:33 AM PST by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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To: aomagrat

The two papers both published the cartoons independently and simultaneously ?


8 posted on 02/25/2006 11:21:11 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT (islam is a mutant meme)
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To: zerosix
I sure hope so (grin.)

Make for a nice weekend.

9 posted on 02/25/2006 11:24:22 AM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: aomagrat
“While I wholeheartedly support freedom of the press

Way too many of these "I support freedom of speech BUT..." weasel statements being made. Either you support freedom of speech or you don't.

And the president of Clemson obviously doesn't.
10 posted on 02/25/2006 11:25:22 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: aomagrat
"“Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”"

Au contraire, mon ami. It should becoming more clear to them that we understand them perfectly. Further, that they will understand us more clearly as well.

11 posted on 02/25/2006 11:26:26 AM PST by Eastbound
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To: aomagrat
“I just can’t understand, what’s their aim?” he said. “Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”

Certainly it will.

It might just start that "dialog" that academics are always swooning over.

12 posted on 02/25/2006 11:28:08 AM PST by Madame Dufarge
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To: aomagrat

'Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”


Sure it will help your community understand---The First Amendment.


13 posted on 02/25/2006 11:29:42 AM PST by Mears (The Killer Queen-caviar and cigarettes.)
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To: aomagrat
Muslims believe any image of Muhammad is sacrilegious.

FALSE!

Muhammad has been pictured down the ages in song and in fable....his image is everywhere.

(Muhammad pics)

14 posted on 02/25/2006 11:33:05 AM PST by yoe
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To: ncountylee; zerosix

I'll be coming down for a *visit*.


15 posted on 02/25/2006 11:35:11 AM PST by butternut_squash_bisque (Borders, Language, Culture™)
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To: aomagrat
“I just can’t understand, what’s their aim?” he said. “Certainly it’s not going to help our community at all to understand each other.”

Here's the understanding: We're not going to change our society to conform to yours. That was the message in virtually every newspaper that printed the cartoons.

The only problem here is that the radicals don't want to hear this message and object violently at the concept.
16 posted on 02/25/2006 11:35:54 AM PST by kingu (Liberalism: The art of sticking your fingers in your ears and going NANANANA..)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Please add me to your SC ping list....I'm a sandlapper...


17 posted on 02/25/2006 11:41:54 AM PST by Cornpone (Who Dares Wins -- Defame Islam Today -- Tell the Truth About Mohammed)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek
Many in the communist, eastern-bloc nations 'supported' freedom of the press also... but it's the 'practice' of it that makes it REAL!
18 posted on 02/25/2006 11:43:03 AM PST by johnny7 (“Iuventus stultorum magister”)
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To: Cornpone; upchuck
Please add me to your SC ping list....I'm a sandlapper...

It's upchuck's list, not mine, but I'll ping him to your request.

19 posted on 02/25/2006 11:58:06 AM PST by Slings and Arrows ("I'd rather hunt with Cheney than drive with Kennedy." --fanfan)
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To: aomagrat

Clemson is a great town and a nice campus. It has a far more equitable balance of convservative and liberal views than most college campus. When both points of view are allowed equal access, guess which one comes out on top?


20 posted on 02/25/2006 11:58:41 AM PST by Vigilanteman (crime would drop like a sprung trapdoor if we brought back good old-fashioned hangings)
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