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I had resisted posting the cartoons for some time now. I do not care to insult moderate Muslims. However, the Islamofascists do more to injure those who are peaceful within Islam than any silly cartoons ever could. There is an issue here that goes beyond being polite. The extremists are demanding our submission to their oppressive code. They do not seek compromise by reasoned dialogue and tolerance, but rather, violent acts and threats of more to come are the method and the desire is for total subjugation. I will not submit.

Part of my decision was motivated by the prospect of dhimmitude that the Islamofascists desire for the world as coverd by this op-ed.

Cartoon rage

This is the lesson of Cartoon Rage 2006, a cultural nuke set off by an Islamic chain reaction to those 12 cartoons of Muhammad appearing in a Danish newspaper. We have watched the Muslim meltdown with shocked attention, but there is little recognition that its poisonous fallout is fear. Fear in the State Department, which, like Islam, called the cartoons unacceptable. Fear in Whitehall, which did the same. Fear in the Vatican, which did the same. And fear in the media, which have failed, with few, few exceptions, to reprint or show the images. With only a small roll of brave journals, mainly in Europe, to salute, we have seen the proud Western tradition of a free press bow its head and submit to an Islamic law against depictions of Muhammad. That's dhimmitude.

Read the whole thing for a summary of the historical record of this Islamic doctrine.

I have also considered the actions and comments by moderate Muslims as they react to the barbaric violence. The Brussels Journal has been covering this crisis in depth and brings us this:

excerpt:

Walid al-Kubaisi, a Muslim writer living in Norway, appeals to the Western media to run the twelve Muhammad cartoons published last September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Mr al-Kubaisi said in a Norwegian newspaper yesterday that although he thought it was madness of Jyllands-Posten and of the Norwegian paper Magazinet, which republished the cartoons last month, to have published them, he would definitely publish them today if he were a newspaper editor. Mr al-Kubaisi explained that Islamists fanatics are currently trying to limit freedom of expression in the West. Consequently editors have an obligation to stand up to them and publish the cartoons.

“The only way to protect freedom of expression is for as many newspapers as possible in Europe to publish the cartoons. The Islamists cannot boycott the whole world. They cannot ask the whole world to apologize,” Mr al-Kubaisi told the Norwegian press yesterday. Asked if this would not make matters worse he said: “On the contrary, it will ease tensions.”

I had also covered in a previous post, a Muslim organization (Free Muslims Coalition) that critized the violence and calls for censorship, as well as a Muslim editor in Jordan who published three of the cartoons.

I wanted to show the people why they were so furiously protesting in the streets, as these are only a few silly pictures. I thought it might defuse the situation a bit if people saw the actual cartoons.” [...] “These pictures are really insulting to us. I myself was not happy when I saw them [ ] But to react to them in such an extreme way is a big mistake and can be as foolish. That is what I wanted to make clear.”

Unfortunately he was dismissed and is now in jail, unsure of his fate.

With all of this in mind I have decided to post the cartoons here and add my blog to Michelle Malkin's THE MUHAMMAD CARTOONS BLOGBURST

Finally, before we get to the "offensive" images, there is the Mohammed Image Archive, which shows that throughout history, the West and even Islam have not followed the prohibition against depicting Mohmmaed.

And now, here are the cartoons that supposedly started it all. Click on the images to see them full size.