Cartoons On Both Sides

"The Jyllands Posten cartoons, while purporting to be some kind of gesture supporting the notion of free speech, are shot through with...racism... Not the kind of intense racism that leads to lynchings, but the soft kind, the kind that lots of middle-class people express to one another at dinner parties when they think nobody from an ethnic minority is there to hear...But 'butchering' someone for drawing a cartoon? Or claiming that 9/11 or 7/7 are appropriate responses, as other protestors did? That's both appalling and appallingly stupid....No one should be getting on their high horse about religious offense unless they're also prepared to be equally vehement about Muslim anti-semitism."

- Hari Kunzru's thoughts on the offensive representations of the Prophet.

Update: Meanwhile, in an article on the same subject which uses words such as "socio-economic-political elites" and "delegitimise", Sandhya Jain asserts: "Interestingly, Salman Rushdie received a staggering advance to demonize Ayatollah Khomeini for deposing the darling of American oil companies."

Huh?