It's funny. There are times when I feel there is nothing to write about, and then there are times when it is obvious to me what to write about, but I'm not sure why. This is my internal state during this post about the cartoon that is being published in Europe about Mohammed, one that has set off a fury in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities in Europe.
My gut feeling about this was like a lot of ones I read on the BBC website: This was a privately held newspaper published in a secular country that has no reason to follow Islamic Law. From the point of view of principles, I am a big believer in Freedom of Speech, and the newspapers have every right to publish carcicature.
But there is another side to this which interests me; is this an interesting case study in management? The economic consequences for Denmark, the country of origin, have been noticable with boycotts of their products through out the Middle East, not to mention the threats to Danish domestic safety. Threats to physical saftey are never warranted, but the economic response is certainly within the rights of Muslim citizens who feel insulted. It's one thing for westerners to shrug and say that the Muslim world needs to lighten up and join the 21st century, but with the Internet, nothing is local, certainly nothing as incindiary as a visual image of Mohammed is to the Muslim community. (And that is a huge taboo that any one with a bone basic knowledge of Islam should have)
Is this an instance in which a company is paying for doing the right thing? Does this mean that not publishing the cartoon was the wrong thing? If you were the editor of that newspaper, would you have made the same decision? Was the principle worth the price, especially if it cost members of their families and their neighbors their jobs due to a decrease in demand for their country's goods?
