Bouquets and Brickbats

With the ongoing Muhammad Cartoons saga some further bouquets and brickbats.

The bouquet is to the organisers and participants in the 800 strong Queen Street protest, protesting over the publications. It was peaceful, non-threatening and targetted at the media who made the decision – not the country. If people are upset and offended by a cartoon they should let it be known that they are offended. The issue overseas has been that the entire country of Denmark has been held to ransom, which changed the debate from a debate about a series of cartoons to one of media freedoms.

This is beyond the grasp of our Prime Minister who gets a brickbat for saying the publication is not a matter concerning liberty. Well if this is not a matter concerning press freedom and liberty I can’t think of any issue in the last 40 years which has been.

A brickbat to our Foreign Minister, Rt Hon Winston Peters, for saying the Dom Post has insulted the entire Arab world. Can someone at MFAT tell him the difference between Arabs and Muslims and point out there are Christian Arabs etc.

Back to bouquets a big one to the Pakistan Association general secretary Impaz Khan who is writing to 52 Muslim countries urging them not to boycott NZ products.

Thanks to Mr Khan and others I’m dropping my plans to publish a new cartoon every-time an Embassy is burnt down out of respect for the Muslim community in New Zealand who have put up with enough crap due to overseas extremists.

UPDATE: The Press has an excellent editorial on the issue.