Does this cartoon offend you? Personally it’s poorly done, there’s no joke there, and in general it’s insultingly terrible. Still, it’s a fucking cartoon, and should be no big deal, right? Well, not so much. Remember a few years back when a Danish Newspaper published cartoon depicting Mohammed, and the Muslim community basically had a fucking meltdown? Well, it seems as though there was another bit of news going on in the background at the time worth mentioning. The Arab European League published a cartoon during the affair with the intent of offending Jews by denying the Holocaust. Their goal was apparently to show that it’s not only Muslims that get upset over free speech issues, and sure enough it worked; the group is now being prosecuted under Holocaust denial laws.

I’ve always said Holocaust denial laws are both pointless and dangerous; while I am personally repulsed by the notion certain individuals choose to deny the atrocities committed by the Nazis, trying to use the long arm of the law to silence these people has exactly the opposite effect. It demonstrates Europe is incapable of living by the principle of free speech. The truth is when people are allowed to say what they want, occasionally they will say something horrible and offensive; it’s inevitable. How can we blame Muslims for overreacting to simple cartoons when we are prepared to jail people for making a few shitty scribblings?