As editors of Victoria College student paper The Strand defend their decision to publish an editorial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus kissing just before reading week, representatives of the Muslim Students’ Association are calling on administrators and students to take action.
“There is responsibility along with free speech,” Safiyyah Ally, communications director for the MSA, “It reflects a lack of understanding of issues on campus, and people want us to take a more aggressive stance. There was Know Radical Islam week, and then the cartoons, people want to know, what’s next?”
Messages sent out to the MSA’s email list this week urged members to express their disapproval of the cartoon’s publication by writing letters both to The Strand and to admin, but also expressed some appreciation toward the administration for its commitment to organizing several educational initiatives on Sunday.
For many students, however, frustration is still felt far more than gratitude.
“I haven’t had many times where people came into my office and just started crying,” said SAC president Paul Bretscher in the aftermath of the publication.
“There is a deep sense of hurt, and there is also anger,” said Ally. “We have been trying to calm people and make them feel like they are taking an active role. Muslims on campus feel that their faith is not being taken seriously. They feel marginalized and victimized; they feel that they have lost their voice. Someone even posted the cartoon on the MSA door.”
Meanwhile, editors of The Strand attempted to clear the air over the issue of responsibility.
“I didn’t personally make, or even have a great deal of influence over, the decision to publish the cartoon,” said Nick Ragaz, managing editor of The Strand. “Some media take a much less subtle view of Islam than The Strand. We didn’t set out to hurt or attack anyone. We were only fulfilling our responsibility as a paper.”
“It was a full editorial board decision,” said Strand co-Editor-in-Chief Karen Whaley. When asked if she was still happy that they printed it, she replied, “In my personal opinion, absolutely.”
The February issue of the paper featured a cartoon of Jesus and Prophet Muhammad entering a “Tunnel of Tolerance” together. The cartoon was originally commissioned by The Varsity, but editors decided not to publish the cartoon after it was submitted.
Although it has received much criticism and negative response, Victoria University president P. W. Gooch supported The Strand’s decision to “inform and invoke discussion.”
“We can’t live by religious taboos,” said Ragaz. “I respect the faith a great deal, but people should be capable of drawing their own conclusions. SAC accused us of attacking Muslims on campus, and that accusation is hard to take since that is not what we were out to accomplish.”
On Ragaz’s personal website, www.livefreeordie.ca, his mission statement reads, “We believe that personal individual freedom can be maintained only by living with a sense of civic responsibility, compassion, and moral justice.”
When the cartoon was originally published, the MSA sent out an official statement to their members condemning its publication.
“When I saw it, I felt like crying,” said Ally. “There is a great deal of ignorance on campus-we don’t have enough engagement with other groups and that’s unfortunate. We are not against free speech. This cartoon doesn’t violate policy but it does not create an environment where civil discourse can thrive, and within these constraints it limits free speech.”
