AP: Borders, Waldenbooks Won't Carry Free Inquiry Issue

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Mar 29, 7:36 PM EST

Borders, Waldenbooks Won't Carry Magazine

By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries.

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The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with a lit fuse.

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"What is at stake is the precious right of freedom of expression," said Paul Kurtz, editor-in-chief of Free Inquiry. "Cartoons often provide an important form of political satire ... To refuse to distribute a publication because of fear of vigilante violence is to undermine freedom of press - so vital for our democracy."

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"We absolutely respect our customers' right to choose what they wish to read and buy and we support the First Amendment," Bingham said. "And we absolutely support the rights of Free Inquiry to publish the cartoons. We've just chosen not to carry this particular issue in our stores."

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called that censorship.

A merchant who chooses not to stock something as inventory for sale, it is not engaging in censorship.

That's censorship.

Luckily I got my issue in the mail a couple of days ago. I'm looking at the cartoons right now. In 3 of them, no way can the casual observer identify the picture as an image of Mohhamed. The fourth, possibly, but it's a stretch. A guy in a turban and robes telling a line of suicide bombers, "Stop, stop. We ran out of virgins."

to pull one issue of the shelves because they don't like something that is in the issue - thats not censorship?

They are hurting the circulation of the publication, they are keeping a viable product from the free market place, they are hurting the publisher and they are restricting access to a publication. How is this not censorship?

Why don't they just tear the offending page from each issue? Then at least the publisher would not be hurt. Unless of course that is one the aims of keeping the issue from the shelves.

I am not saying that the store owner does not have a right to do this - just that it is a form of censorship with very real consequences. Consider it analogus to keeping naked breasts out of superbowl halftime shows.

I am not going to argue the politcal correctness of the cartoon - it is clearly offensive to a certain segment of the population.

But be honest about what these people are doing. Censorship is censorship is it not?

In a free market (which we still supposedly have, at least with regards to major corporations like Waldenbooks), merchants are free to do remove items from inventory and not sell them any time they want. Whether or not it hurts them or the producers of said items is entirely irrelevant. Unless the government or a government agent is telling them what to do, it does not meet the legal definition of censorship.

is simply my personal viewpoint and has no relation to the politcal climate and culture. I see. There is no connection unless it is written and filed in triplicate. Ok - I feel better now.

The "fringe element" these cartoons are supposed to lampoon are not true Muslims, any more than Jerry Falwell is a true Christian.

That said, where's the cartoon of JESUS in "cammies," backing up Bush while he fights terrorism? Offensive? You bet, and I'm not even a CHRISTIAN.

This is becoming a strawman.

Maybe they pulled it because Christopher Hitchens is in it!

:evilgrin:

What purpose do they serve?

I think the recent show of extremism in such matters may be good for our democracy. Sometimes you have to see the irony in an idea to know it is a bad one.