A Canadian newspaper has a new answer to the thorny editorial question of whether to reprint controversial cartoons of Muhammad, such as those that appear in France’s Charlie Hebdo: invite readers to “connect the dots” and draw Muhammad themselves.
The Journal de Montreal printed an editorial cartoon Tuesday under the heading: “Des caricatures de Mahomet dans le prochain Charlie Hebdo” (“the Muhammad cartoons in the next Charlie Hebdo). A half-finished drawing of Muhammad follows, with 32 dots that the reader is invited to connect, in implicit solidarity with the victims of last week’s terror attack: “Vous joindrez votre crayon aux leurs” (“You will join your pencil with theirs”).
The genius of the cartoon, by Marc Baudet, is that it allows the editors and readers of the Journal de Montreal to have it both ways: if they do not wish to offend Muslims, they do not need to finish the drawing; if they want to make a stronger statement, they may do so.
(The Journal de Montreal is sister to the Toronto Sun, whose cable network, Sun News, hosts the author as a U.S. contributor.)
Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party, available for Amazon Kindle.
Follow Joel on Twitter: @joelpollak