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The Sheaf, the student newspaper at my university, got caught up over the whole Mohammed cartoon controversy. There were letters to the editor and debate back and forth about whether or not to print the cartoons in question or not. Eventually, a few weeks ago, they decided to play it safe and not print them (unlike the UPEI paper, which got halted when they did print them), and instead write a whole section filled with a series of articles and columns about the controversy. While I agreed with their decision not to print the comics, I didn't think they needed to tell us over and over that they weren't printing them, and this whole section was essentially flogging a dead horse. The editor-in-chief resigned because of this. He strongly believes in free speech, and felt the best thing to have done would have been to print the comics and bring the controversy to the forefront, rather than kill it with these articles. Bad enough.
But the controversy didn't stop there.
This past week, a cartoon was printed depicting Jesus Christ fellating an anthropomorphated pig (HERE). This has sparked outrage across campus and around the city. Peter Mackinnon, the president of the University, has made a public statement against the cartoon, and it hasn't stopped there. I'm suprised this hasn't hit the local news, but it probably will by Monday, and it might even go national. It's almost too bad Petey Mack hadn't been the Supreme Court nominee (as was rumoured), because then this would definitely get national coverage!
But this has caused huge outrage on campus, particularly from the Catholic college, and from many christians on campus. Already, two more writers have resigned. Many people have called for boycotts of the Sheaf and its advertisers (which, in my opinion, can't be blamed yet. They don't know what was to be published). Personally, I didn't find the comic particularly offensive, and I actually laughed at it. I can understand how offensive some people would find this, though. What I can't believe is the insane hypocrisy of the Sheaf, first refusing to publish the Mohammed cartoons so as not to offend, and then turning around and offering this. I can't believe it. I think I too will be boycotting the Sheaf, which is unfortunate, because it was the best toilet paper on campus.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the cartoon was published under a pseudonym, so few people know who actually drew it. I do.
