Muhammad upsets UNC, 1-0

Although I have no love for the North Carolina Tar Heels (thanks to my fondness for Duke basketball), I can't believe that some local Muslims are angry over that institution's collegian cartoon depicting, you guessed it, everyone's favorite Martian, Muhammad. Or, maybe I can, considering the amount of recent stupidity. Via LGF, News14 Charlotte reports:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The Muslim Students Association at the University of North Carolina on Friday asked the campus' student newspaper to apologize for publishing an original cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

"The intention of bigotry was clear," the association wrote in a letter to The Daily Tar Heel. "One must question the DTH's ethics in advancing a widely protested issue to cause a riot of their own. The MSA not only found this cartoon derogatory but is also shocked at the editor's allowance of its publication -- one that incites hate in the current political and social context."

...The cartoon published in The Daily Tar Heel Thursday was drawn by a cartoonist at the paper, Philip McFee. It shows Muhammad appearing to decry both Denmark's role in the controversy and the violence that has erupted since.

Daily Tar Heel editor Ryan Tuck said the newspaper wanted to challenge fellow students to think about the issue. He said while he has apologized personally to individuals who told him the cartoon offended, the newspaper will not apologize. "The point of any cartoon in any newspaper is to challenge belief systems," Tuck said. "We knew it would offend, but that doesn't make it the explicit goal of the cartoon."

I can't figure out what is offensive about this cartoon. I think it is a very telling depiction of how some stupid Muslims may think showing Muhammad may be blasphemous, but the same stupid Muslims blowing up things and killing people is more blasphemous to their cause. And at the very least, the Daily Tar Heel had the stones to publish a cartoon when the national media has hidden the images. Well, of course, they should have listened, chimes in Margaret Jablonski, vice chancellor for student affairs at UNC-Chapel Hill:

"Many of our national media outlets chose not to publish the original pictures or cartoons and we believe our student paper should have used the same editorial judgement," Jablonski said.

Cluck. Pander. Cluck. Bravo, Daily Tar Heel.