The Muhammad Cartoon War

Powder Keg Cartoons

Please forgive the following analogies. But would European newspapers have reprinted cartoons of the pope suggesting he was having anal sex with choirboys [Mossback, "The Muhammad Cartoon War," Feb. 8]? Would the Philadelphia Inquirer have reprinted a cartoon of Martin Luther King Jr. as a happy slave in a watermelon patch? Would magazines in the West have pictured Jesus in an Israeli army uniform using an Uzi to mow down Palestinian children?

Get real. The reason that publications in the West have reprinted cartoons of the prophet Muhammad is because, in today's political climate, it is OK (in some circles) to attack Muslims and Arabs. During World War II, in Nazi Germany, it was OK to attack Jews. In certain parts of the Islamic world, it is still OK to attack Jews. During World War II, in the U.S., it was OK to attack Japanese.

From my perspective, it is OK to treat people with dignity. It is OK to have respect for other people's religions. It is OK to choose not to republish cartoons that are insensitive and racist and inflame situations that are already powder kegs.

Steve "Habib" Rose
Seattle

Save Your Soul

Re ". . . an important contrast between ourselves and the jihadists who have attacked us" [Mossback, "The Muhammad Cartoon War," Feb. 8]: Is Seattle Weekly going to publish the cartoons or not? That would be a hell of a contrast between our attackers and us. Maybe you printed them last week—did I miss them? If you don't, uggh; I would hate to think that the Weekly's going to just fob this off on Wikipedia.

Where is all this courage Knute Berger writes about—especially after that rousing editorial (padded, however, with odd and irrelevant moral-equivalence fluff about charters and the Bush administration's eavesdropping, spying, and detaining—as if we weren't in a war for our very skin)?

Print the cartoons, Knute. Save your journalistic soul.

Doug Anderson
Seattle

No Sonics Handout

I appreciated "The Sonics' Venue Envy" [Feb. 1] by Rick Anderson. It is important that somebody is asking questions about a potential KeyArena expansion that would require extending current tax increases.

From my perspective, this situation is a no-brainer. The Sonics say they can't make money. Fine—let them lay off employees, cut salaries, reduce management positions, or raise prices. These are the same exact things we would expect from any other private corporation that can't turn a profit.

I'm reasonably certain that Howard Schultz is a man who celebrates free-market economies. If we tried regulating caffeine amounts in coffee, I'm sure he would complain that government shouldn't interfere in the free market. How is this any different?

There is just no compelling reason for this massive corporate handout. I hope the citizens, our City Council, and our state legislators come to the same conclusion.

David Minear
Seattle

Eyes Wide Open

If Howard Schultz moves the Sonics to Bellevue, the residents of Seattle should charge him a license fee to keep the name Seattle SuperSonics—and for continuing to use the likeness of the Space Needle in their logo ["The Sonics' Venue Envy," Feb. 1].

Why should we give a rat's ass if 58 multimillionaires and billionaires are losing money from a business deal they went into with eyes wide open? The words that accurately describe their greed are too vulgar for Seattle Weekly to print

Jeff Reifman
Seattle

Clouseau of Reviewers

Just from the awful coming-attraction previews, I'd agree that it wasn't a great career move for Steve Martin to try to revive the Pink Panther franchise [Film Calendar, Feb. 8]. But labeling Peter Sellers' original Pink Panther, and by extension the classic A Shot in the Dark or even Return of the Pink Panther, as "old mediocrities" leaves Michelle Reindal looking like the "Clouseau" of all film reviewers.

Dick Sanders
Kent

It's a Cult

I'd like to thank Neal Schindler for writing a review of What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole [This Week's Attractions, Feb. 1]. Finally, someone has the guts to call JZ Knight's school what it is— a cult. As a former member of her "school," I can personally testify that her movies are nothing but recruitment tools.

Mathew Morrell
Kansas City, MO

Lakeside's Mistake

In "Old-School Headache" [Mossback, Feb. 1], Knute Berger gives us the following information about Lakeside: The school, with the aid of alum Bill Gates, is (1) greatly expanding financial aid so that it can choose its students without regard to ability to pay, (2) making a concerted effort to hire minority faculty, and (3) trying to incorporate diversity issues into the curriculum in a meaningful way.

Gee, that sounds pretty worthwhile, but wait! Berger comes not to praise Lakeside but to scold it for rescinding a speaking invitation to Dinesh D'Souza. In my opinion, D'Souza's book The End of Racism is racist, and not that far off from the characterization Berger quotes likening D'Souza to a Holocaust denier. I suspect that D'Souza's talk would reasonably offend most African-American students and faculty at the school, not to mention many others. Berger seems to think this would make for a good healthy debate, but like inviting an intelligent-design proponent to a biology class or a Holocaust denier to a class on the Holocaust, it would serve no useful purpose.