NewsBreakingOnline

Wiley Miller’s comic strip Non Sequitur is not a conservative strip. Right before the 2008 election , one of his characters was told that making up the news was illegal, and she replied “You don’t see Rupert Murdoch in prison, do you?” But Washington Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander reported Sunday that the Post censored Miller’s “Where’s Muhammad?” Sunday strip for October 3 – even though there was no image of the Muslim prophet in the art work.  Alan Gardner of The Daily Cartoonist (who has the image) reports the Post was apparently not alone:  readers also reported a substituted strip at many major dailies, including the Arizona Republic, Arizona Star, Austin American-Statesman, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Daytona Beach News-Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Salt Lake Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, and Syracuse Post-Standard. The joke caption for “Where’s Muhammad?” was “Picture book least likely to ever find a publisher.” The Post ombudsman said editors were wrong to pull the cartoon: Editors at The Post and many other papers pulled the cartoon and replaced it with one that had appeared previously. They were concerned it might offend and provoke some Post readers, especially Muslims. Miller is known for social satire. But at first glance, the single-panel cartoon he drew for last Sunday seems benign. It is a bucolic scene imitating the best-selling children’s book “Where’s Waldo?” A grassy park is jammed with activity. Animals frolic. Children buy ice cream. Adults stroll and sunbathe. A caption reads: “Where’s Muhammad?” Miller’s cartoon is clearly a satirical reference to the global furor that ensued in 2006 after a Danish newspaper invited cartoonists to draw the prophet Muhammad as they see him. After the cartoons were published, Muslims in many countries demonstrated against what they viewed as the lampooning of Islam’s holiest figure. Miller’s Sunday drawing also keyed on “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day!,” a free-speech protest this year by cartoonists responding to what was widely interpreted as a death threat from an Islamic cleric against two animators who depicted Muhammad wearing a bear suit in an episode of the “South Park” television show. If enough cartoonists drew Muhammad, protest organizers reasoned, it would be impractical to threaten all of them. What is clever about last Sunday’s “Where’s Muhammad?” comic is that the prophet does not appear in it. Still, Style editor Ned Martel said he decided to yank it, after conferring with others, including Executive Editor Marcus W. Brauchli, because “it seemed a deliberate provocation without a clear message.” He added that “the point of the joke was not immediately clear” and that readers might think that Muhammad was somewhere in the drawing. Some readers accused The Post of censorship. “Cowards,” e-mailed John D. Stackpole of Fort Washington, one of several who used that word. Miller is fuming. The award-winning cartoonist, who lives in Maine, told me the cartoon was meant to satirize “the insanity of an entire group of people rioting and putting out a hit list over cartoons,” as well as “media cowering in fear of printing any cartoon that contains the word ‘Muhammad.’ ” “The wonderful irony [is that] great newspapers like The Washington Post, that took on Nixon . . . run in fear of this very tame cartoon, thus validating the accuracy of the satire,” he said by e-mail. Through an apparent oversight, the “Where’s Muhammad?” cartoon was put on The Post’s Web site . Brauchli said he was unaware, adding, “Ideally, we wouldn’t have done that if we withheld it from print.” Oddly, The Post published a similar cartoon by Miller at the height of the Danish cartoon controversy in 2006. It showed a street artist next to a sign reading: “Caricatures of Muhammad While You Wait!” Alexander found that the Post editors didn’t go to the official Muslim sensitivity groups to ask if it was offensive to Muslims. Outrage there? Nope.   “The reference [to Muhammad] in this case was so vague that I don’t even know if offense comes into it,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based group that combats stereotyping of Islam and Muslims. The Post should always consider the religious sensitivities of readers. But in this case, I think editors were wrong to withhold the cartoon.