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A conservative Canadian political magazine published eight of 12 controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a special edition Monday, prompting censure from Muslim leaders here.
Ezra Levant of the Calgary-based Western Standard told AFP he reprinted the "fairly innocuous" cartoons that outraged Muslims worldwide to support free speech and poke North American media which largely avoided the polemic.
"We're not publishing them for their editorial merits or because we share their views. They're actually boring compared to normal political cartoons, they're bland," he said.
"We're running them because we think the cartoons are the central artifact in the largest news story in the world this month, namely Muslim riots in response to them."
The cartoons were first published in Denmark in September and reprinted in several European newspapers in recent weeks, setting off protests and boycotts of Danish products.
Protesters in Syria and Beirut burned the Danish embassies.
Islam prohibits depictions of the Prophet on the grounds that it could promote idolatry.
Mohamed Elmasry, leader of the Canadian Islamic Congress, told The Globe and Mail newspaper that he would press for criminal charges to be laid against the magazine for distributing hate literature under Canadian law.
"It's unfortunate," said Elmasry, who had urged Levant not to publish the caricatures. "I think he really goes against the will and the values of Canadians by this provocative action."
Levant claimed most Canadian and US newspapers have not published the cartoons "out of fear", not out of respect for Islam.
In Canada, only one Francophone, one Jewish and one student newspaper published them. University officials quickly pulled the student tabloid off news stands.
Levant said the continent's newspapers would not hesitate to print material offensive to Christians or Jews because they would only write letters to the editor to express their disapproval.
"They don't bomb embassies and behead journalists," he told the public broadcaster CBC, noting security at the magazine's offices had been beefed up for the launch of this issue.
Levant told AFP he felt "a little scared" about possible violent reactions to the magazine's decision to publish the cartoons.
"I'm afraid, but not so afraid that I will renounce principles that I've believed in my whole life, namely freedom of speech," he said. "I'm not going to cower."
The Western Standard has some 40,000 readers across Canada and publishes every two weeks.
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Canada-Islam-Europe-cartoon-media
AFP 132106 GMT 02 06
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