Here (via Rod Dreher) is Professor Myers (the man at the center of the controversy over Communion wafers) writing a year or so back on the ‘Mohammed’ cartoons:
I’ve seen the cartoons, and they are crude and uninteresting—they are more about perpetuating stereotypes of Muslims as bomb-throwing terrorists than seriously illuminating a problem. They lack artistic or social or even comedic merit, and are only presented as an insult to inflame a poor minority. I don’t have any sympathy for a newspaper carrying out an exercise in pointless provocation.
To be fair, Myers qualifies those comments (his whole post ought to be read), but I’d be fascinated to know when exactly he thinks that a provocation is “pointless” or not. Those Danish cartoons were anything but “pointless” – as the reaction to them showed. His own childish stunt, however…
Speaking of stunts, we then find this from the Catholic League, apparently troubled by the thought that Myers’ Minnesotan hordes live too close to comfort to the upcoming Republican convention:
As a result of the hysteria that Myers’ ilk have promoted, at least one public official is taking it seriously. Thomas E. Foley is chairman of Virginia’s First Congressional District Republican Committee, a delegate to the Republican National Convention and one of two Republican at large nominees for Virginia’s Electoral College. His concern is for the safety of Catholics attending this year’s Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Myers’ backyard. Accordingly, Foley has asked the top GOP brass to provide additional security while in the Twin Cities so that Catholics can worship without fear of violence. Given the vitriol we have experienced for simply exercising our First Amendment right to freedom of speech, we support Foley’s request.
While churchgoers are, of course, are fully entitled to worship uninterrupted by attention-seekers, jerks or worse (and should be fully protected in the exercise of this right), these comments appear more than a touch over-heated. Some indeed might say that they are an example of ‘victim’ politics at their most tediously grating.
An earlier comment by the League’s William Donohue provides additional context: “Myers, ” he warns, “has quite a following among the King Kong Theory of Creation gang.” I’m not entirely sure what the ‘King Kong theory of Creation’ may be (personally I’m a subscriber to the Fay Wray theory of evolution), but Mr. Donohue should rest assured that I, for one, will be keeping any eye out for any sinister-looking paleontologists, roaming through Lake Wobegon and armed, perhaps, with a sharpened fossil or two.