Opinion: Danish Cartoons are no Laughing Matter

The furore really blew up at the end of January, though I had first heard of the cartoons last autumn. My perspective at the time was a simple one, deriving from youth work practice: freedom of expression may be a treasured value in Western secular society, but it carries with it a responsibility to show some consideration for others. We have to think about its consequences.

Thus, in youth work, I always encourage young people to speak freely and openly. But when they do so in ways that prove offensive to others, I then suggest they refrain from speaking in that way again, particularly in similar contexts. Context is important, and I suggest to young people they think about other contexts in which styles of dress, speech, attitudes or behaviour might be equally negatively received. Sometimes they tell me they don't care, and I say they then have to live with the consequences.