It's not often the people of Denmark get to spark off an multinational diplomatic incident, so I'm guessing they must be pretty pleased with themselves tonight.

The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten has got itself into a lot of trouble by publishing a collage of cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, something that a lot of Muslims - who don't like to see their prophet represented on paper - are getting very cross about. The ambassadors of several Muslim countries have been making complaints, people in Pakistan have gone on strike, and the usual death-threats have been made. Interestingly, protesters have been burning Danish dairy products, which says something at least for their determination. Immolating a pint of semi-skimmed must present a considerable challenge for even the most experienced Jihadi.

According to the Wikipedia article I've linked above, the paper's culture editor has this to say:

The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with temporal democracy and freedom of speech, where you must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule. It is certainly not always equally attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is less important in this context. [...] we are on our way to a slippery slope where no-one can tell how the self-censorship will end. That is why Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Muhammad as they see him. [...]

A virtuous weakness of post-Enlightenment western culture is that it has no mechanism for dealing with heresy against itself. If a Catholic stood up in the middle of mass and said,

hang on - I'm worshipping a biscuit. Am I bonkers? Let's drop this crazy biscuit veneration and just enjoy the cool things about religion, like jumble sales and Friday night discos for the kiddies!

he'd be chucked out as punishment for his refusal to accept the whole package of his faith. In a western democracy I can take advantage of Enlightenment-derived freedom of religion to believe any crazy old shit I like - (the biscuit will save us from sin!) - but if I decide not to subscribe to the whole package of live-and-let-live attitudes I'm not denied their protection.

I'm not arguing for any sort of militancy, because you only have to read the comment pages of The Guardian these days to realise that liberal fascism is only marginally preferable to theocracy. But let's not be afraid of using the tools the Enlightenment gave us to defend the whole project. Let's stick up for Voltaire, for Locke, Tom Paine and for Gibbon. And let's, the next time religionists tell us what we can and can't print and Tony Blair tries to gag us all with his foolish religious hatred bill, celebrate our freedom of speech with a raspberry and a grand 'fuck you'.