For those who may have been interested in yesterday’s story of apparent state sponsorship of Islamic religious practices at a public college in Minneapolis, there is a follow-up today provided by https://www.powerlineblog.com. It is reprinted below. Powerline, incidentally, is one of the most informed, thoughtful and analytically sound blogs anywhere in cyberspace. I commend it to those interested in taking an aggressive stance against terrorism, winning instead of surrendering in Iraq, and preserving our freedoms at home, including freedom of thought, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Today’s Powerline story on the Minneapolis college is as follows:

SHARIA DESCENDS IN MINNEAPOLIS

In her Star Tribune column yesterday Katherine Kersten reported on plans at Minneapolis Community Technical to accommodate Islamic ritual through the expenditure of MCTC funds to buy foot washers. One wonders how it can be that Islamic organizations can’t provide for the religious needs of local Muslims. One wonders if the point is not precisely to compel non-Muslims to submit. My post on Kathy’s column — “Welcoming Sharia in Minnesota” — elicited a message from the relative of a current student at MCTC noting a “controversy over, yes, publication of a cartoon critical of the prophet Muhammad. The short version is that a local cartoonist’s drawing was to be published and the Muslim student organization objected. Therefore, the cartoon was not published.” … Cartoonist Grant Goebel explains his thinking in a related column. Goebel writes:

The Prophet Muhammad is Fair Game

Is it bad that I still think this whole thing is funny? I mean, that’s the only reason you draw a comic strip; because you think it’s funny. If you were to ask me right now why I wanted to do a comic strip on the Prophet Muhammad, I would say, “Because I think it would be funny.” You may say, “I don’t think that it’s funny.” That’s fine. I don’t think ‘Family Circus’ is funny. People differ. You may then ask me “why do you think it’s funny?” As with any joke the answer is complicated, but it was summed up best by Krusty the Klown: “You always pie the guy in the suit.” You make jokes about people with dignity: The Principal, the President, the Pope, the Prophet. I mean, jokes about Jesus are hilarious. Another thing I’ve heard, even from people that like the joke, is “you’re asking for trouble.” Those of you who would prefer to not see this comic strip in print may take note; my friends were urging me to not even submit it. They were afraid. They may not admit it, but they see the reports of “Muslim Extremists” and they’ve watched that Chuck Norris movie with the plane-hijackers too many times and they think they should be afraid. To silence this debate with fear would only make them more secure in their belief that it is dangerous to say bad things about Muslims, because Muslims are dangerous. Obviously I do not feel the same way, but the fact that I’m not supposed to make jokes about the Prophet Muhammad is one of the main reasons that I think they’re funny. Again, you may not agree. But this is America. We have the right to free speech. That means that I have the right to make jokes, you have the right to call me an insensitive asshole and the paper has the right to feature both in print. I think they plan to. ###

They may have planned to, but they didn’t. For the moment we have to be thankful that Goebel can express such heterodox thoughts within the confines of Minneapolis Community Technical College.