Muslim attorney defends student editor who published Mohammed cartoons

The irony of his being a Muslim lawyer defending a publisher of the heavily villified Mohammed cartoons is not lost on Mr. Affeef. However, he still believes defending Mr Gordon is the right choice: "I readily admit that it is ironic. However, strange though it may be, it is the right thing to do."

Mr. Afeef additionally asserts that his actions will be important to show people "there are indeed devout and reasonable Muslims in the world." 

He acknowledges that the Mohammed cartoons offended him as a Muslim, but that simultaneously he was "offended by the whole brouhaha that erupted after the cartoons’ publication."

Mr. Afeef asserts that his defense of Mr. Gordon is a defense of First Amendment rights and by extension a defense of the Muslim community in the US whose First Amendment rights are under threat tin the context of the war on terror.

Mr. Afeef writes: "By defending Acton I am defending First Amendment rights. In responding to the cartoon controversy many Muslims in the West, and particularly in the United States, seem to have forgotten that our community is suffering an ongoing curtailment of our First Amendment rights. Too many people in the post-9/11 world are ready to abdicate these and other fundamental rights in the hopes of greater physical security. There is evidence of the erosion of First Amendment rights of Muslims everywhere."  

He adds that because his defnce of First Amendment rights is universal he must support the right of newspapers to reprint the cartoons: "I object to … curtailments of the First Amendment. As a matter of principle then, I must also object to any attempts to censor the republication of the cartoons. To demand unfettered free speech only when it suits me would be hypocritical."

Source: In Flanders Fields, Beliefnet