Berkley Breathed, author of the Opus comic strip, decided to poke a little fun at Islamic radicalism in his latest installments.

Too bad you probably won't see it.

The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus' host paper The Washington Post.

I'm somewhat on the fence about this one. I've read the strip at Salon.com and its about what I've come to expect from Opus--a sophomoric attempt at humor, but not obviously offensive in any way I can tell.

Its a little easy to get off track on this issue because of the Danish cartoon controversy and the apparently successful intimidation of the news media by irate and potentially violent Muslims. While its important that a free press not be intimidated out of reporting stories in the public interest, serious newspapers don't print the equivalent of Polish jokes.

The Opus strip is quite transparently a mockery of Islamic values. While not particularly offensive in my view, it is nevertheless in bad taste and I can't really be too critical of a newspaper that chooses not to run the strips.

Pajamahadin :

This proves once again that the most effect means to gain the mainstream media's "respect" for your religion is to back it up with a credible threat of violence.