The Prophet Muhammad has a bomb on the top of his head.

Oh, wait — now he’s in a police-style line-up.

It’s so funny to see Muhammad turning suicide bombers away from the Gates of Paradise.

Ha Ha Ha (Sarcastic laugh — possibly slow hand claps as well.)

Last week, European newspapers reprinted editorial cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in “silly” situations in the name of pushing the boundaries of censorship; however, they did not take into account, or perhaps they did, that creating drawings of the Prophet Muhammad is one of the most insulting forms of blasphemy against the Islamic religion.

We have been asked why we have not reprinted the cartoons and have even been dared to do so. We do not see a point in reprinting these offensive cartoons and are against the idea behind their creation and original publications.

European newspapers, to test whether they censored themselves about subject matter relating to Islam, printed these cartoons with the attitude that Muslims should be able to understand and appreciate satire. Great move European newspapers — that worked out really well.

One publication that ran the cartoons, France Soir, defended the cartoons by saying they showed “religious dogma” has no place in a secular society. That was before the riots. France Soir has since retracted that statement and has fully apologized for the cartoons’ publication and whatever distress it caused.

We don’t feel that newspapers should act like the Duke brothers in the comedy classic Trading Places — gambling on things that could affect people’s lives in very serious ways.

Freedom of speech is one of the greatest rights individuals in a free society possess, but that doesn’t mean we should always invoke it. We, as journalists, have a responsibility to make sure the ways we do express ourselves are not hateful or dangerous to others. This responsibility is something these European newspapers have obviously forgotten. They, in the hopes of furthering their own pursuits, have lost track of a newspaper’s purpose — to inform.

These publications, and any other that would so thoughtlessly gamble with people’s lives and faith, need to realign their goals to ensure their freedom of speech is not so callously thrown around. In the long run, hiding behind freedom of speech is like anything else that is used over and over again in foolish situations–it loses its validity, and nobody wants that to happen.