The owner of the French newspaper, France Soir has fired his managing editor for putting up the Danish cartoons, BBC reported. So one of the most hopeful signs of French backbone is immediately broken by capitulation:

But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc “as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual”.

Mr Lakah said: “We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication.”

Hell, even Reporters without Borders gets this one according to the BBC:

Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world “betrays a lack of understanding” of press freedom as “an essential accomplishment of democracy.”

I can’t find this statement at the Reporters without Borders site.

In the meantime, owner Lakah got this one exactly wrong. In the world of honor and shame, he has lost face and showed weakness (cowardice), and in this case that reading is also true from the point of view of modern moral integrity and the defense of what the French revolution made one of the universal rights of mankind (#11).

The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined by law.

The man has no honor from any angle. He acts on the suicidal European adherence to moral condescension dressed in the language of false respect. What combination of cowardice and stupidity are we dealing with? Will Europe pass its own dhimmi laws and make criticism of Muslims via cartoons an abuse of freedom of speech? (I doubt they’ll give up attacking Jews and Israel in their cartoons.)

Come on Europe, fight for your life. At this point it’s still within the reach of verbal courage.

Robert Spencer has a good suggestion:

Strike a blow for freedom today. If you value freedom of speech and freedom of the press, please — politely and calmly — contact your local newspaper, wherever you are, and ask them to reprint some or all of the cartoons. The cartoons themselves can be found here, as part of Zombie’s excellent collection of historical and modern images of Muhammad.