Posted March 10, 2006.

Winnipeg Public Library Gets Embroiled in Cartoon Controversy

The Muslim community of Winnipeg, Manitoba, plans to screen a film documentary March 14 to convince Mayor Sam Katz and the city council to ask the Winnipeg Public Library to remove from its shelves a magazine issue that features Danish cartoons with caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. The February 27 issue of the Western Standard news magazine reprinted the cartoons, which sparked violent protests by Muslims worldwide after they appeared in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten September 30, 2005.

The Winnipeg-based Islamic Social Services Association has arranged for the screening of a PBS television feature on the Prophet Muhammed, according to the March 9 Winnipeg Sun, in order to show city officials the importance of Islamic prohibitions on drawings of the prophet. “To me, it’s a provocation,” said ISSA President Shahina Siddiqui. “This is inciting hate against an identifiable group. The city is encouraging this.”

WPL Manager of Public Services Rick Walker told CBC/Radio-Canada March 8 that library officials had weighed the sensitivity of the magazine’s contents, reviewed what other Canadian libraries were doing, and consulted their legal department before placing the issue in circulation at its Millennium Library branch. “It’s not uncommon for libraries to have materials that are challenged from time to time,” he said. “We try to use good due diligence on that.”

Councilor Gord Steeves told the Sun that the library would avoid charges of censorship if it offered the controversial issue “as per our normal course.”

Posted March 10, 2006.