Demagogue

[Back in March], the Borders Books chain banished from its newsstands an issue of Free Inquiry magazine which reprinted the now-infamous Danish cartoons of Muhammad. As its excuse, Borders cited concerns for the safety of its customers and employees.

As editor of The New Individualist, the first magazine in America to reprint one of the "offensive" cartoons on its front cover, I published here a widely quoted An Open Letter to Borders Books, challenging the company's gutless surrender to vague, non-specific fears of jihadist retaliation.

Well, Borders has a new moral dilemma on its corporate hands: Harper's magazine has also just published the Muhammad cartoons in its June issue.

Do you think Borders now will banish the venerable Harper's from its shelves, too? Or will it instead carry the magazine, and add to its past history of cowardice a new policy of hypocrisy? And if it does, why did it single out Free Inquiry for exile, but not Harper's? Inquiring minds will want to know.