I must confess that I'm not the least bit surprised to find that the New York Times-owned Boston Globe only calls for the public to respect religious beliefs as long as those beliefs and believers aren't Christian.

Eugene Volokh points out (first link) that when the topic was Andres Serrano's famous "artwork" "Piss Christ," or the Virgin Mary made from feces, the Globe wasn't so interested in efforts to "recognize and respect the otherness of the other." (What pompous fool writes that way? Somebody's been taking too many philosophy extension classes at the U.)

The real question is: "Why are the treatments of Islam and Christianity so different?"

An understandable reason would be that Christians haven't been known to bomb newspaper buildings and Muslims have -- so a healthy fear of getting blown to bits or burned alive I could certainly comprehend.

But I don't think that's it. Fear of violent, physical reprisal is usually the last thing going through an editor's mind as they ponder what editorials to publish and what cartoons to run. What this comes back to is a long and strongly held liberal belief that Western Civilization -- and Christianity as its "state" religion -- have long been responsible for so much repression and assorted evils around the world that Christian beliefs and taboos are due less respect and less tolerance.

Maybe this event will open the Globe editorial writers' eyes and inspire a much more inclusive and respectful view toward all religious belief, but you'll excuse me if I don't hold my breath while I wait.