FREE SPEECH NOT UNDERSTOOD

On August 18th Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a Lars Vilks cartoon of a dog with Mohammed's head. Even though Nerikes Allehanda is a local paper and did not make the cartoon available online, worldwide outrage resulted:

Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and the 57-nation Orgaization of the Islamic Conference have all lodged official protests and demanded punitive action.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt attempted to defuse the volatile situation by meeting with 20 Muslim ambassadors:

Reinfeldt said that he had "explained how Swedish society works and that we don't have elected representatives making editorial decisions", adding that "this is an open country, a tolerant country".

The reaction of Iran's ambassador to Sweden shows this to be a waste of time:

"Causing offence does not belong to the concept of freedom of speech."

Causing offence is the essence of free speech, dickhead.