Doug Saunders is a London, England-based correspondent with The Globe and Mail. He did an online Q-and-A about the Prophet Muhammad cartoons on Monday at globeandmail.com.

Here's a few excerpts:

Nathan Weatherdon, Toronto: Can you clarify what the Qu'ran and Muslim traditions have to say about making images of Mohammed? Also, I would be interested to hear what you have to say about the Holocaust cartoon challenge. An Iranian newspaper wants to see how dedicated the West is about freedom of speech by publishing cartoons about the Holocaust. While the negatives are evident, do you see any positives, at least as far as encouraging free speech and promoting open dialogue about the realities of the Holocaust in Iran?

Doug Saunders: As I understand it, the Koran says nothing about representations of Mohammed -- in fact, it portrays him as the sort of guy who might appreciate such things, and who was quite open to self-effacement and criticism. The idea of bans on representation comes from sharia law traditions that emerged much later in Islamic thought, and have never been accepted by all practitioners. Images of Mohammed have often been produced by Muslims without any controversy — Ottoman art is full of them. People in Iran tell me that markets in Tehran often carry loving images of Mohammed. It really is just the extreme interpretations of Islam, like those promoted by Saudi authorities, that put a stress on this. (This doesn't mean that any Muslim in the world would appreciate a nasty depiction of Mohammed, any more than any Christian would appreciate an obscene image of Jesus). Paradoxically, the Jewish and Christian holy book explicitly prohibits graven images. In all three Abrahamic faiths, it is only the orthodox who adhere to such bans -- but in this case, it was orthodox Muslims who spoke the loudest. 

Steve Neumann, Courtney, B.C.: Why is that the Muslim community can rally around this cartoon issue while their religion is against violence and I have yet to hear of any mass protests against the radicals in their mists? The only way to stop the radicals is by their own community condemning them and treating them like criminals instead of heroes.

Doug Saunders: Actually, some of the largest protests in Europe have been by Muslims protesting against Islamic extremists. On Saturday in London's Trafalgar Square, several thousand moderate Muslims held a rally against the violent images used in the anti-cartoon protests. Today in Copenhagen, secular Muslims held a big event, featuring the Prime Minister and Mr. Khader (the MP I wrote about on Saturday), that denounced the attacks on Danish freedoms coming from the more extreme members of their community. It's fair to say that the vast majority of European Muslims have no agreement at all with the anti-cartoon protesters, and they've begun to be quite outspoken about this.

Frederick Duquette, Edmonton: Would any of the cartoons qualify as actionable under Canada's "hate law" legislation?

Doug Saunders: One of them — the one with the bomb — could possibly qualify. Canada's "hate speech" law contains some protections for legitimate press commentary, satire, etc., but it also is full of holes and is wide open to interpretation. Canada is not a very free country when it comes to editorial cartoons: There have been successful libel judgements against cartoons in recent years.

Saleem Farooqi, Toronto: Could you please explain what (if any) are the limits on the so-called freedom of speech, from a western point of view, which is being used here to purposely insult the Prophet Muhammed and the sentiments of over 1.4 billion Muslims around the world?

Doug Saunders: Most free countries don't place limits on such freedoms. Insulting people, and their beliefs, is a cherished part of any free society. It was through this sort of dialogue that Islam was created, and evolved. This is not simply a western concept — in fact, the tradition of free and open criticism of beliefs was a crucial part of early Muslim societies.

If you're interested in this issue, read the whole thing. 

Here are links to Saunders' two features from Denmark:

A tale of two Muslim Danes (Feb. 11)

'It's not what I wanted to happen' (Feb. 8; profile of Ahmed Akkari, a Danish Islamic cleric who helped lead a campaign against the cartoons)