The Bland Leads the Blind in Capitulating to Sharia "Norms"

There was a huge to-do in the U.K. recently having to do with people being grievously "offended" by that infamous Motoon of Islam's founder with a bomb in his turban. An article in leftist rag The Independent describes the incident and the ensuing ruckus. In weighing whether "free speech" means you can do and say things which you know will make people feel really, really awful, the writer--rather ironically, his name is Archie Bland--concludes that if

it is true to say if so many people will be upset, and in particular if those people already have a justified sense of alienation, you better have a very good reason for defying their sensibilities. The upset is not just some abstract concern about blasphemy; it is about the sense that their norms are fodder for point-scoring ridicule by the majority.

No it isn't, you daft lefty. It's about lampooning that which those who embrace sharia "norms"--"norms" which abjure Western freedoms--deem un-lampoonable. Accommodate their hurt feelings and "norms," and soon enough your own "norms" will no longer be "normal" while their "norms" will be the "norm." And, oh yeah, free expression will be kneecapped, and everything you read in the paper will be exceedingly and excruciatingly bland.