The global debate about Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad found a voice at MSU on Monday when a campus-based Web site, SpartanEdge.com, chose to publish the images.

Bonnie Bucqueroux, an MSU journalism instructor and the Web site's publisher, said the decision to run the cartoons is not meant to offend anyone, but to broaden the community's discussion of the issue.

"You have to see the images to understand it," Bucqueroux said. "It's like a photo of a lynching or the Oklahoma City bombing. You can't describe it in words."

She said the Web site's all-student editorial board based the decision to publish the images on its First Amendment right of free speech.

Members of the Muslim Students' Association at MSU, however, say the images are "hate speech," and the First Amendment should not be used to protect them.

"Many Muslims have been deeply offended by the publication of these images," said Syed Jafri, the association's political chairman and a physiology junior. "We see them as a direct provocation."

Protests surrounding the publication of the cartoons have led to widespread violence and at least 45 deaths around the globe since January.

One of the cartoons depicts Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb, which Jafri claims incorrectly links Islamic beliefs with terrorism.

Jafri said although the Quran does not expressly prohibit the depiction of Allah or the prophet, most Muslims believe it is wrong to do so because it is a form of idolatry, or worship of an image.

"We want to worship God alone," Jafri said.

Although he has not seen the cartoons, Jafri said he does not need to view them to know their intent.

"You don't have to see a picture of the prophet with a bomb on his head to know it is a false depiction of Muslims as terrorists," Jafri said.

Bucqueroux said the Web site is not associated with the university in any way and added that the editors felt the Internet offered a unique opportunity to tackle these types of sensitive issues. She said the images posted on the site are blocked from being found by popular search engines, so they have to be accessed from the SpartanEdge.com home page.

"This lets us warn people not to look at them if they might find them offensive," Bucqueroux said. "I'm surprised other publications have not used the Internet in this fashion."

As coordinator of the Victims and the Media Program at MSU, Bucqueroux visits journalism classrooms to educate student reporters about covering sensitive topics. According to her MSU Web site, the program's mission is to ensure that victims of violence and catastrophe are treated with sensitivity, dignity and respect.

"There is a difference between being a victim and having your personal beliefs challenged," Bucqueroux said.

She told the SpartanEdge.com editorial board that if it thought it was its First Amendment right to publish the cartoons, she would "back them up." By publishing the cartoons, Bucqueroux said the Web site is allowing people to better understand the conflict.

The State News has chosen to not publish the cartoons.

"Our community can have a more productive discussion about the issues of free speech and self-censorship without offending readers," said Nick Mrozowski, editor in chief of The State News.

Kelly McBride, an ethics group leader for The Poynter Institute — a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating journalists about unbiased reporting — said newspapers across the country debated long and hard about not publishing the cartoons.

"Journalists had to ask themselves, 'Why would we print this?'" McBride said. "To which the immediate answer is to help inform their audience."

McBride said the next questions a journalist has to ask is whether there are alternatives and if the cartoons' publication will harm people.

"Most editors decided it was a journalistic imperative to inform the public," McBride said. "But there were alternative ways to do so without harming groups of people. As journalists, we have a responsibility to be in tune with and be sensitive to the cultural context."

She said she did not characterize the cartoons as a free speech issue.

"We would be doing our readers a disservice by suggesting the protests (surrounding the cartoons) are just about cartoons," McBride said. "This is part of a very volatile political situation, and this has to be seen in that very complex context."