Ismail Mohamed, a religious scholar and former an imam, is quoted in today's New York Times as saying, “We don’t think that depictions of the prophets are freedom of expression. We think it is an offense against our rights.”
I don't think anyone has the right to never be offended. Indeed, I think the claim that one has the right to never be offended is just an attempt to avoid saying what is really in view: a claim to have the right to silence those who say things that one finds offensive. It is an attempt to cast the matter as about one's own rights rather than what it is really about, namely the taking away of the rights of others.
Whether viewed religiously or civilly, the same God or the same state that gives you the freedom to say things that may offend others also gives – or should give – those others the same right, which might at times offend you.
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