Sophable, the climate of fear is created by the fact that among other things, last year, a Dutch film-maker was murdered. When cartoonists then get threatened, are you serious that we shouldn't take that threat seriously? And how many other cartoonists, columnists etc., don't dare to publish something they want in case they too receive death threats? If that becomes the norm (and maybe it's too late, maybe it already is the norm) there's an awful lot of material, some of it offensive, some of it thought-provoking, some of it merely informative, most of it perhaps dull and unreadable, that won't be published. You may say thank goodness for that in some cases, but I'd rather things weren't published because they're not judged good enough quality or not in keeping with the paper's ethos or whatever, rather than because "we'd better not because we might get shot."
Talking of the paedophile allegation, I wasn't aware that one of Mohammed's wives was six years old. Is this true or a slander? That's a genuine question, not a provocation for all you sensitive types.