clashing sensibilities

In These Times: Islam vs. the West: Clashing Sensibilities by Salim Muwakkil.

I generally like Salim Muwakkil's writings, but this time I wonder what he's thinking. On the cartoon controversy he says:

...this increasingly rancorous dispute does pit two foundational principles against each other: Islam’s proscription against portraying its Prophet, and the West’s reverence of free expression. Muslims have a religious obligation to take offense at “desecration” of Islam, while Western nations feel compelled to speak up in protection of free speech.

But in the wake of David Irving being sentenced to three years imprisonment for his views on the Holocaust (and being barred from even entering several European countries before then) I'm not sure that anyone can say with a straight face that the cartoon controversy is about Western commitment to free speech.