Image of the week: ‘Moses Getting a Back View’ (1882)

Published in the Freethinker‘s 1882 Christmas special, this cartoon was one of the blasphemous images that landed our founder and first editor G.W. Foote in prison for nearly a year (the full story is told by Bob Forder here). As we approach the tenth anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, this Christmas seems a good moment to remember that cartoons satirising religion are still dangerous to produce—and to recommit to the defence of free thought and free speech against all their bigoted enemies. This fight is as old as history and might never be fully won, but the examples of Foote, Salman Rushdie, Charlie Hebdo, and countless other individuals and publications can give us the heart, and perhaps even the stomach, to go on.