Steven,

I think that your description of the self-censorship decision made by a publishing house is a bit overblown, especially since similar decisions are made all the time about non-Muslim topics for appeasing the non-Muslim general public. Personally I think they shouldn't have done it because Salman Rushdie did quite well out of his boring pretentious effort after being criticised by a few Muslims.

A blanket statement that it's directly affecting our "freedom of speech", equates this little thing with publishers and authors or reporters being shut down or 'disappeared' to gulags or being threatened, deported etc. This is not happening, nor is it even the first step of a "slippery slope".

Give it up mate, no one infringed your freedom here.

On the other hand, reporters have been deported from the United States because they had a tourist visa for visiting a media convention, an issue that was not a problem before 2001.