Muslim groups are seething and raging at Michigan State University, where some members of the journalism department decided to stand up for the First Amendment: Muslim groups criticize MSU for online caricatures.

Muslim groups sharply criticized the online publication of controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Monday by a Michigan State University instructor and a group of students.

“We need to differentiate between freedom of speech and respect for each other,” said Mahmoud Mousa, president of the Lansing chapter of the Muslim American Society.

“If it was about any of the great messengers of God, whether Moses, or Christ or the Prophet Muhammad, people would be offended at the same level.”

The caricatures are published on spartanedge.com, an online newspaper published by journalism instructor Bonnie Bucqueroux. …

Bucqueroux’s comments on politics also are occasionally published by The Detroit News in the form of a weblog. The News has not published and does not intend to publish the caricatures.

“We believe that responsibility comes with freedom of speech,” said Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan.

“The right to free speech and free speech does not give us the right to print things or say things that are intentionally provocative, distasteful and have the potential to provoke hatred for any group, be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim or otherwise.”