The University of Prince Edward Island's student newspaper has published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked violent protests in other parts of the world.

Two thousand copies of The Cadre were distributed on campus Wednesday, but university administration ordered them removed. Officials say the cartoons have already caused enough violence around the world.

They were first published in a Danish newspaper in September, and then reprinted in several European newspapers.

Ray Keating, editor of The Cadre.

Ray Keating, editor of The Cadre, says the student newspaper didn't print the cartoons to cause an uproar or get publicity.

Keating says he sympathizes with how offensive the images are to Muslims. However, he adds, the newspaper's staff felt they had to take a stand in favour of freedom of speech.

Keating also says newspapers have the right to say what they want, when they want, and regardless of whom they offend.

St. Mary's University professor Peter March has been told to remove the cartoons from his office door.

But university president Wade MacLaughlan says publishing the cartoons is "an invitation to trouble.

"We still run the property," MacLaughlan says, "and we're not in the business of deliberately inviting people to be insulted to the point of causing an outrage."

The head of the P.E.I. Muslim Association, Mian Ali, says he's not particularly upset and would not have asked to have the paper removed from campus.

"To me it's just a cartoon. People are free to express their opinions. I can't control what people print, but freedom comes with a responsibility. If people want to abuse that responsibility and freedom it's up to them," says Ali.

Halifax prof continues to display drawings

Meanwhile, a professor at St. Mary's University in Halifax vows to continue his case for freedom of expression after being told to take copies of the caricatures down from his office door. He'll put them up in his classroom instead.

Peter March, a logic professor with a penchant for religious debate, says he put the cartoons on his door to make a statement about academic freedom and promote debate on campus.

"I feel threatened by the crowds around the world shaking fists, shaking sticks, burning things down," he says. "I wish to make my stand, that here in Canada that won't wash."

The university took a dim view of March's statement and asked him to take the cartoons down on Tuesday. Because the school owns the outside of the door, he did.

"There are concerns that people may see them and be offended by them and may be terribly upset by them, and given that, we thought that was a good enough reason to ask him to take them down," says vice-president Chuck Bridges.

Some students, including Fazel Daneshmand, agree. "It's insulting other people's beliefs and religions. So in reality, it's not a good thing to do that."

But others think the administration made the wrong call and based it on political correctness.

"I think it's very PC and very cowardly," says James O'Brien, who takes a course from March. "They're just not willing to deal with it. It's just completely condemning his freedom of speech."

March himself says he has received few complaints.