Republishing Cartoons Is Stupid and Offensive
Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, Arab News Mon Feb 6 2006
The republication of the cartoons that depict Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an offensive manner this week by several European newspapers, out of so-called solidarity with the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten which had printed them originally four months ago, was a stupid and equally offensive move.
Of course, this was all done in the name of freedom of expression, which is always a convenient excuse to shield oneself from criticism for having offending views. I have not seen the cartoons myself, but from all accounts they are crass, stupid and offensive. So why publish them in the first place?
Just to prove that Islam can be lampooned just as much as Christianity and Judaism have been? I find that hard to believe in this era of great tension between the West and the Muslim world.
Most British newspapers led with this controversy on their front pages on Friday, with The Times dubbing it the “Cartoon wars and the clash of civilizations.” I wouldn’t go so far as that, but it certainly does not help relations between the West and the Islamic world in this post-9/11 era.
While millions of Muslims have been rightly angered by the continued re-publication of the cartoons across Europe, their threats against Danish interests and Danes, and other Europeans in the Middle East is something unacceptable that no Arab government should allow to go unchecked. There were reports that two employees of a Danish dairy company in Saudi Arabia had been attacked by angry customers. They were not badly hurt, but that is beside the point. Muslims reacting violently to every perceived slight against Islam is not the appropriate way of responding.
The best response would have been to just ignore the crappy cartoons and no one would have even noticed them. But I also do understand the need to respond when one feels so greatly insulted. In fiercely secularized Europe there is such a disconnect between faith and the right to freedom of expression that attacks on religious figures are regarded by many as a right that cannot be criticized.
This leads to fascism of another kind: That of the rabid supporters of secularism that believe they are always right and everyone else be damned.
Well I have a revelation for those people: Muslims have not reached that level of disconnect yet, nor I suspect would they hope to.
The region-wide boycott of Danish products is a legitimate response to the slander of the Prophet, and should be as far as protests go. The loss of business in such a large market as Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries should send the Danes a clear message that Muslims don’t take lightly to being maligned.
****
By coincidence I was visiting The Guardian’s head office in London on Tuesday and had the chance to sit in on their morning editorial conference where the story-lineup for the next day’s issue was being discussed.
A Canadian journalist who works for the paper brought up the cartoons at the meeting, and suggested quite strongly that The Guardian reprint the cartoons in solidarity with the Danish paper and to support freedom of expression.
I’m happy to report that she received looks of shock and dismay from most at the meeting, who I think rightly believed that reprinting the cartoons would have only added fuel to the fire and unnecessarily offended Muslims for no obvious gain.
The republication of the cartoons that depict Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in an offensive manner this week by several European newspapers, out of so-called solidarity with the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten which had printed them originally four months ago, was a stupid and equally offensive move.
Of course, this was all done in the name of freedom of expression, which is always a convenient excuse to shield oneself from criticism for having offending views. I have not seen the cartoons myself, but from all accounts they are crass, stupid and offensive. So why publish them in the first place?
Just to prove that Islam can be lampooned just as much as Christianity and Judaism have been? I find that hard to believe in this era of great tension between the West and the Muslim world.
Most British newspapers led with this controversy on their front pages on Friday, with The Times dubbing it the “Cartoon wars and the clash of civilizations.” I wouldn’t go so far as that, but it certainly does not help relations between the West and the Islamic world in this post-9/11 era.
While millions of Muslims have been rightly angered by the continued re-publication of the cartoons across Europe, their threats against Danish interests and Danes, and other Europeans in the Middle East is something unacceptable that no Arab government should allow to go unchecked. There were reports that two employees of a Danish dairy company in Saudi Arabia had been attacked by angry customers. They were not badly hurt, but that is beside the point. Muslims reacting violently to every perceived slight against Islam is not the appropriate way of responding.
The best response would have been to just ignore the crappy cartoons and no one would have even noticed them. But I also do understand the need to respond when one feels so greatly insulted. In fiercely secularized Europe there is such a disconnect between faith and the right to freedom of expression that attacks on religious figures are regarded by many as a right that cannot be criticized.
This leads to fascism of another kind: That of the rabid supporters of secularism that believe they are always right and everyone else be damned.
Well I have a revelation for those people: Muslims have not reached that level of disconnect yet, nor I suspect would they hope to.
The region-wide boycott of Danish products is a legitimate response to the slander of the Prophet, and should be as far as protests go. The loss of business in such a large market as Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries should send the Danes a clear message that Muslims don’t take lightly to being maligned.
****
By coincidence I was visiting The Guardian’s head office in London on Tuesday and had the chance to sit in on their morning editorial conference where the story-lineup for the next day’s issue was being discussed.
A Canadian journalist who works for the paper brought up the cartoons at the meeting, and suggested quite strongly that The Guardian reprint the cartoons in solidarity with the Danish paper and to support freedom of expression.
I’m happy to report that she received looks of shock and dismay from most at the meeting, who I think rightly believed that reprinting the cartoons would have only added fuel to the fire and unnecessarily offended Muslims for no obvious gain.
posted by hrights @ 2:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home