The discussion about the cartoons picturing Prophet Mohammad is raging in
I find those cartoons insulting for several, clearly racist for some, pseudo-artistic for most, tasteless for all.
The facts are well known: first published by a right-wing Danish newspaper last September, the cartoons have been more than once republished in the European press, triggering vast condemnation from Muslims all over the planet, as well as angry demonstrations culminating in the attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in
The publication of those cartoons was, in the first place, a very maladroit move from a newspaper that claims it aimed at 'testing the limits of the freedom of speech'. The clumsy excuse, as well as the insulting cartoons - published under the rather irritating title of "the twelve faces of Mohammad" - is indeed very upsetting, and the initial objection reactions led the newspaper to publish an apology on its website, in Danish, English, and Arabic (with spelling mistakes in the Arabic version, but that's okay).
For the vast majority of us, the issue could have ended there. I do believe that the newspaper miscalculated their little 'media coup'; they apologised for it. But the inept reaction of Danish Prime Minister Anders Foghs Rasmussen who not refused to meet with Ambassadors from Islamic countries and to offer any kind of apology, regret or consolation for his insulted fellow Muslim citizens and constituents was a major political mistake to which the crowd replied angrily.
The main problem does not lie in the fact that someone depicted the Prophet's face, as some naively reported. The representation of God and all the prophets is indeed forbidden in Islam - but it has been done before; and ancient art relics from Islamic countries, depicting the Prophet and his companions prove that religion does not suppress art. The problem stems from the insult to the person of the Prophet, depicting him as a terrorist, a devil, and consequently insulting in the process the Muslim community at large: that is one out of five human beings.
The reason why some may still misunderstand the immensity of the insult we felt is because there is no obvious equivalent in most other societies. Muslims in general feel very close to the Prophet - it is a real familial tie. It is primarily a relationship of love. What would your reaction be if the national press published obscene images of, say, your mother? Or claimed that your family was guilty of the most awful charges? Well, same here.
As the quarrel exponentially grew, various newspapers in
The reaction of some world leaders have been up to the expectations of their citizens; I salute in this respect the Norwegian, British, American and New-Zealander governments. Christian authorities, from the
In short, the problem remains because of irresponsible and sometimes anti-Islamic press in
This is not a 'clash of civilisations' issue. There isn't even an issue of freedom of speech, to which, believe me, people in many Muslim countries aspire to more than you would think.
It is a matter of fundamental respect, which we must put in a larger context of a rise of ambient anti-Islamic racism in the world. And it is the proponents of such hateful ideas -
I see no good out of this situation, neither for the Muslim citizens in several western countries, nor for international political and economic relations. But the quicker the solution, the less the damage. The 'damage-control' process would come from
May this crisis encourage us to know the 'other', who is often our next door neighbour.
5 comments:
Hi! Got here from today's post with this link in it. Some thoughts on political cartoons and bad taste all around:
I think Westerners have three shortcomings with regard to situations like this:
First, in the West, nothing is sacred and political lampooning includes tasteless religious caricature which we're all supposed to endure as good sports in the name of Freedom of Expression (however, the ADL and other Jewish organizations go nuts when it crosses the line into antiSemitism, so oddly enough, Moslems get more sympathy and understanding from Western Jews in this regard than they do from secular western types);
Second, there aren't many Moslems in the Western nations (except France where they approach 10% of the population). Oftentimes, as we did before you, Moslems tend to live in "Moslem neighborhoods" near a mosque, with community support, Quranic learning and halal food.....a bit isolated from Main Street. So, most Westerners are totally clueless about Moslems and Islam.
There was a study done in the States many years ago. Not surprisingly, the study found that in racially mixed neighborhoods (Berkeley, Vacaville, etc.) there was less racist stereotyping because neighbors knew other neighbors and could see that the criminal on television was being arrested for shooting someone, NOT that he shot someone because he was Black or Hispanic. People in all-White or all-one-color neighborhoods tended not to see this distinction and be more racist in their conclusions. This study might explain why westerners, isolated from daily contact with practicing Moslems and Islam, come to bizarrely racist conclusions about an entire faith they know nothing about....segregation leads to racisim and prejudice.
Jews and Moslems share this much: in the larger Western culture with its Christian roots and baggage, absent total assimilation, we are perceived as "Others." We are the minority, and the majority has no motivation to appreciate our views to the extent they differ from the majority view. Believe me, in the States, until 9/11, most people had no clue about Islam and now most of them hold very stereotyped negative views of Moslems--hence they're prepared to laugh at a political cartoon of the Prophet with a bomb in his turban--and you know what? MOST of them didn't get that the picture was of him! They thought (I had this conversation in my office) it was "just an Arab" (another bit of lazy racism, you'll notice). That same attitude and lack of integration with Moslems leads westerners, in their vacuum of knowledge, to assume Moslems (often mistakenly interchanged with "Arabs" in conversation) are all bomb-throwing, Kalishnikov toting renegades wrapped in keffiyehs and motivated by some ideological religious frenzy bent on mass murder.
Third, a segue from Second -- not knowing a thing about Islam, they simply don't understand the relationship of the Prophet to the Followers. I DO think this is cultural--I have an "intellectual" sense of it from my own experiences and readings, but this isn't something I grew up with, so it isn't part of the fabric of my soul, the way it would be with someone born to Islam.
A somewhat belated response, Sarah -
The cartoons weren't about lampooning. Their purpose was, as the cartoonists declared, to 'test the limits of freedom of speech' -- essentially to give the message of 'yes, I am allowed to hurt you, and I will because I'm the white boss and you're the muslim ni**er and there's nothing you can do about it'.
The reaction was the culmination of those years of being discriminated against, of mistreatment, of nasty looks, of being told to 'go home!' even though they were born where they live. European muslims has had it, and instead of telling people to cool it down and play nice, the authorities - I am thinking particularly about the Danish prime minister - confirmed the "yes, you're our bitches" message.
Even if they knew nothing about Islam, they were promptly made aware that people didn't like this entire gimmick. Instead of stopping, they sought to publish those silly cartoons in as many outlets as possible while hammering in the message that Muslims are intolerant. Huh? "Blame the victim" at its best...
Reading and listening to North American news it was all dressed up as solely a "free speech issue" so even I (apologies) didn't suspect that these were meant to intentionally denigrate an entire culture/religion/people. I don't live in Europe, never have. Your explanation puts this in an entirely different light.[Do Europeans really say that stuff to Muslims? I thought white Europeans prided themselves on their tolerant, multicultural, liberal lifestyle...ok, I'm being a bit snide about them--they talk that way, as if theirs is the only civilization on earth, but I can't believe they're such open bigots? Except the British. But then, I've never been to Europe....]
Oh no, my dear.
Whenever asked about what I liked most about America, I used to answer:
"That when my buddy Vishal, whose father is Indian-Mauritian and his mother Chinese-Malaysian, is asked where he's from, and he answers "Chicago", it's a good enough answer for everyone".
America may be fucked up in many ways, but their definition of who's "American' is much more open-minded that the European one. And I appreciated that.
In Europe, it would never be sufficient. The French, for instance, would ask you "where you're really from", or if they're half-polite, they'd ask "So where does that pretty sun-tan come from?" or "where does that pretty accent come from?"
I'll single out Brussels is probably an oasis of sanity in an otherwise seriously discriminatory environment.
Amazing.......and here I've been foolish enough to believe their self-promotion of enlightened, nonracist multicultural oh-so-civilized superiority....
Then, catching up on the news belatedly, I found this: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1098207.html
I cannot tell you, given its Germany, how horrified I was when I read this---its like every nightmare I've ever had about Europe, only it happened to a Muslim woman--a young mother. It made me cry.
Post a Comment