Controversies and uproar....
So everyday since the event has taken place I’ve been meaning to write about it. And finally I sit here in my apartment from where I can hear the Friday prayers going on in the mosque nearby contemplating what the hell the Danes were thinking?My first reaction to what has happened what to brush it away being like, “oh religion again.” Then I heard a small rally in AUC protesting against the Danish newspaper. And then I was like wao, even the rich brats and the elite of Egypt think this strongly about it. So I got off my lazy bum and read up some more on the issue.
So far my deepest emotion about the whole issue is why now? There has been enough said about religious respect vs. freedom of speech but what I’m thinking is do we really need this? “Muslims” and the “West” don’t seem to be getting along at all and events like these exacerbate the position more than anything else. For me it’s not just about this issue. It’s about how this issue fits into the grander scheme of things. If this event has angered and brought thousands of Muslims from all walks of like onto the streets, then I think it is being ignorant to brush them all away by calling them “intolerant extremists.”
I know Denmark had nothing to do with what happened in the US on 9/11 or what happened in the world thereafter. However, Bush himself has made the whole issue of War against terrorism a lot more than what US has. You can’t slip in words like “crusade” into your speech when talking about this issue and then think that the issue won’t spill over geographic boundaries. Today while the West is busy lumping all Muslims together, many Muslims are busy stereotyping all non-Muslim Westerners.
And issues like these exacerbate this divide even more. One the one hand you have generations of people growing up in the “West” thinking of Islam as an intolerant and violent religion and on the other hand there are generations of Muslims thinking that they are hated and discriminated against. Where are we going to end up with this?
I was surprised to see this coming from Denmark mainly because I hold Scandinavian countries to a higher PC standard. A personal bias. Do I support what they did? No. It’s not so much the actual printing of the cartoons but mainly the reaction that followed. I just don’t think that you can so deeply offend millions of people of a religion on the pretext that its for freedom of speech. All of this cannot be compared to controversial images and pieces of art about Mary and Jesus. Firstly because there is pictorial representation of Mary and Jesus in Christianity in the forms of paintings in Churches, statues etc. There is absolutely nothing like that in the Muslim world. You’re being religiously insensitive as it is with even trying to draw Muhammad in the first place and then drawing him with a bomb in his turban is way beyond the boundaries.
Secondly, controversial paintings in Christianity like that of Mary hitting Jesus on her lap (I forget where it was displayed) still comes from people and countries that are pre-dominantly Christian. I think the Muslims would have reacted very differently to this if it came from a Muslim even if not a Muslim country. I mean Iran would have probably had a price on the head of the person and some Western European country would have granted the person asylum (hmm…think Salman Rushdie?)
Do I support what Iran has done? No. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Just don’t.
Some articles to get the facts and stuff:
To start off:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/arts/design/08imag.html?8hpib
The 12 cartoons:
http://wnymedia.net/images/cartoons/cartoons/index_html.html
Iran’s response:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Danish "dissident of Islam" MP’s statement:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4698528.stm
posted by mir @ 1:42 PM
3 Comments:
Responses from two friends via e-mail....I hope they don't mind me sharing with all of you!
Response #1:
I thought this was a really important line:
Today while the West is busy lumping all Muslims together, many Muslims are busy stereotyping all non-Muslim Westerners.
it's so true--we are doing what the west is doing to us.
i thought your response was appropriate. while i'm appalled by what the muslims are doing, i'm also pissed that the danish nespaper could have
printed such awful, inflammatory cartoons. that's not freedom of speech--that's inciting religious hatred, and it's unacceptable.
this in no way justifies the violence that muslims have perpetrated, but what the danish paper did was just wrong.
Response #2:
I think you are completely right. The Danish newspaper has a right to publish whatever the hell they want, that doesn't mean that they should,
however. The cartoons are racist, insensitive and just plain dumb. It was an incredible irresponsible thing for them to do, and definitely fits nicely into the all-too-dangerous theory held by many (if not most, unfortunately) Muslims that the West is out to get them.
I wonder if you, Rabia, or anyone else thinks this will actually end up resulting in collective violence (i.e. Iran v. Denmark, Muslims v. Christians, etc.) on any level? It is amazing how seemingly trivial things can snowball into things that are much larger.
I loved your description of events. The only thing I disagreed with was your last comment: "Two wrongs don't make a right."
This is not about right or wrong. Iran did not start the Holocaust Cartoons as a childish way to hit back at Denmark. Iran was making a point on how the clause "freedom of speech" can actually be used to hurt people.
Nor is this anti-semetic in any sense. Given Denmark's reaction and actions were insensitive, and their inability to acknowledge that they were insensitive, shows us that they have no idea how many people they have hurt. What is the best way to make a rude person realize she is being rude? Put her in a situation she can comprehend. The holocaust cartoons are something Denmark can comprehend as being inappropriate. Publishing them under the banner of freedom of speech shows the flaw in the Danish reasoning, And after all this, still Iran is being dubbed as a crazy fundamentalist country. To quote Khomeni "You cut our throats, and if our leg twitches you call us terrorists?"
And in response to Muslims causing violence and embassies being closed in various places as being inappropriate responses, I ask what is a good response. When was last a developing country's statement taken seriously. Surprise, surprise most Muslim countries, if not all, are developing countries. OIC issuing a statement? The OIC has been issuing statements on Kashmir and Israel for decades and nothing has changed. The OIC is more of a legitimizing agent than a voice.
What else then? As Isaac Asimov once said "Palestinians have run out of rocks, and they realized the rocks weren't making dents anyways, so they have started using their bodies." The Muslims do not mean to lump the west together. But there is only so much pressure you can take from all sides. Eventually you push out from the center, and the pressure goes to all sides. Pushing individually to the pressure points is not something Muslims can bear to do anymore.
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