Freedom of Speech Issue Of The Day

Sing 'Bomb Da Profit'


Some days ago, a Danish newspaper published a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head. The Islamic world has predictably and acutely gone totally ballistic and hostile, have turned out to burn flags and demand apologies and threatened the ususal violence; this time against EU nations.

Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers surrounded the office of the EU Commission in Gaza and searched hotels for foreigners to kidnap in the West Bank, as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world on Thursday.

Foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany unless the four governments apologize for the newspaper cartoon. Only several dozen foreigners were believed to be in Gaza. Many others had left in recent months, during a spate of abductions of foreign nationals.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, gunmen entered four hotels to search for foreigners to abduct, and warned hotel owners not to host citizens from several European countries. Gunmen said they also searched two apartments, but found no Europeans. The gunmen said foreigners had three days to leave Nablus on their own.

Germany and its press has waded into the debate, defending Freedom of Speech.

In Germany, opinion has also largely fell on the side of free speech, although the DJV journalism union was critical of the republication of the cartoons in Germany on Wednesday, saying it violated the country's press codex, a series of guidelines regarding ethics in journalism.

One paragraph of the codex condemns the publication of content that could offend the religious sentiments of a group of people.

On Thursday, however, DJV changed its position, saying that publication in the conservative Die Welt and the left-leaning taz newspapers did not conflict with the ethics code.

"The reproduction was part of the overall mission of journalism," DJV spokesman Hendrik Zörner told DW-WORLD. "It serves to document the debate and should be differentiated from the first publication (of the cartoons) in Denmark."

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble rejected calls for the government to apologize for the publication: "Why should the government apologize for the exercise of press freedom?"

While several publications and officials expressed understanding for Muslim anger, they described the reaction in the Middle East as excessive.

A Bishop of the Protestant Church in Germany, Margot Käßmann, in an editorial in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, said the response was "absolutely inappropriate and in my opinion, purposefully controlled. Sometimes Christians' feelings are hurt as well, but the answer to that cannot be threats of violence!"

To be accurate, you don't see the likes of Fred Nile and his gangs with AK-47s picketing films like 'The Last Temptation of Christ' or art works like the immortal 'Piss Christ'. As deplorable as Fred Nile and his ilk can be, they're not threatening to kill you and your family, or kidnap your fellow unbeliever. I'm not saying they don't want to, but at least they seem to recognise that sort of thing might be 'un-Christian' - not to menttion against the law.

Which leads me to this point: Maybe it is very Islamist to get offended at every slight, don the tea-towel and sunglasses look, grab the Ak-47 and lawlessly take to the streets to burn flags. Because lately, that's the image of Islam that's getting seen across the world. It's a far cry from the measured sagely chides and ripostes of Omar Sharif's character in 'Lawrence of Arabia'. It's not exactly great press on behalf of Islam.

They can't really blame others for their bad PR.
Which is also an interesting aspect that has been discussed before. Because the muslim world denied itself figurative/descriptive art, it really hasn't developed the kind of image savvy 'literacy' of other parts of the world. Al Jazeera, whatever its merits and demerits looks like crap TV. Movies coming out of the muslim world as a general group look badly composed, badly lit and badly cut; much more so than the average (third)World Movie coming out of say Burkina Faso or Tibet.

Then there's this idiot who caught fire from his own flag-burning effort. What a dork.

Quick question: Do they have the equivalent of 'dorks' in the Islamist lexicon?

I guess the crux of the biscuit for some folks is whether the cartoon can be considered a kind of racial vilification or if it's actually pointing out something that is plainly obvious to everybody - but in an attempt to deny 'the emperor has no clothes' (i.e., the radical Islamists do carry on like warmongers dressed as religous righteousness), people are turning it into a debate about offending minorities/religious sensitivities and the such like.

Still, it has to be said: what a Danish cartoonist thinks of your religious beliefs only hurts you in the pride. Nobody's exactly going to die from an acute case of bad sense of humour or even bad taste; I mean, what you believe doesn't really matter squat to me until you start threatening me with your Ak-47. ...and this is why it really sucks that it's even an issue, thanks to the cutting edge tea-towel-fashion-brigade.

It is however exactly like the business surrounding the fatwa announced against Salman Rushdie. The demand that we exercise our great tolerance for their intolerance based on their fear, ignorance and stupidity is excruciatingly hypocritical and wrong. What worries me is that with Rushdie, the sane parts of the world rallied around Mr. Rushdie because he was a celebrated author; the author of the original cartoon won't be protected by public opinion to the same degree because he would be a 'mere local comic'. Who protects the clown? As a fellow clown, and somebody who relies heavily on the freedom of speech, I wish to announce my solidarity with the cartoonist.

UPDATE:
This business of Islamist fury has hit higher pitch around the globe as more and more muslims got into the spirit of anti-European sentiments. Justn looking at the googlenews page, I can see 1127 entries from around the world concerning this topic, so I'd say I'm hardly likely to be the only one maaking pointed commments aabout all this brouhaha.

I did notice some interesting comments so I'll post them up.

1. From Reuters UK:

The Indonesian government condemned the cartoons and said it had expressed its concern to Denmark's envoy, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin told a weekly news conference.
As a democracy, Indonesia welcomed freedom of expression but drew the line at mocking sacred religious symbols, he said.

"I think this is not only about a bilateral issue between Indonesia and Denmark, this is a much more serious issue ... It involves the whole Islamic world vis-a-vis Denmark and vis-a-vis the trend of Islamophobia," Thamrin added.

Islamophobia? That's a new phrase. I must make sure I keep a track of that word. It's as if the Foreign Affairs Minister of Indonesia is trying to characterise Islamists in the same catgory as spiders, heights and homosexuals.

2. USA's ABC as opposed to our own ABC has this nugget:

France's Grand Rabbi Joseph Sitruk said he shared Muslim anger.

"We gain nothing by lowering religions, humiliating them and making caricatures of them. It's a lack of honesty and respect," he said. He said freedom of expression "is not a right without limits."

In the Arab world, a Jordanian newspaper, Shihan, took the bold step Thursday of running some of the drawings, saying it wanted to show its readers how offensive the cartoons were but also urging the world's Muslims to "be reasonable." Its editorial noted that Jyllands-Posten had apologized, "but for some reason, nobody in the Muslim world wants to hear the apology."

Well yeah. Because they're looking for a fight, not because they're really offended by blasphemy. I beg to differ with the Grand Rabbi. There's much to be gained by abandoning such outdated modes of thinking as religion. It is indeed the opiate of the masses as evinced by the masses of people turning up around the world to stomp on burning flags. Indeed, if there weren't so many religious hard-liners on both sides, we might have seen true peace in the Middle East by now.

3. This is from the Guardian:

Opinion in Germany has hardened in favour of editors daring to publish. "It is apparent that the demonstrations are the biggest, and the diplomatic reactions the most vehement, in countries where authoritarian regimes are under domestic pressure from Islamist opposition forces," Boris Kalnoky wrote in Die Welt.

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung went further, calling for the caricatures to be published in as many newspapers as possible. Urging "Europe-wide solidarity", it said: "Religious fundamentalists who do not respect the difference between satire and blasphemy have a problem not only with Denmark, but with the entire western world."

The French tabloid France Soir, which originally said it would not apologise for printing the images, did so but only after its managing director, Jacques Lefranc, was sacked by its owner, Raymond Lakah.

Well, I've hardened my position on this from the start so I can't get harder.
The Europeans had the Hitler and Goebbels experience in their past. I just can't see them saying 'Sure thing. Your religious sensitivities over our freedom of speech'.
Which led me to this thought: Maybe the Islamist movement is targeting the Western liberals into an adversarial position so they can paint a clearer picture of 'Them or Us'. At the same time, this stuff paints the moderate muslims into a corner: "Damn it whos side are you on? It's the Koran or the sword!"

My guess? Expect a war on Iran around May.