A follow up on my article Blasphemy is in the Eye of the Beholder
On the issue of Free Speech, Cartoons and the Muslim reaction. Here are two sides of the issue from the Canadian blogosphere both defending free speech. One from the left Those Crazy Danes and one from the right The protests are getting serious yet Canadians are sitting this out
Syrian demonstrators protest outside the burning Danish embassy in Damascus February 4, 2006. Several thousand Syrian demonstrators set the Danish embassy on fire on Saturday to protest the printing by a Danish newspaper of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. REUTERS/Khaled al-Hariri
Meanwhile in the land of the free and the first Amendment everyone is making apologies for expressions of free speech.
European cartoon stance derided in US
Leonard Downie Jr, the Washington Post's executive editor, said the paper is covering the controversy over the cartoons but not reprinting them because "the very nature of depicting Muhammad editorially is not an ambiguous question. Either you do it or you don't." "It's never a concern over reactions. It's a concern over what the Washington Post decides to publish. We're maintaining our standards." Newspapers in the
And why would the
Even the
Republicans have expressed the same outrage over art they consider deviant and have cut funding for the arts in general as an excuse. It was Vice President Dick Cheney's wife who led the purge during the infamous attack on the National Endowment for the Arts under King George I.
At that time it was the photos of Mapplethorpe and the case of a crucifix suspended into a glass of urine that was the excuse used to attack the arts and cut funding. Mapplethorpe battle changed art world
But really that wasn't an attack on Free Speech that was just good old Republicanism in action. The right wing doesn't believe in state funded art. Funny since historically that is exactly what patronage has been. Rather the Republican regime would have art relegated to what can be sold. You know paintings of cans of
But Republicans also represent the Christian Right the so called Moral Majority, and by intruding religion into politics they like the
Like the French editor who was sacked for reprinting the cartoons, because his paper was owned by an Egyptian (somehow that little item didn't make the news), now a Jordanian editor has faced the same retribution. He did not have the protection of Free Speech that the media in
Jordanian editor loses job after plea for reason
The head line says it all, unlike the quisling
How will the defenders of Free Speech in North America who have denounced the European Press for publishing these cartoons now defend this injustice and attack on Free Speech in the
In fact had they not been in such a hurry to rush to judgment, then perhaps they would have noted that even in Islam the orchestrated hate campaign against the press was denounced by Muslim Clerics including the Grand Ayatollah of
Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani denounced the publication of the cartoons but warned that "misguided and oppressive" segments of the Muslim community were projecting "a distorted and dark image of the faith of justice, love and brotherhood "The influential religious leader said: "Enemies have exploited this... to spread their poison and revive their old hatreds with new methods and mechanisms."
Other Muslim voices have spoken out for reason as well. And not merely for false apologies based on fear of the threats.
"Muslims might have miscalculated the manner in which they handled the crisis," noted prominent Islamic scholar Abdel-Sabour Shahine, who suggested that instead of pursuing a boycott of Danish products, the Islamic world should have shown more tolerance, by focusing on promoting dialogue with the west, and educating them more about Islam. "The Qur'an ordains Muslims to engage in peaceful dialogue and use a more logical approach with those of different creeds." The prophet himself, Shahine argued, was constantly subject to offence during the first years of his prophecy in
And in case we forget all this sturm and drang is NOT about the cartoons. It was originally about Free Speech. The cartoons were the result of the fact that artists and authors in
Child's tale led to clash of cultures
· Diplomatic brush-off provoked Arab storm
· Imams toured Middle East with offending cartoons
Luke Harding in Berlin
Saturday
The Guardian
It began innocuously enough. Last year the Danish writer Kare Bluitgen had been searching for someone who could illustrate his children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. It soon became clear, however, that nobody wanted the job, through fear of antagonising Muslim feelings about images of Muhammad.
One artist turned down the commission on the grounds that he didn't want to suffer the same grisly fate as Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker stabbed to death by an Islamist fanatic. Two others also declined. "They were worried," Mr Bluitgen said, adding: "Eventually someone agreed to do it anonymously."
But along the way that issue became sidelined by the right wing. Danes march for and against Muslims The cartoons published in the right wing Danish press were part of an Anti -Muslim Anti -Islamic campaign in that country, which began last fall with comments from the Queen.