Some of the responses either as comments or by email have been inflamatory - but others have been well considered and heartfelt. We felt we should share a couple of them. As further interesting comments come in we will consider adding to this post from either emails or comments. So feel free to contribute!
The first is from Kalila from Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe
The caricatures of Mahomet : Who is really culpable?
The polemic provoked by the publication of the caricature of the prohet Mohomet is considered to be a barometer of the tensions and the many latent misunderstandings between the muslim and the western worlds.
It is an affaire taken completely out of all proportion, say the Agence France Presse, but the question must be asked whether that was not what they wanted to unleash in the first place. It does not take too much brains to know what the reaction would be to an insensitive cartoon like this one. In particular in todays climate of tension between the many religions and specially the muslim religion and the rest of the world.
Must we not take this opportunity to ask the press and the media to come forward and own up to a perfect example of manipulating a very volatile situation? We do not see cartoons anywhere of people dying of the cold because of political games politicians play in the eastern bloc. We do not see even black homour cartoons of people suffering in detention centers or in refugee camps and there is no one who will try to be funny about the tens of thousands of people who are abused horrifically by human traffickers all over Europe.
All those things are in the news and are happening around us, but no cartoons about them appear because it would be considered very offensive to many people.
So why would the press not know that this cartoon would be offensive to many people?I don't think the Danish newspaper editor and most certainly neither the France Soir editor did not know what they were doing.
Let the press stand trial for this unforgivable action. Not the whole western world.
Posted by Kalila.
The second response is from Wandering Woman at the delightfully named blog: People become stories,and stories become understanding
I'm glad you wrote this up here ... it's so difficult to discuss with anyone because, while I believe in freedom of speech, I'm saddened by what may be lost in terms of deeper understanding between the two 'sides' supposedly represented in this debate.
At the moment it feels as though a chasm has opened. I hope I am wrong.
Posted by a wandering woman writes about her world to THE VIEW FROM FEZ at 2/04/2006
Tags: Morocco Islam Cartoons Jyllands-Posten
7 comments:
I have a lot of sympathy for the argument that European countries already restrict free speech (for example Austria is currently prosecuting fringe historian David Irving for Holocaust denial), so this falls within the limits of what isn't acceptable.
At the same I'd make two points in response to what Kalila says. Kalila implies that the cartoons were deliberately published to whip up anger and denigrate muslims.
But wasn't what has happened since just as calculating with the intention to provoke? I mean, the original cartoons were published in September yet we are now in February. That suggests a sustained campaign to use these cartoons as a lighting rod where the West can be taken to task for a multitude of perceived sins against the muslim world.
Secondly, I wonder whether in the interests of consistency, the writer will condemn inflamatory and derogatory cartoons, TV programmes, books - you name it - published about Jews (not Israel) in the Arab world. For example, the TV series "Ash Shahat", aired on
Al-Manar in 2004 and a series on Egyptian TV about the (widely discredited) protocols of the Elders of Zion aired in 2002.
Allah ouakbar (in French).
When one is feeling vulnerable and insecure one is more likely to respond with violence and anger. This uproar isn't about God, Islam or even the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh). It is about politics and this cartoon was a convenient way to rally people around the cause of opposing Western oppression, Western culture creeping into the Muslim World, and frustration at the rapid changes taking place is this part of the world.
True followers of God are not concerned with what a kaffir might say about God, the Prophet (pbuh) or the faith. These things are considered above criticism. Only when we doubt this do we feel the need to fight.
This uproar is about faithless people trying to grasp for what they do not have --security in their faith and confidence in God to repay wrongs done to him by feeble humans.
Just a note to say thank you for the extensive and sensitive coverage of this sorry affair. Your balance and understanding have helped me comprehend the subtle issues involved. Blog on!
Great blog with great post. Thanks and may you keep it going for a long time, inshallah.
Superb blogging and very even handed on the issue of the cartoons. Thank you indeed.
Salam,
Thanks for the comments.
Post a Comment