Mohammed Cartoon Crisis Escalates

Irish Newspaper defends Mohammed cartoon decision

The Dublin based tabloid, The Star is the latest media organisation to show the caricature of Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, and today was forced to defended its decision to publish a controversial cartoon which has offended Muslims across the world. The paper claimed it printed the image to defend freedom of the press and to explain to its readers what had sparked the controversy.

Columnist Joe O’Shea, who wrote an article accompanying the cartoon, said: "We wanted to give our half a million readers a chance to actually see this infamous cartoon. There has been a huge international story about it but not a lot of people have seen it. We thought it would be a good idea to make a stand for freedom of the press and democratic rights. We thought our readers deserved to see this infamous cartoon."

O’Shea admitted that some of his newspaper’s readers may be offended or hurt by the cartoon, but added, "All religions are entitled to respect but in a secular society in which we live, religious dogma should not be allowed to override the most basic principle that we have – freedom of speech.Islam should be at least strong enough to allow debate about what is going on in the religion and what is going on in the wider world. While we respect Islam and we would hate to inflame passions in this any further, we think it has gone beyond the issue of the cartoons and has become a much wider story and people have a right to see what kick-started this whole international affair. The reaction from the Muslim world has been totally over the top and it is only damaging Muslim interests."

O’Shea denied that the lives of Irish aid workers in the Middle East would be under threat by The Star’s actions. "We are, in truth, a very small part of this huge international story. I think all Westerners in the Middle East seem to be under threat in any case from the total over-reaction to what has gone on."

A spokesman for Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern said that the minister fundamentally believed in democracy and freedom of speech. "Editors are entitled to publish what they want, but in expressing these rights, it must also be recognised that not everybody in the world would necessarily share Western points of view. We must all be tolerant and respectful of other religion."

The BBC, Channel 4 and ITV – as well as several European newspapers – have re-run the cartoons, although no British newspapers have published them.



Further afield the furore was escalating to the point that the European Union took the extraordinary step of asking the help of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to overcome the crisis.

Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, called OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu last night and asked help from Ihsanoglu and suggested cooperation to end the crisis. Solana labeled the publishing of the cartoons a misfortune and expressed he is displeased with it, adding that he respects the Muslims and their beliefs.

Solana emphasized he does not want relationships with Muslim countries to be damaged and both agreed to make a joint effort.




However branches of the European media were in a less conciliatory mood. In Germany, Ibrahim Mohamad has written a piece for Deutsche Welle, claiming that the crisis is being used by governments in the Arab world to fan hatred of the West for political purposes. He called the reaction to the Mohammed cartoons "exaggerated".

These people just don't seem to get it, do they? Every time they try and shift the blame for the offence, no matter how sophisticated their language, they add insult to injury. While it is undeniable that both sides are capable of playing politics with the issue - the ordinary people in the Arab world are disgusted by the cartoons. Nobody jokes about the holocaust - neither should they publish cartoons that are known to cause distress. Even the UN is now calling for no further publications.

Here is an excerpt from the rather flimsy German justification for publication:


In more than 25 countries, enraged Muslims took to the streets to protest the caricature. They burned Danish flags and called for a boycott of Danish products. There were even numerous threats, including bomb threats targeting western citizens and diplomatic missions. Some, such as the Kuwaiti Islam scholar Sheik Nasem Almisbah, even called for the death of the cartoonist.

The majority of Arab governments only made matters worse by adding fuel to the fire of angry protestors rather than seeking to calm them. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Libya, for instance, recalled their ambassadors to Denmark and demanded a severe punishment for those responsible as well as an official apology from the Danish government.
Such demands show that Arab governments are incapable of understanding the relationship between the state and freedom of expression as it is practiced in Europe. While the right to free speech is anchored in European constitutions and a clear separation between church and state defines daily life, Islam dominates daily life in the Arab world. As a result many Muslims cannot comprehend the differentiation in Europe. They feel personally offended as soon as their religion is presented in a hurtful manner. They also do not understand that politicians in the western world have no direct influence over the media, as is commonly the case in the Arab world.

Calculated reactions

However, the harsh reactions to the cartoon overstep the boundaries of acceptable protests. Even though the Mohammed caricature provokes, it by no means justifies an incitement to murder or a call for boycotts. It is also not reason enough for the Arab world to instrumentalize the protests for political purposes.

Islamist groups are attempting to channel the hatred against the West to bolster their own political influence. Through their apparent solidarity with the wave of protest Arab governments can detract from domestic failure and discredit western calls for reform. Most likely they will also take advantage of the situation to cut back on freedom of the press in their countries.

The editorialist for the Jordanian newspaper al-Shihan was one of the exceptions. In an opinion piece, he provoked readers by asking: "What damages Islam the most: these drawings or pictures showing hostage takers decapitating their victims in front of running cameras, or a suicide bomber who decides to detonate himself at a wedding in Amman?"

Difficult dialogue

Europe -- and Germany in particular-- have gone to great extents in recent years to intensify their dialogue with the Arab and Islamic world. But now the dispute over the cartoon threatens to reverse any progress in bringing the two sides together. It is the view of many Arab commentators that such publications only help the extremist groups who are not interested in interacting with the West. According to Abd Albari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the pan-Arabic newspaper al Quds Al-Arabi, targeted offenses such as the caricature only serve to poison the relationship between Islam and the West. Further publications in other European countries will only widen the rift between the two sides.

Read the entire article here: Arab Protests are Calculated Political Response

Link to our earlier coverage: Cartoon Debate Heats Up

The right to caricature God?

Link to an interesting Danish site offering both sides of the debate freedomofspeech.dk - An open discussion site and information source regarding freedom of speech as it applies to the current situation after the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten published carciatures of the Islamic prophet Mohammed (pbuh)

Tags: Morocco Islam Cartoons news Jyllands-Posten