Holy Burning Hunks of Havarti! Everyone needs to calm down!
Last September, a Danish newspaper published a series of cartoons featuring the prophet Muhammed as the culmination of a sort of contest where the paper asked people to submit that very thing. This caused quite a stir among Danish Muslims, and though they kept the issue alive for few weeks, it did finally seem to die down as a big deal, at least in Denmark. However, apparently an Imam residing in Denmark brought the cartoons with him on a sort of anti-defamation promotional tour of the Middle East in November presumably in order to show some of the brothers what life was like among the infidels. Again, ‘not necessarily anything earth-shattering there. This kind of thing happens regularly here in the US of A. There are Christians here in America who make it their vocation to promote the idea that Christianity is under siege here in this country (the irony!) and that everybody other than themselves is out to get them. And those fundamentalist Christians are regularly lampooned and made fun of in cartoons, thank God.
But back to the matter at hand, for lo did everything change in the whole Jyllands Posten saga, which was looking like a little bit of uninteresting news from last year when a Norwegian Christian magazine appropriately called “Magazinet” decided this January to reproduce the offending cartoons…you know, just for the heck it. The first thing that happened was that somebody burned a Norwegian flag in Gaza of all places. Then others caught wind of it, wondering why the heck a Norwegian flag was being burnt in Gaza, started asking where it all started, Jyllands Posten was brought back from a comfortably cooled off frying pan into the fires of heresy, and then the Danish flags were being torched in Gaza. While in other places like Baghdad they appeared to be burning boxes of Danish food. ‘Pity that, Danish food is pretty good. If it were some second-rate salt cod from Norway specifically sent down there to get rid of it, well that would make sense to burn. Jakarta seems to feel that the Danes should watch their offices being pelted with eggs and tomatoes. So be it, as long as that where it ends.
Now, in Europe, everyone and their brother suddenly has to be called upon to take a position on these infernal cartoons. More European papers have published the cartoons as a show of the power of an open society and more Muslims have become apoplectic with rage over it. And for what? I say enough. Let’s end it now. Everyone needs to cool down before somebody gets hurt. It’s obvious that the radical Islamists are milking this for all it’s worth. The more they can maintain the illusion that the West is out to get Islam, the more support they get from regular, otherwise uninterested Muslim folk. The same applies to the "white" right-wing movements of Europe. They must be just thrilled about this. Now they can say, “Look, here it is, it’s coming true, the evil Saracen is here amongst us and he is trying to dismantle our freedoms!” But don’t fall for it. Don’t let yourself get polarized just to please the tribalists on both sides of this nonsense.
As for the whole freedom of speech issue, well most people who can read a blog know what freedom of speech is, know that we who have it cherish it, and know that anyone who is of a mind to abuse it can easily do so. I have the right to take a bullhorn downtown and stand on a street corner saying the words, “I’ll take a great big smile with that burger please,” and saying it over and over again, all day, every day of the year. It doesn’t mean that I SHOULD do that, and it doesn’t mean that I should act like the victim of a human rights violation if someone asks me to stop.
But back to the matter at hand, for lo did everything change in the whole Jyllands Posten saga, which was looking like a little bit of uninteresting news from last year when a Norwegian Christian magazine appropriately called “Magazinet” decided this January to reproduce the offending cartoons…you know, just for the heck it. The first thing that happened was that somebody burned a Norwegian flag in Gaza of all places. Then others caught wind of it, wondering why the heck a Norwegian flag was being burnt in Gaza, started asking where it all started, Jyllands Posten was brought back from a comfortably cooled off frying pan into the fires of heresy, and then the Danish flags were being torched in Gaza. While in other places like Baghdad they appeared to be burning boxes of Danish food. ‘Pity that, Danish food is pretty good. If it were some second-rate salt cod from Norway specifically sent down there to get rid of it, well that would make sense to burn. Jakarta seems to feel that the Danes should watch their offices being pelted with eggs and tomatoes. So be it, as long as that where it ends.
Now, in Europe, everyone and their brother suddenly has to be called upon to take a position on these infernal cartoons. More European papers have published the cartoons as a show of the power of an open society and more Muslims have become apoplectic with rage over it. And for what? I say enough. Let’s end it now. Everyone needs to cool down before somebody gets hurt. It’s obvious that the radical Islamists are milking this for all it’s worth. The more they can maintain the illusion that the West is out to get Islam, the more support they get from regular, otherwise uninterested Muslim folk. The same applies to the "white" right-wing movements of Europe. They must be just thrilled about this. Now they can say, “Look, here it is, it’s coming true, the evil Saracen is here amongst us and he is trying to dismantle our freedoms!” But don’t fall for it. Don’t let yourself get polarized just to please the tribalists on both sides of this nonsense.
As for the whole freedom of speech issue, well most people who can read a blog know what freedom of speech is, know that we who have it cherish it, and know that anyone who is of a mind to abuse it can easily do so. I have the right to take a bullhorn downtown and stand on a street corner saying the words, “I’ll take a great big smile with that burger please,” and saying it over and over again, all day, every day of the year. It doesn’t mean that I SHOULD do that, and it doesn’t mean that I should act like the victim of a human rights violation if someone asks me to stop.
Posted at 2/04/2006 01:26:00 AM UTC
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3 Comment(s):
100 years ago, as a good Catholic I might have had the same reaction to a cartoon involving God. 50 years ago the Catholic church in Germany was telling my parents what to read, what papers not to buy, which films not to see, etc.
It is only recently that we ouselves have become more liberal. A discussion is needed, but burning embassies is just ridiculous as the governments do not control the media (well, not quite yet anyway).
The problem is that the violent actions of a few become representative of a greater majority. Just as the cartoons have been viewed by the offended Muslins.
One might say that the media coverage of all of this is what has exacerbated everything.
Hard not to see it that way.
I'm sure this will solve everything: Paper to run Holocaust cartoons - http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoonprotests/story/0,,1703925,00.html
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