The Cartoon Controversy
It’s a sensitive issue, and one that has sparked many bitter arguments, but none lesser than the street riots and mass protests in Pakistan, Iran and other Muslim countries.
Inevitably, this has also created a lot of debate in the blogosphere – in the rest of this post, I’ll try to dissect the different arguments, and tell you what we can learn from all this.
A quick history lesson for those who’ve missed part (or all) of the story:
On 30 September 2005, a Danish newspaper by the name of Jyllands-Posten printed a dozen images presenting caricatures of Muhammad (prophet, Islam). These cartoons had been commissioned by the JP editors (read more about this on the Wikipedia page for the cartoon controversy).
These cartoons caused a minor uproar at the time, but the matter was sidestepped and only blew up in early 2006, when other newspapers (The French La Soir, as well as some Muslim-owned papers) published the cartoons again. Recently, in the last few weeks or so, the conflict has reached a boiling point with states being forced to intervene and calm down the violent elements on both sides.
Like any argument, there are three sides here. I’ll present the opposing sides (pro and anti cartoon) first, and try to draw the truth of the matter from it.
The Cartoon Evangelists
The main argument promoted by anyone supporting Jyllands-Posten and the publishing of the cartoons is the natural right to free speech given to all of us. As I’ve written here, the right to free speech does not automatically give us the right to provocation, and in fact, we must practice responsible speech rather than free speech.
There’s also an element of hatred involved in this debate, where attacks against Islam, its teachings and its history have been published on many websites under the surge of interest regarding the truth behind those cartoons.
In reality, the history of any religion is unclear, complicated and dirty. This does not justify the faults of any one religion, but maybe this can provide some perspective the next time a blogger tries to make fun of “the others”.
The Muslim Fundamentalists
This is a stranger group – more than 80% (my personal estimate) of the Muslim population would not support any sort of violent reactions against the Dutch based on this issue. The small minority that has pursued violence in this regard has been so misguided that in Pakistan during the last week, not a single instance of public demonstrations, protest and violent acts (including the burning of several restaurants) was directed at Danish interests. On the contrary, these were attacks directed at business and political interests generally associated with the Western mindset – all Pakistani-owned, I might add.
Where’s the hate coming from?
You can read about this in detail here. Without rehashing the arguments, the point is that the reaction to the cartoons does not stem merely from the categorization of Muhammad (and by extension all Muslims) as terrorists – it is a product of a brewing anti-Western sentiment after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For all those bloggers debating the cost of the Iraq War for US citizens, they might want to consider looking outside and seeing what damage the war has caused to people in Iraq and in the rest of the Muslim world.
As a sidenote, Jyllands-Posten has issued an apology over the cartoons. Too little too late?
