The Self-Substantiating Cartoon
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Keywords: Politics, Religion
I was going to let this whole issue slip by, but a headline caught my attention as I was about to go to bed: Embassies in Syria Are Burned in Furor Over Prophet Cartoon. While this was not very surprising, considering the attack in Gaza days ago, it was nevertheless outrageous. All this over some political cartoons?
Muslims claim that depictions of Muhammad are blasphemous (edit: it should be noted that the reason for this is to discourage idolatry; in which case, one has to wonder how a satirical image can be conducive to idolatry, and one also has to wonder if this strong fervor that Muslims are raising over Muhammad is itself a form of idolatry), but it is curious to note that for hundreds of years, there have been numerous depictions of this final prophet by Muslims and by Westerners, all without inciting this kind of a ruckus. It is also interesting to note that Muslims have never raised a fuss about the countless depictions (both satirical and non-satirical) of Jesus, who has a place in Islam alongside Muhammad as one of the Prophets of Islam. Even Christians are not known to burn down embassies or initiate large-scale boycotts over the large number of unflattering depictions of Jesus in media (remember the dancing Jesus in The Simpsons?), so why do we see this with Muslims? And as for the satire itself, Muslims are no foreigners to the use of unsavory cartoons to express a political perspective. The problem, I think, stems from the strong currents of fundamentalism that courses through the region in addition to the lack of a notion of religious freedom; in fairness, I would imagine that a few hundred years ago, Christians would have been equally unhappy at someone who draws a satirical image of their deity.
Of course, the great irony is that by reacting the way they did, through excessive violence, death threats, and boycotts, the Muslim world has validated the cartoon and did more harm to their image than any satirical cartoon could alone. If the Islamic world is truly concerned about "Islamophobia," this reaction certainly does not help (besides, since when does a cartoon suddenly represent the views of everyone in an entire country at large?). A web poll (i.e., this is not scientific) on aljazeera.net showed that 53% of respondents felt that boycotts were inappropriate. Assuming that those who oppose the boycotts would be sensible enough to also oppose the violence, it is certainly a relief to see that a majority of the people believe that there has been a gross overreaction, but that the margin of the majority is so small is somewhat worrisome.
Finally, the other impetus that drove me to write this entry (and thus putting off finishing the other entry that I was hoping to post tonight; I'll get around to that some time tomorrow :P) was this headline that I saw in Google News: Don't reprint cartoons, begs sheikh. As a staunch supporter of free speech, I feel that these cartoons need to be shown, as a vindication for the principles of free speech and as a show that this kind of extreme overreaction is unproductive. Ultimately, this is a matter of respect--not respect for a religion or any other belief or point of view, but respect for something far greater: the right to express those beliefs and points of view, regardless of what the content of that expression may be.
And so, here is the worst of the twelve cartoons printed in the Jyllands-Posten:
Edit: I should note that when I speak of freedom of speech, I am referring to true freedom of speech. A liberal who invokes freedom of speech when publishing sexually-oriented literature that is offensive to religious groups but who then tries to get racist remarks censored is not a true supporter of freedom of speech. It is easy for one to support speech that is beneficial to their aims, but it is only when someone is willing to support speech that is directly contradictory to their aims that they are a true supporter of freedom of speech. Political correctness is just a sugar-coated form of censorship. So on that note, I think that this political cartoon appearing in Arab newspapers is inaccurate because the people who would outlaw the racist and anti-Semitic images are the same politically correct people who would refuse to show the Muhammad cartoon (e.g., CNN, the US State Department, etc.), and the true supporters of freedom of speech would not try to outlaw any of the three scenarios depicted.
The freedom to swing your fist ends where the other person's nose begins, but freedom of speech has no limits. There are so many people in the world who are offended by so many different things. If you censor things so that nobody would be offended, this would be very, very dull world.
Update: Instead of constantly editing this entry, I have posted more of my personal thoughts in this entry and this entry.
This entry was edited on 2006/02/09 at 17:05:10 GMT -0500.
Posted by Darraz
I am also for freedom of Speech,but my freedom should end
where the other s begins. Freedom does not mean offending the fundamental values of millions of People. It is not fair to put a Historian in jail just because he expressed his doubt about the HOLOKAUST and let a journalist free despite his open insult of many moslems arround the world.