Opinion Editorials, January 2006, To see today's opinion articles, click here: www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
|
|
Some Irresponsible Scandinavians
Arab News, 29 January 2006
The publication of the Danish illustrations of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and their republication in Norway offers not one but two separate offenses to the Muslim world. The most obvious is that not only was the Prophet depicted in ten of the twelve cartoons, but also that one of the illustrations portrayed him as a terrorist. The second offense is that people in Denmark and Norway and no doubt in most of Europe and North America seem blissfully unaware of precisely how outrageous these images are to Islamic sensibilities.
The civilized world, including every single Muslim country, is part of the struggle against the international terror of Al-Qaeda and its offshoots. Every reputable Muslim leader has condemned their crimes and made it absolutely clear that the terrorists’ claims to be acting in the name of Islam are utterly false. Muslim communities, in the West, especially in the US, Spain and the UK, where there has been direct experience of Al-Qaeda’s depravity, have gone out of their way to state unequivocally that they deplore without reservation these barbarous acts. In the wake of the London bombings, it seemed that the message that Muslims were not terrorists was getting across. The British authorities with Muslim and other faith leaders worked hard to calm anger and maintain a proper sense of proportion. Yes, the bombers were all Muslims, but they were dupes of the heinous doctrines of a few evil teachers. Muslim communities have declared this again and again. Yet the doltish notion that every Muslim is a terrorist clearly persists in some quarters. A cartoonist in Denmark believed he could raise a smirk among his readers by perpetuating this distortion by depicting the Prophet in a scabrous manner.
What is so deeply disappointing is that the Danish and indeed Norwegian authorities have failed to adequately condemn the publication of the image or to directly apologize for the hurt it has caused to everyone in the Muslim world. Instead, we have heard the usual responses about freedom of speech and governments having no control over the press and media. Setting aside the possibility that these publications — like many in Europe — may in fact be the direct beneficiaries of public government subsidies and tax breaks, this issue of an “independent” media is a red herring. No one is talking about censorship.
What Muslims are saying that with every freedom comes a responsibility. Hopefully out of ignorance rather than malevolence, something deeply painful to the entire Muslim world was published in a Danish newspaper. That in itself was an irresponsible use of the freedom of the press, which in no country anywhere is an unlimited freedom allowing journalists to vilify, libel or lie.
Yet what has made matters worse is that the only regret felt by the Danish authorities seems to be over the difficulties the cartoon has created for them. It would be such a simple matter to recognize that the newspaper had exceeded decent norms and therefore to condemn not only the cartoon, but the provocative and unenlightened message within it. This is a very sad business.
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
||
| The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04). | ||
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |