Washington Report, April 2006, pages 36-37

Two Views

Anti-Islam Cartoons and Muslim Rage

Realizing the Danger and Reconsidering

By Hasan Abu Nimah

IT HAS not been possible to separate the issue of the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) from the highly charged political climate that exists between the “Christian West” and the “World of Islam.”

I should make it very clear that I totally disagree with viewing our world divided along such lines. Since the birth of Islam, there has been constant interaction between the Muslim world and the rest of the world, from China to Europe, and today Muslims live in virtually every society on earth. We should never succumb to a world divided along religious lines.

Immigrant communities have contributed substantially to strengthening ties of understanding and in stretching bridges of constructive encounter among different peoples. This is a positive effect of globalization, and though there are negatives as well, it is the stark task of humanity to adapt to the new environment where it is no more possible to maintain restrictions on people’s movements anywhere in this global village.

The increasing focus on “security” hampers, but does not stop the flow of people and ideas. One hopes that security concerns and requirements will disappear when our world is governed by law, more orderly relations and justice.

The major obstacle that stands in the way of bringing people closer together is the sense that they stand on opposite sides of an unbridgeable divide, a phenomenon that has accelerated dramatically since Sept. 11, 2001.

Yet, at root, these divides are not religious or cultural but political. Unfortunately, as conflicts have been allowed to fester, due to the lack of resolve to settle them justly, the perception has grown that the conflicts themselves are symptoms of a deeper “clash of civilizations,” as some Western intellectuals eager for violent American interventions in the Middle East have argued.

Against this background, the escalating crisis of the Danish cartoons has been raging almost out of control, and decades of painstaking interfaith work seem to have done little to stem it or to immunize us against the impact of such crises.

Danish paper Jyllands-Posten’s decision to invite artists to express their views of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad, was provocative, ill-advised and ignorant, as was the defiant reprinting of the cartoons by other papers in Europe and elsewhere. Against the background of growing anti-Muslim xenophobia in Europe, the searing images from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, it confirmed the worst fears among many that the Western response to terrorist attacks by specific groups was to target a whole religion.

From the start, the Danish authorities refused to work with their country’s Muslim community to defuse the crisis, on the grounds that free expression protected the publication. Yet free expression wasn’t the only issue.

The problem was the growing sentiments of mutual suspicion, among Muslims and other Danes, that created the atmosphere for the cartoons to be printed in the first place. Before the protests turned violent, there were attempts to deal with the crisis peacefully. Following the refusal of the Danish prime minister to grant an audience to 11 Arab ambassadors who wanted to discuss the matter as early as Oct. 27, a number of Muslim organizations submitted complaints to the Danish police, claiming that Jyllands-Posten had committed an offense under section 140 and 266b of the Danish criminal code. But the Regional Public Prosecutor in Viborg decided to discontinue the investigation.

When Denmark’s Muslim leaders found the doors closed within the country, they headed to the Middle East to seek support. That was a step which should have been avoided at any cost, not only because it enlarged the scope of the issue beyond controllable territory, but transferred it to the region where passions were running high for an unlimited number of other issues.

Not one person I have met believes that free expression was at the heart of the publication, because no one I have talked to believes that the European papers that demonstrated their “courage” by insulting the prophet would ever dare to do the same by insulting Jewish symbols. Muslims feel like they are easy targets, and that they, unlike others, are being viewed as collectively guilty for the crimes of a few. They also note with pain that when atrocities are committed against them, only the “bad apples” are blamed; the rest would never be implicated, and rightly so.

The situation is getting extremely dangerous. Urgent and responsible action on both sides is required now to restore some calm. Arabs and Muslims should realize that even when the cause is so just and the provocation is so harsh, reaction should not be allowed to go beyond what is orderly and peaceful. Violent rioting, burning of foreign embassies and destruction of private property, and ugly threats, can only weaken the case and vindicate the provocation. Such actions do also play well in the hands of those eager to tarnish the image of Islam and the character of the Muslim people.

There are ways to convey the message and strongly defend the cause while, at the same time, confirm the compatibility of the noble nature of the faith with the very principle of freedom of expression.

Among Europeans and North Americans it is time to recognize that historic injustices committed in Arab and Muslim countries, often with the support of Western governments, have created a tinderbox of suspicion and hostility that is becoming increasingly explosive. There is a long history of rough dealings with the region and its people and application of double standards.

Yes, we oppose any violence in response to these cartoons. But everyone in the region knows that when the United States does not like what it sees on Al-Jazeera, it resorts to threats of bombing (and in fact did bomb Al-Jazeera’s bureaus three times). The West constantly lectures about nonviolence, and yet people in the region see that violence and humiliation is the way powerful countries prefer to deal with them.

It is time for everyone to examine their own assumptions and prejudices, and for all to listen before speaking, and think before acting.

Ambassador Hasan Abu Nimah is former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations. This op-ed first appeared in The Jordan Times, Feb. 15, 2006.

The Respect of a Cousin

By Edward Miller

After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were republished in European newspapers, riots erupted in Damascus, Gaza, Beirut and elsewhere throughout the Muslim world. The violence is an extreme manifestation of the deep hurt felt by virtually all Muslims.

As we condemn the violence on the streets, perhaps we should take a moment to understand the hurt in the hearts of the great majority of Muslims who did not engage in violence.

For Muslims, the mere rendering of an image of Muhammad is sacrilege. The portrayal of Muhammad in a pejorative fashion is to them an inconceivably offensive desecration, on the level of what would be for us the defilement of a Torah scroll. Because it was done in newspapers across Europe, it was a slap in the face repeated thousands of times.

The act was a blatant and vulgar act of disrespect to Islam.

Perhaps it’s a question of respect, not freedom. Freedom of expression theoretically protects the right of a non-Jew to desecrate a Torah scroll. Yet we would all view freedom of expression as a hollow defense to such a vile act.

Some say Muslims can’t take criticism and simply don’t understand freedom of the press. In my own limited experience, that has not been the case. For the past year I’ve written a column in a Muslim newspaper, Muslims Weekly, in which I’ve criticized suicide bombing, the treatment of Jews under Islamic rule, the anti-Jewish rantings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and even Muslims Weekly’s own reporting about Israel. But it was all done with respect, an informed appreciation of the wonderful benefits that Islam conferred upon the Jewish people, along with a willingness to look at our own imperfections together with those of the other.

Regardless of whether or not the European press was constitutionally free to publish the offensive images, the act was a blatant and vulgar act of disrespect to Islam. Such insults no doubt contribute to the frightening specter of a clash of civilizations.

What can we do as Jews to lessen the hostilities? Perhaps, just perhaps, a little respect would help. Rather than ripping the wounds wider with editorial musings extolling freedom of speech and condemning violent protests, is it not time for a bit of healing?

The pages of this Jewish newspaper present a place for a small start by showing Muslims right here that though we too have the freedom to say anything we like, we choose to convey respect to our Muslim cousins. Printing something positive about Muhammad best does this.

There is a space between romanticizing the past and vilifying it. There is a time to focus on the dark side of history and a time to view the other in the best light. There is a time to cull from our rabbinic writings the good our sages saw in Islam, and there is quite a bit of such sentiment recorded. We Jews need to learn to be more flexible, pursuing the claims of Jews expelled from Arab countries and criticizing anti-Jewish TV programs and cartoons in the Muslim media, while at the same time displaying gratitude for all the good Islam did for us. There is a time to jump over our pain and see the humanity of the other. That time is now. Let us start:

There is a Hadith (oral tradition concerning the words and works of Muhammad) recorded by Bukhari in the name of Amer Bin Rabiha that reads as follows:

“A funeral procession passed us and the Prophet stood up for it. We said, ‘but Prophet of God, this is a funeral of a Jew.’ The Prophet responded, ‘rise.’”

One can search the writings of the ancient non-Jewish world for a more powerful example of a public display of respect for the humanity of the Jew. There simply is no more powerful statement than the single word uttered by Muhammad nearly 14 centuries ago.

Some readers will bombard this newspaper with reams of material showing a darker side to Islam, as if it were just too much for them to hear one good thing. But it is there, it is a sacred part of their tradition, it is good and we should hear it and respect it.

When you give respect you get it. When you take criticism, you earn the right to give it. Perhaps this article will be republished in Muslim newspapers, complete with its critical comments about the pain we feel in the face of anti-Jewish cartoons and worse in Muslim media. Muslim readers may come to understand that an article by a Jew, in a Jewish newspaper, was one of respect, telling its audience: “We know that the one mocked in newspapers in Europe is the one who had the humanity to tell his companions to rise for the funeral procession of a Jew.”

This article first appeared in the Feb. 10, 2006 issue of New York’s The Jewish Week. Reprinted with permission.

< Prev		Next >