The Danish Cartoon Fiasco
From Silvers
Acknowledgements
The following content was collected with the help of the members of the American Academy of Religion Islam Group and other helpful individuals.
All omissions, ethical lapses, errors, and editorial comments are my own doing.
Laury Silvers, Saratoga Springs, NY
February 26, 2006
Introduction to these Pages on the Danish Cartoons
"Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"
In the following pages, I speak as a scholar of Religion, Islam, and as a North American Muslim activist caught up in this historical moment. In light of those multiple identities you will find an attempt to represent the various North American perspectives on the Danish Cartoon incident, Academic responses to the issue, and my own observations and critique. I have selected representative debates from various quarters in the Muslim American community. For instance, libertarian Muslim Ali Eteraz wrote an open letter of dissent to the historically conservative Muslim Student Association of the University of Illinois after they tried to silence their college paper and a non-Muslim critic. His account offers a window onto two very distinct reactions to this debate in the American Muslim community. I have also collected essays, commentaries, and pedagogical approaches from my colleagues in the American Academy of Religion Islam Group. Finally, as an academic and a Muslim activist I will suggest throughout the following pages that the Cartoon fiasco seems to be a catalyzing moment for North American Muslims who have long been in the process of defining themselves in distinction from and in community with Muslims abroad. In keeping with my odd position, I hope these pages will be both an academic analysis of the event and a contribution to the ongoing development of a self-definition.
Wikipedia Entry
The wikipedia entry on the cartoons offers a timeline of events and relevant newsmedia articles, fatwas, statements, and articles. If you are interested take a look at the web site on the development of the wikipedia page as events unfolded. I look forward to the first dissertation written on the construction of religious and secular narratives through social networking software.
The Just Plain Sensible
There are two essays on the Danish Cartoon fiasco that stand above the others for their good sense.
- Emran Qureishi's article properly calls attention to the hypocrisy of governments in the Middle East that destroy our Islamic heritage and oppress their people with one hand and point in outrage at Western governments with the other.
- Robert Wright writes a sensible piece on free speech and journalistic integrity entitled "The Silent Treatment." Muslims in Europe experience racism in a manner somewhat similar to the racism experienced by Blacks in the States. He shows how journalists in the US have handled potentially explosive matters in the past.
With respect to Wright's article, I think it is important to realize that while there is prevalent racism against Muslims in the US, it is not the kind of racism and systematic historical marginalization that Blacks and others have experienced here. I am not denying the shameful and illegal round-ups of Muslims after 9/11, the loss of our civil liberties, the FBI wire-taps and investigations that nearly every one of us has had to go through, the right wing and now liberal racism that we get shoved in our faces everyday. I am not denying that mosques get burnt down and that Muslims get physically and verbally attacked for simply being Muslim. All this happens, and it is still not similar to the continued systemic racism that Blacks have suffered in the United States.
I would argue that Muslims in Europe experience a similar level of extreme racism that Blacks continue to suffer here and so journalistic restraint is appropriate in those extreme circumstances. But the situation of American Muslims is not bad enough to require that level of care. I would have preferred to see this story covered by the NYTimes. I think there would have been a different end, both because of the inherently good journalistic practices of the Times and relatively safe situation of Muslims in the States.
Both articles will be found on Find Sensible Analysis Right Here!
A Response by Muslim Religious Scholars Abroad
The following summary position and analysis was signed by a large number of Muslim religious scholars around the world. It summarizes what we may assume is a broadly accepted analysis of the event among Muslim religious authorities.
One should read this summary and analysis before reading the North American Responses. Although the document was signed by at least one North American scholar, Shaykh Hamza Yusef of Zaytuna, the document in no way suggests the complexity of discussion or debate surrounding this issue in the North American context. As a summary position it suggests the matter is finished now that the proper authorities have spoken. Note that the document begins by stating that is was written on "behalf of Muslim Religious Leaders" as if they speak for all Muslim Religious leaders and for all of us. With due respect to their authority in the global and North American community, my sense is that the discussion over the cartoons is not finished by a long shot. Meaning, the Danish cartoon event has been a catalyzing force among North American Muslims to articulate their own distinct Islamic character in the global Muslim community and that discussion is just warming up.
Read The Bayan on the Cartoons
North American Responses
1. Autonomy and Community
Imam Zaid Shakir wrote an insightful essay on the tension felt between Muslims in North America and Muslims in the Middle East entitled, "Clash of the Uncivilized: Insights on the Cartoon Controversy." Imam Zaid's piece may be historically most important for the selection quoted below in which he states clearly that North American Muslims may have to "go it alone." Imam Zaid is arguably one of the most important conservative Muslim leaders in the United States. His call expresses a long-held discontent among North American Muslims over the meddling of Muslims abroad in affairs here. A mundane case in point is the division in communities over sighting the moon for important dates such as the first and last day of Ramadan. Muslims in North America are urged by religious scholars abroad--especially those in Saudi--to fast according to their calendar and not according to regional moonsightings. One typically meets Muslims in the same community beginning their fast on different days and holding different communal prayers for the end of Ramadan holiday. In this respect, some American Muslisms view the violent responses abroad to the Danish Cartoon incident as another example of Muslims over there ruining the lives and hard work of Muslims over here. Imam Zaid's response suggests this incident may have been the tipping point for American Muslim self-definition.
Imam Zaid's challenge comes on the heels of the growing influence of Sherman Jackson's book The Third Ressurection in which Jackson details the history of Blackamerican Muslim identity, the racism of immigrant Muslims against Blackamerican Muslims, and the necessity of Blackamerican Muslims to forge an orthodox Islam that incorporates the best of their American identity and history. See for instance, the Third Ressurection Blog. The book has had a powerful influence well beyond the Black community among Muslims who self-identify as American Muslims through American culture and history. See my essay "Nourished by the Waters of Indigenous Islam." There are a growing number of American Muslims who are articulating a distinction between their own identity and those abroad while remaining clearly within the larger global Muslim community. A quick look around My Space, North American Muslim blogs, and E-Zines demonstrates the diversity and energy of North American Muslims in this ongoing conversation. See for example:
- My Space:
Start with The Kominas My Space, then start roaming from friend to friend to see who is out there and what everyone is up to.
- Blogs:
Svend White's Blog Akram's Razor Sunni Sisters Blog, Muhajabah's set of blogs, Abdul-Halim S.'s Planet Grenada, the blogs on my website ProgressiveIslam.Org. Start with these and go through their Blog Rolls to get a sense of who is out there and what folks are thinking.
- E-Zines:
Muslim Wake Up! a progressive e-zine for political, religious, and cultural commentary. You'll find everything from political analysis, to cutting-edge self-criticism, to new Muslim literature in an honest, open format.
AltMuslim a nice pun on newsgroups and alternative views on Islam. It focuses on news items with critical and self-critical analysis. You cannot pin Alt Muslim down into a religious orientation. Shahed Amanullah runs the thing like a real newspaper with real breadth and real analysis.
The American Muslim an e-zine run by a broad selection of centrist and traditionally oriented American Muslim academics, traditional scholars, and commentators. This journal would represent the "safest" expression of American Islam out there. Nothing surprising to be found there, but that is why it is important. It represents those who are holding onto the center and urging others to do so.
al-Jadid is a Los Angeles based journal of art and culture.
Huriyah is a web-zine based in the US devoted to GLBTQ issues in the Muslim community internationally.
- But back to Imam Zaid:
- Imam Zaid writes in the piece, "Whatever we do, as Muslims in the West, we may be approaching the day when we will have to "go it alone." If our coreligionists in the East cannot respect the fact that we are trying to accomplish things here in the West, and that their oftentimes ill-considered actions undermine that work in many instances, then it will be hard for us to consider them allies. How can one be an ally when he fails to consult you concerning actions whose negative consequences you will suffer? No one from the Muslim east consults us before launching these campaigns. No one seeks to find out as to how their actions are going to affect our lives and families. The confused incompetence of the Muslim countries around the issue of moon-sighting, a situation that has painful consequences for Muslims here in America is bad enough, the added pressure generated by these reoccurring crises is becoming unbearable for many."
Click Imam Zaid Shakir to read the whole piece.
2. Is it Free Speech or Hate Speech?
This section includes two essays on free speech and hate speech by American Muslims and a note on a clampdown on Muslim free speech by Homeland Security.
- Muslim American professor of Law at Seton Hall, Bernard Freamon gives his perseptive on the legal issues surrounding free speech in the Danish and European Union context in the journal Jurist: Legal News and Research.
- He writes, "Under both [legal standards detailed in his article] it appears to me that the Jyllands-Posten publication of cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad with depictions and caricatures may very well be a violation of Danish Penal Code section 266b, if it can be shown that the editor knew that the religious sensibilities of Muslims would be deeply offended by the caricatures and that he intended to stir hatred and ridicule with their publication."
- Ali Eteraz is a free-lance writer and blogger on my activism site ProgressiveIslam.Org. Eteraz recently wrote a blog detailing the history of a dispute over printing the cartoons at the University of Illinois and the efforts of the Muslim Student Association there to silence the college paper and an individual who protested. He ends the piece with an open letter criticizing the Muslim Student Association. The piece ignores some basic facts about the history of free speech, the academy, and racism in the North American context. Nevertheless, it is an eloquent cri de couer. Eteraz's views on the whole tend towards a kind of libertarian Islam and are entirely without apologetics directed toward the West. Meaning, when Eteraz demands unrestrained free speech he is not trying to impress non-Muslims with his tolerance for enlightenment values. These are his values.
Read these two essays on Free Speech and Hate Speech.
- Homeland Security has been making progress in its valiant efforts to destroy every last shred of Free Speech in the United states. Recently they denied Tariq Ramadan an entry visa to the United States to teach at Notre Dame. Ramadan is a highly influential scholar on Muslims in the West and Islamic Revival. The American Academy of Religion is suing the Goverment for denying foreigners entry solely for their ideas.
Read Ramadan's essay Tariq Ramadan on "free speech and civic responsibility."
3. Appeasing the West
Oddly, Svend White says he doesn't typically get to speak from his expertise as a Danish American Muslim. White's analysis is interesting for his position as a Danish (born to it) Muslim. I post a quote below highlighting some of his observations from this perspective. White has been a open critic of the efforts of progressive Muslims, specifically the past and present formations of the Progressive Muslim Union for their lack of sensitivity and committment to traditional Islamic thought. Here he criticizes journalist Mona Eltahawi of PMU for ignoring basic facts and nuance in an effort to appease Western sensibilities on free speech. Read her article "A Mountain out of a Molehill" published in Muslim Wake Up!. Also see the official PMU response to the incident in which they affirm the rights and responsibilities of free speech through Islamic norms and contextualize the event in the Muslim experience. But do not take White for a reactionary conservative Muslim. He is no such thing. White represents a cautious trend within progressive Islam. He is an open critic of the shortcomings of both conservative and progressive elements in the larger Muslim community while arguing for the development and articulation of traditional scholarship in an American context. To my mind, this has not always been a successful mix, such as when he has argued that gender distinctions in Islam are "separate but equal." But there is no doubt that he is representative of a large part of the Muslim community who support progressive critiques inasmuch as those critiques do not undermine what they understand to be the foundations and gifts of the Islamic intellectual tradition.
- White writes, "In recent years, Denmark has been lurching rightward and turning increasingly hostile to Islam and Muslims (who now make up about 4% of the population). It is becoming distressingly commonplace to see headlines about prominent Danish figures openly expressing prejudice against Islam, and mainstream parties are working increasingly closely with hard-line nationalist (and, of course, Muslim-baiting) parties that were once rightly viewed as beyond the pale. It’s gotten so bad in Denmark–and I’m sorry to say so as someone whose maternal side of the family is there and who has long taken pride in Denmark’s once enlightened policies–that a prominent pundit in neighboring Sweden declared Denmark the most xenophobic country in Europe. By all accounts, inter-communal relations in Denmark (which for the most part are Muslim/non-Muslim relations) are becoming worryingly strained and beset with prejudice and misunderstandings. This is the essential political and social backdrop to Jyllands-Posten’s attacks on the Prophet, and it missing from the Muslim WakeUp piece and so many other discussions."
4. Activism: To eat or not to eat danish
In a sense, all of the entries above are forms of activism and demonstrate the lively and diverse responses among Muslims in North America. With respect to explicit forms of activism, the conservative American Muslim civil rights and media organization Council on American Islamic Relations seems to be at the forefront. I will highlight their efforts here. North American Activism seems to be centered around seeing the event as a teaching moment about Islam, Muslims, interfaith matters. There have been smaller activist actions such as the Muslim Canadian Congress' call to support free speech by opposing the boycott against Danish goods.
- Council on American Islamic Relations carefully states their action alert as a 'defense' of Muhammad through respectful action. Note how the action alert makes use of a "What Would Muhammad do?" approach to direct the feelings of pain and anger over the cartoons into appropriate action. They also launched an inter-faith outreach campaign to Explore the Life of Muhammad through local and national chapters. Earlier in the year, CAIR also requested a meeting with the Danish Ambassador to discuss the incident.
- The Muslim Canadian Council has put out a statement objecting to the boycott of Danish goods by Muslims. This element of the campaign to support the Danes became unintentionally humorous when spam e-mails were sent out by related groups urging Muslims to eat their "creamy Havarti."
5. Statements, Appeasement, and Internalized Racism
I have resisted listing "statements" against rioting by Muslims because I find it offensive that we Muslims as individuals and as a global community should have to assure others through "statements" that we think violence is "not good." When Non-Muslims demand statements from us, they demonstrate that they do not think that we share the basic ethical norms considered common to all human beings. To make myself perfectly clear, they think Muslims are not human. I see the Muslim rush to assure non-Muslims that we are "not violent" as a dangerous appeasement and a symptom of internalized racism. It is not the purpose of this webpage to convince anyone that Muslims are human. As a gesture toward the common good, though, I will offer the following insight on our shared humanity from the Firesign Theater folks, "I think we're all bozos on this bus."
Click through to "statements" to read my critique of two statements from the Muslim community in Canada and a response written by Muslim religious scholars from around the world.
One reason statements do not work is because we have to get them through to Canardistan. Please read the section on the residents and thoughts of the ducks who live there.
Academic Scholars of Islamic Studies Respond
The first part of the academic section contains recent essays, commentaries, and shared pedagogical approaches by academic scholars of Islamic Studies. The second part briefly points out the diversity of Muslim attitudes towards images and images of the Prophets and provides a link to a database of Muslim and non-Muslim images of Muhammad throughout history. I end that section with a selection of incidents over images, satire, and insults on the Prophet in the North American context. The third part is a scaled down version of the questions and challenges that introduced the original formation of these pages drawn up for my students in my Islam class.
1. Essays, Commentaries, and Pedagogical Approaches
- Juan Cole, historian of Islam at the University of Michigan, discussing the Danish cartoon situation on his award winning blog Informed Comment
- Daniel Varisco, anthropologist at Fordham, discusses the Danish cartoon situation on his blog Tabsir. In his newest blog on the subject, Varisco nicely takes up the counter-cartoons that are worse than the Danish ones that started it all.
- Amir Hussain, religionist at Loyola Marymount, and Briane Turley, West Virginia University published this open letter on the Danish cartoons in The American Religious Experience.
- Amir Hussain wrote a superb summary on the "Rushdie Affair" published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Click here to be taken to a pdf of the article.
- Behrooz Ghamari, historian and sociologist at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has published an essay discussing the cartoons and the limits of free speech when it is hate speech entitled, "When a Cartoon is not a Cartoon."
- Whitney Bodman, Religionist at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary wrote this op-ed piece for his local paper entitled "Freedom of Respect." I have posted his op-ed piece on a page for articles of ethical good sense entitled The Golden Rule.
Look at the following Pedagogical Approaches to Timely News Items. Academics talk about how they'll be talking about the Cartoon issue in their courses. These comments add significant perspective to the issue and perhaps anticipate readers questions. But more than that, the comments will give you a sense of how academics in Islamic studies deal with controversial issues such as these in classroom.
2. On Images in Islam
There are, and always have been, images of Muhammad composed by Muslims. The traditions on the permissibility of images have never been simply forbidden or permitted.
One scholar of Islamic studies summarized the positions on images in Islam.
- He writes, "Sunnis and Shi'is both have the hadith that angels will not enter a room or house with pictures [of live beings] in it. There are a variety of other traditions too, though so far I haven't seen anything about images of the Prophet or other Prophets per se. Shi'i jurists discuss whether the traditions establish prohibition or just disapproval. They also discuss the special case of prayers in a room with pictures in it, and whether the location of the picture relative to the worshiper makes a difference."
Archive of Muhammad Images
This page has a good sample of classical and contemporary Islamic (positive) images of Muhammad, Orientalist illustrations of Muhammad in the Inferno, contemporary caricatures such as Muhmmad as a "Super Best Friend" on South Park, depictions of Muhammad in Christian polemic, post-9/11 American cartoons, the recent Danish cartoons, the even more inflammatory images of possible Arab origin (the thought is that they trying to make the situation worse to force a reaction), and world-wide responses to the Danish incident.
Incidents of Images, Satire, and Insults on the Prophet in North America
The following examples of images, satire, and an infamous insult on the Prophet Muhammad in the North American context caused concern and a good deal of discussion among Muslims, but no riots.
- There is a frieze of the Prophet Muhammad in the Supreme Court.
- Remember that "What would Muhammad Drive" political cartoon found in national newspapers after 9/11 depicting Muhammad driving a truck with explosives in it?
- Look at the response to these matters by the Council on American Islamic Relations. Note that they are a conservative advocacy organization. Compare their account of the frieze of Muhammad at the Supreme Court to that of the Muslim Women Lawyer's association Karamah.
- There is a South Park episode "Super Best Friends" in which Muhammad is a super-hero with the power of fire who fights alongside other prophets and sages to reveal that David Blaine is a fraud. I just do not know a Muslim (uh, under a certain "age") who does not love South Park, or this episode.
- The recent South Park two-part episode "Cartoon Wars" was not about the Danish Cartoons but rather a comment on Comedy Central's censorship of SP's controversial episode on Scientology and Tom Cruise. Comedy Central refused to air the Scientology episode again. The episode is also unavailable for purchase on iTunes. The first episode of "Cartoon Wars" is now available on iTunes, but not the second episode in which they make their direct attack on CC's censorship. Muhammad is never shown in the episode, obstensibly because CC censors the scene. SP has already depicted Muhammad without incident as noted above.
- Michael Muhammad Knight infamously said "I can endorse woman-led prayer without the need of a scholar telling me that it’s okay and has precedents from the Prophet’s life. If the Prophet wouldn’t have liked it, then in 2005 the Prophet is wrong, shit on him. La ilaha illa Allah." Quite a few people declared Mike an apostate for this statement and simply cut him off. But quite a few others sincerely engaged him which lead to an interesting and sympathetic series of blogs and comments about struggling with unasked questions about the Prophet's life.
3. Some Considerations
Is it a "clash of civilizations"?
Edward Said famously responds to [Samuel Huntington's thesis in his essay "The Clash of Ignorance" in the Nation.
- Said wrote, "In both articles, the personification of enormous entities called "the West" and "Islam" is recklessly affirmed, as if hugely complicated matters like identity and culture existed in a cartoonlike world where Popeye and Bluto bash each other mercilessly, with one always more virtuous pugilist getting the upper hand over his adversary. Certainly neither Huntington nor Lewis has much time to spare for the internal dynamics and plurality of every civilization, or for the fact that the major contest in most modern cultures concerns the definition or interpretation of each culture, or for the unattractive possibility that a great deal of demagogy and downright ignorance is involved in presuming to speak for a whole religion or civilization. No, the West is the West, and Islam Islam."
Robert Fisk writes in the UK independent (reprinted through the following link without requiring a log in), "This isn't Islam versus Secularism."
Are there no restraints on Free Speech in the United States?
Consider the situation of Muslim immigrants in Europe
- What is the difference between secularism here and in Europe?
- What is immigration, assimilation, and nationalism like in Europe compared to here? What does an immigrant have to give up to be an "American"?
- What does an immigrant have to give up to be "French" or "Danish"?
- Islam on the Outskirts of the Welfare State is an excellent discussion of Muslim immigrant workers in Europe. Pay attention to the language, in particular where the Swede says of a community of immigrants that this area will never be "Swedish" again.
- The Queen of Denmark declares that Danes must find a counter-balance to Islam regardless of the effects.
Rioting, Racism, and Marginalization
- Why would Muslims riot and in doing so act in a way that goes against their own stated ends? Or stated more bluntly, the rioting suggests that the cartoons are accurate depictions of Muhammad's way. So why would Muslims riot? I have no answer, but would suggest that examining why rioters often destroy their own neighborhoods first is a good beginning to thinking it through.
- (Now that I have had to talk about this matter publicly a bit, I realize that I should be less subtle in drawing comparisons in order to make the point. If some Black people in the US have rioted in response to offenses such as the Rodney King case, and White people have not rioted over what Whites might consider a similar offense, do Black people riot because they are civilizationally inferior to Whites? Of course not, but that is exactly the assumption being made with respect to rioting Muslims. Consider the other factors that come into play such as being economically, socially, politically marginalized and brutalized by authorities.)
A Muslim Double-Standard?
- Last but not least, is this a Muslim double standard? How do we weigh the Muslim response to the caracatures of Muhammad in comparison to way that some Muslims have caracatured Jews? Keep the categories straight (note: by making this distinction I am not denying the existence of Muslim anti-semitism. It exists). Many Muslims are likewise repulsed by defamations Moses or Jesus.
- I'll end on this note, you are not likely to find an example similar to "Piss Christ" among Muslims. But you are also not likely to find many daringly historical-critical treatments of the lives of the prophets either. What is the trade-off?
(I wish it were) Satire
Rose of the Prophet Muhammad, a Flaky Pastry that is, and other Ironies
- What could better embody the Dr. Strangelove in all this than these twin responses out of Iran:
- Not to be outdone by American provincialism, the Iranians have their own "Freedom Fries" moment and rename everyone's favorite breakfast pastry "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad." Then in their race to be a world nuclear power, Iran lobs any warhead it can get its hands on and declares a holocaust cartoon contest. Relatedly, please see Daniel Varisco's insightful blog on the comics and satire that should perhaps be subtitled "Why it just isn't funny to put Anne Frank in bed with Hilter."
- Emran Qureishi, fellow at Harvard University points out some pathetic ironies in the New York Times,
- "Within the Muslim world, the cartoon imbroglio has given ammunition to the two entrenched forces for censorship — namely, authoritarian regimes and their Islamic fundamentalist opposition. Both would prefer to silence their critics. By evincing outrage over the Danish cartoons, authoritarian regimes seek to divert attention from their own manifold failures and to bolster their religious credentials against the Islamists who seek to unseat them.
- Ironies abound. Saudi Arabia leads the protests, yet is systematically destroying its Islamic heritage. The Wahhabis who dominate Saudi Arabia do not believe in honoring Islam's holy men and women or the Prophet Muhammad (they've proscribed the celebration of his birthday). Driven by sectarian zeal, the Saudi authorities have razed and dug up virtually every site in Mecca and Medina linked to Muhammad, members of his family and his companions.
- But these acts of disrespect and desecration have failed to arouse any protest from those who now take to the streets to condemn the Danish cartoons.
- Elsewhere, Sunni Muslim fundamentalist leaders express anger over the Danish cartoons, but no comparable indignation over suicide bombers who attacked Shiite Muslim mosques during Ramadan in Iraq. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws have been used by fundamentalists to attack Christians and Hindus." See Find Sensible Analysis Right Here! for a fully copy of the essay.
- A New York Times article outlines the tragic history of other images of Muhammad and one person who was murdered over one of them.
- There was a statue of Muhammad on the roof of NY State Apellate court for 55 years. The Egyptian, Indonesian, and Pakistani governments requested it be removed and destroyed. Last anyone knows it was lying in a stand of grass in New Jersey.
- The NYTimes publicly apologized for running a Persian minature (meaning, a depiction of Muslim origin) accompanying an article about Islam in 1974.
- The premiere of Mustafa Akkad's film about the Prophet, "The Message," was halted when a DC based Muslim group held hostages, killed a reporter, and wounded 15 others in a hideous and pathetically ironic effort to stop the showing of the film globally. The film is now loved by Muslims worldwide, shown regularly on television in Muslim majority countries, and sold widely on Islamic websites.
Rose of the Danish Flemming
For a more balanced look at Flemming Rose, you'll have to go to Fox News.
- Editor Flemming Rose tells his story in the Washington Post: F. Rose on "Why I published those Cartoons"
- Ebrahim Moosa of Duke University writes, "Interesting self-defense by Fleming (Flaming) Rose. Gosh, if only Europe were that peaceful and pro-Islamic I would nominate him and his paper for the Nobel Prize. This person is naive and totally engaged in gobbledygook. These cartoons are nothing but the actions of castrated Northern Europeans who felt left out that only the Americans and the Brits are 'sticking it' to the Mazlems, as they call them. While the French and Germans allegedly opposed the war in Iraq, both countries were providing the Americans with valuable intelligence on Iraq. So much for being forthright in matters related to human rights. Anybody who has visited certain parts of Europe as I have recently, cannot but help notice the heightened sense of Islamophobia displayed in public conversations with both scholars and lay public. That is at the kernel of the cartoon controversy. Flaming Rose is now claiming European particularity for the cartoon event. Give me a break! We live in a global village. Of course, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark: it's the state of journalism, stupid!!"
- I would argue that if the New York Times were covering the back story, how would they have done it? What would have been the result? I think we would have seen balanced reporting, extensive research, insight, and an ethical approach that we all could have learned from. Rose claims his real intention was to encourage "enlightenment thinking" among Muslims. So good of him. Allah knows we Muslims would have no interest in the Enlightenment or Rational Thought without the arm-twisting of such intellectually subtle creatures such as Flemming Rose. But I suspect Rose, like his colleague and partner in hate speech Daniel Pipes, was never really after rational discussion.
- The Danish Newspaper rejected cartoons depicting Jesus 3 years ago because they "weren't funny," could "offend some readers," and were not directly solicted by the newspaper. The present editor of the paper notes these differences between the Jesus and Muhammad cartoons to demonstrate that the newspaper's editorial decision to publish the Muhammad cartoons made perfect sense.
- From the Wikipedia entry: Although the Danish press is free to satirise, a 2004 report by the European Network Against Racism concluded that a disproportionate amount of editorial space is devoted to negative reporting on ethnic minorities. Shortly before the publication of the Muhammad cartoons, Jyllands-Posten ran a frontpage story about an alleged Muslim death-list of Jewish names—until it emerged that the rumours could not be confirmed
- Richard Itani points out what he sees to be the hypocrisies on the European side in his essay, "Danes finally apologize to Muslims, but for the Wrong Reasons"
(It is) Satire
- For some actual satire click through to the comics "Jesus and Mo". Warning those of you who still need to read the Wikipedia entry on Satire, you'll find this offensive. Warning to those of you on the other side of this issue who still think that the Jyllands-Posten thing was satire (and so protected speech) and not a racist pile of you know what aka hate-speech (and so maybe not protected; or at the very least unethical), well compare these to those and see whether or not 1. you laugh, and 2. if you learn anything. Jesus and Mo is a little on the sweet side (not quite Lenny Bruce), but still I learned that Muslims win in the sex vs. pork debate.
- Tinku's World goes straight to the heart of the matter, with a surgical blade. So sharp you won't feel the cut, and that is how comedy takes down the system: Tinku's World: Episode One. "Tinku considers whether the American Dream is in fact an American Nightmare for "Black Man." He also investigates the social status of Arabs as the only group below dogs in America. Tinku probes the question with a barber, dog grooming ladies, and a particularly outspoken NBA peacenik." You can subscribe to free podcasts of the episodes on the front page of the site.
- Check out these two satirical sites in the vein of the Onion: The LIfe and Times of Ahmed and Muhammad "jokes and humor for Muslims, Infidels, and Terrorists." And Islamica News. While there check out the Islamica Community and admit you cannot tell the difference between teenagers and teenagers and teenagers. I'm feeling old just looking at the titles of the threads.
- Michael Muhammad Knight is finally making plans to carry out his challenge to wrestle Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR. Perhaps in Mike, Muslims will have their Lenny Bruce, albeit a Lenny Bruce in white tights and powder blue sultan wrestling boots in the vein of the Iron Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher.
