February 24 , 2006

Aggressive at Home, Submissive Abroad

The cartoon controversy in Europe is a reminder of the collective weakness of Muslims in Europe and of the Muslim governing establishment elsewhere.
The cartoons are maliciously and deliberately designed to incite, inflame and mock the Muslims worldwide. Who started all this? Significantly, the cartoons in question were initially submitted on the invitation and initiative of Denmark’s paper Jyllands-Posten which — three years earlier in April 2003 — rejected cartoons satirizing Jesus Christ. As noted by Nicholas Lemann, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School, the Danish newspaper editor who first published the cartoons “knew what he was doing.” To show solidarity with Denmark, on February 1, newspapers in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland reprinted some of the cartoons. This reprinting across much of Europe on the same day appears orchestrated, coordinated and synchronized. The Norwegian publication, Magazinet also published a similar cartoon during January. During April 2005, the Queen of Denmark had made inflammatory utterances about Islam without those being adequately countered.
The Muslim elites, in response to this challenge, lack a focused consensus. They have already fallen into the divide-and-rule trap of presenting themselves as ‘good Muslims’ while pointing to others as ‘bad Muslims’. Muslims are used to getting lectures from the West on acting responsibly. They do not, in reciprocation, tell the West about its obligations. Denmark may be a shameless haven of hard-core pornography. Yet, the issue is a larger one of common decency and civility.
Muslims have been targets of terrorism, extremism and religious fundamentalism as far apart as Palestine, Chechnya, India, Iraq, Kashmir, Kosovo, Bosnia, Thailand and Afghanistan. But, they continue to be painted and portrayed as global villains. The so-called ‘war on terrorism’ has provided an umbrella as well as a safe outlet for Europeans to vent their anti-Muslim venom. The hatred expressed through cartoons has sent a message that there is little price to be paid for hurting Muslim religious sentiments.
This is a fuse for other simmering tensions. Europeans maintain that the issue is one of freedom of speech. Yet, most recently, authorities in the Netherlands have blocked the transmission of two Satellite TV channels from the Middle East on the grounds that they allegedly foster anti-Semitism. Till this day, Germans (supposedly living in an open and free democracy) largely avoid discussing Hitler and the Nazi period.
Freedom of speech is not limitless. As pointed out by the Chicago Tribune in a recent editorial, “It’s arrogant and disingenuous to claim the high moral ground for insulting an entire religion just because you can.” The whole issue of freedom of speech carries the stench of hypocrisy. For example, in Germany, France and Austria, it is a crime to deny that Hitler put 6 million Jews to death during the Nazi period. Anybody who does so can face criminal penalties leading to jail. Scandinavian news editors admit that they deliberately published the cartoon as a means for confronting “Radical Islam”. Would the same editors dare to deliberately offend Jewish sensitivities and hope to get away with it? When, in this connection, Muslim ambassadors in Copenhagen requested a meeting with Denmark’s Prime Minister Rasmussen, they were refused.
Let us not forget that the ‘civilized’ Europeans routinely persecuted and slew millions of Jews and the so-called ‘extremist’ Muslims gave the Jews shelter and sanctuary in Muslim Spain, the Arab Middle East as well as Ottoman Turkey at a time when Europe was intent on exterminating them.
Then there is the issue of Muslim elite’s duality. One face is presented to the West and the other face before the rest. They are aggressive at home but become submissive and docile when abroad. There is a naive assumption that if one acts nicely, things will work out. Appeasement does not buy peace; it only opens the gates for further conflict. This was the lesson of World War II.
In trying to confront radical Islam, European media may be succeeding in radicalizing the Muslim world. This episode may help weld the Islamic bloc together and rally on one platform Muslims of different schools of thought.
Europe may have given Muslims space to work, but not enough space to live with dignity and intellectual honesty. Muslims in Europe have a Faustian bargain. They are supposed to put their conscience on hold and remain quiet in exchange for economic benefits.
The cartoon episode also reveals an unstated agenda. Given the fact that there are now 2 crore Muslims in Europe, this is an attempt to humiliate and emasculate the Muslim community. The cartoon controversy has unveiled the depth of intolerance and arrogance in Europe towards the religious beliefs of Muslims. It could be a milestone in the escalating ideological tensions between the West and the Muslim world with potentially far-reaching consequences.
There is a culture of submissiveness in the Muslim world where people do as told and independent thinking and analysis is not fostered, encouraged, recognized, or rewarded. Perhaps as a consequence, little significance is attached to ideas and how ideas can make imprints on impressionable minds. It is not an accident that the Muslim world does not have a single world-class think-tank.
People who matter in the Muslim world have neither the equipment nor the commitment to defend their heritage and their heroes. The current polarization between the West and the Muslim world has provided an opening to bigots and vested interests to launch anti-Muslim ventures under the camouflage of free expression.
The growing Muslim populace in Europe largely sees itself as a law-abiding, wholesome, family-oriented, and economically contributing entity. But, through the prism of European eyes, there is a threat perception about their presence. To date, Muslims have yet to show the requisite vision or the ambition to compete in the arena of ideas. The cartoon controversy is a litmus test for Muslims to show whether they have the will and capacity to grow in order to intelligently project and protect Islam and their own human dignity.
The cartoon episode is a huge wake-up call and a timely reminder that Muslims can no longer afford to remain inert and indifferent. Already, it may have woken up a sleeping lion.