Open
Society in a Closed Circle
By Shakeel Syed
Los Angeles, CA
Freedom of speech is the inherent
right of everyone and in most societies, legally
protected, but that doesn’t make every expression
of it right. The inflammatory content of the Danish
cartoons – comparing Prophet Muhammad to
a terrorist -- belies the claim that it was an
exercise in “freedom of the press.”
Muslims worldwide see it as anti-Semitism reborn
as “Islamophobia” in a Europe that
gave the world the Inquisition, the Holocaust
and the recent Bosnian genocide.
From the Islamic perspective, freedom of speech
and expression (hurriyyat al-qawl wa bayan) is
“vindication of truth” and “protection
of human dignity,” with embedded maxims
of morality and legality. Slander and libel is
not protected under free speech.
The outcry over the Danish cartoons didn’t
emerge overnight. Since its first publication
in September 2005, Muslim and Arab envoys unsuccessfully
tried to convince the publishers to recognize
that the cartoons were at best insensitive and
at worst inciting hatred toward an entire community.
The Danish courts refused to even admit the case
on the grounds of freedom of expression; and the
Danish Prime Minister cried off, citing freedom
of press in his country.
After such efforts failed, the envoys turned to
the EU and the UN and finding no response even
as more papers printed the insulting cartoons,
only then were diplomatic withdrawals and economic
boycotts started and demonstrations seen from
London to Jakarta. But it is regrettable that
some elements have used this issue to stage violent
protests.
Why have Muslims pursued the matter? It is because
Islamophobia is a clear and growing trend throughout
the West and Muslim immigrants bear the brunt
of this animosity and atmosphere of hatred and
mistrust. In this context, the motive of a small
right-wing Danish paper in printing such drawings
is highly questionable. Would the same champions
of press freedom approve reprinting of anti-Semitic
cartoons from 1930s Germany?
Also Muslims are aware of the double standards
of freedom of expression in the West. Al Jazeera’s
offices are bombed and shut down for showing the
“collateral damage” of. invasions
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As recently as President Bush’s 2006 State
of the Union address a US citizen was ejected
from the halls of people’s Congress for
merely wearing a T-Shirt stating “2,245
Dead. How Many More?”
The twenty-first century has clearly divided the
world in “two camps”: secular and
religious, living together without knowing one
another. What is sacred in one camp is deranged
in the other. These are the two civilizations
clashing, not the East and the West.
Fostering an environment where nothing is sacred
in the name of freedom of speech will not help
understand the values of a civilization in which
sacred is all that counts. Many Christian and
Jewish leaders recognize this, and have decried
the Danish cartoons.
It is not just about cartoons or calls for censure.
It is also about the frail and fragile world we
have made for ourselves. Just as a sketch in Europe
can arouse the populace in the Middle East a word
from the East, if properly understood, can bring
a lasting peace to the agitated West.
Failing to see beyond oneself will result in a
life that sees all within the closed circle as
good, and all outside as evil. In an ever-growing
interconnected and interdependent world, this
is a sure recipe for disaster of biblical proportions.
All strands of artists and academics, journalists
and politicians must engage in a thoughtful discourse
to advance the understanding of Isaac and Ishmael.
The world belongs to both and so do they, to one
another.
(Shakeel Syed is Executive Director of the Islamic
Shura Council, a federation of over seventy mosques
in Southern California and can be reached at info@shuracouncil.org)
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