Denial, Double Standards and Destroyed
Lives
Denying the Holocaust got David Irving
prison time but ridiculing the Prophet
of Islam got the shelter of freedom
of speech. What’s wrong with this
picture? The West is so proud of its
democracy, freedom and justice. Why
is there now its selective application?
Shouldn’t the goose and the gander
be getting the same treatment?
From Indonesia to the United States
the Muslim world is livid; the camera’s
lens is unable to totally encapsulate
the teeming protesters. And with mob
mentality taking over there has been
violence and deaths. And while their
fists and placards dance on the television
screen, quietly, in Vienna, British
historian David Irving has been sentenced
to three years in prison for denying
the Holocaust. Irving appeared shocked
at the sentence and said that it was
“ridiculous” that he was
being tried for expressing an opinion.
“Of course it is a matter of freedom
of speech…I think within 12 months
this law will have vanished from the
Austrian statute book," he said.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the
UK's Holocaust Educational Trust welcomed
the verdict. "Holocaust denial
is anti-Semitism dressed up as intellectual
debate. It should be regarded as such
and treated as such," Ms Pollock
told the BBC. Very interesting, indeed!
So one cannot even think that the Holocaust
did not happen; here it is not just
freedom of expression that is at question,
it is veritably the death of freedom
of thought!
So David Irving’s neurons need
little shackles until he repents and
the chains are released. But the Danish
government invokes freedom of speech,
impenitent, in the face of furious Muslims.
To the non-Jew the Holocaust is one
of the greatest tragedies in history;
it has no apparent religious significance.
To the non-Muslim, Muhammad may have
been the most influential man in history
(per Michael Hart author of The 100:
A Ranking of The Most Influential Persons
in History) but he was just a man. Either
side has difficulty seeing the other’s
perspective.
And yet why is freedom of speech given
the power to offend and destroy? Since
when did self-expression supersede the
value placed on life itself? The Holocaust
defines Jewish psyche in much the same
way that the life and sayings of Prophet
Muhammad shape the lives of 1.5 billion
Muslims. Both are sacred to the respective
faiths. They should be made impermeable
to cheap shots.
Jews across the world have been successful
in this aim for several European countries
as well as the United States have passed
laws making Holocaust denial a criminal
offence.
It is entirely reasonable for Muslims,
as represented by the Organization of
Islamic Countries, to ask for passage
of resolutions within the United Nations,
and legislation within respective countries
the world over, that would outlaw denigration
of any faith and any religious figure.
Fatwas demanding the cartoonist’s
death have a rabid ring to them and
work only to undermine the credibility
of its issuers.
On a different yet related note. Lately
Toledo has been rocketing to national
limelight, almost two days in a row.
First there was the summary closure
of Kind Hearts a charity that had done
a marvelous job even in earthquake-ravaged
Pakistan. The same allegations of funding
money to Hamas have been made, and investigations
and formal charges will be made later,
right now it is padlock and shutter
time. The dedicated gentlemen that ran
Kind Hearts are suddenly jobless and
headed to more than the unemployment
office.
Toledo Muslims had barely recovered
from that shock when the media-tsunami
hit on February 21. Three men ages 24,
26 and 42 all Toledo residents, one
an American citizen of Jordanian descent,
the other a naturalized Egyptian and
the third a naturalized Lebanese, have
been arrested on charges of conspiring
to kill American forces in Iraq as well
as President Bush.
The three men are unknown to the Muslim
community at large and appeared to have
been very private people. They were
learning to work explosives and took
to practicing shooting at a local range,
according to the allegations.
I can’t live with the thought
of the many lives destroyed by the madness
that is going on around us. Why would
seeming adults hold competitions to
defame the Prophet Muhammad? Why would
Iran stoop to the same level and hold
competitions to denigrate the Holocaust?
The Jyllands-Posten editor admitted
that had he known the impact of his
decision he would never have hit the
send button for the cartoons. He also
apologized. Why doesn’t the Danish
government apologize? Why do the crowds
in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria
break and batter the property of their
own countries? Why did the police open
fire on a protesting crowd?
"I put my savings into buying a
motor bike so I can do a job that involves
riding all day, now it has been burned
and I still have to pay the installments…,"
said a despondent bystander surveying
all the bikes and buses that the crowd
had burned. Geo TV was gallant in posting
a request for names and ID cards and
listing of property lost during the
protests so that there is governmental
compensation.
In 2003 The American government, on
the behest of Bill O’Reilly, the
ultra-right wing TV talk show host,
arrested Prof. Sami Al-Arian, placed
him in inhuman jail conditions for two
years and caused incalculable damage
due to the poor treatment of his diabetes
during his incarceration. Finally, in
December 2005 he was acquitted of charges
of funneling funds to Hamas, but remains
in custody pending deliberation on the
other charges. His life though was effectively
ruined.
Colorado lawyer Brandon Mayfield, a
revert to Islam, was charged with the
Spain train bombings, on the basis of
a fingerprint, even though Spain said
it was not his. He was arrested, imprisoned
for several months and then tried and
acquitted. Justice was served, but his
life has not been.
Former army Capt. James Yee, a Muslim
chaplain at the US prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, was arrested on suspicion
of espionage and held in solitary confinement
for 76 days before being released and
given an honorary discharge. What effect
does solitary confinement have on a
person is one thing, on an innocent
one at that, is quite another.
Al-Arian, Mayfield and Yee saw the hand
of justice. The purported Toledo terrorist
trio may never. Like the thousands languishing
in Guantanamo Bay and the Carolina brigs
that the legal machinery has forgotten.
The premise in the US used to be “innocent
until proven guilty”, now the
converse applies. First, one may never
see formal charges or legal representation,
and if they luck out like Al-Arian,
their lives are effectively over by
the time the light at the end of the
tunnel even flickers.
The national backlash after the cartoon
protests had already begun, sadly reminiscent
of the immediately post 9/11 days. Only
this time the hatred, hypervigilance
and fear seem worse. A friend that does
hijab (head cover) and works as a checkout
clerk in a grocery store reports lately
that the checkout lane in front of her
has three carts and the one behind her
at least two: no one seems to want to
come to her lane. As a physician I am
in a relatively empowered position,
and yet when this consultant in Addiction
Medicine and Palliative Care walks into
a patient’s hospital room, faces
blanch, hands fidget and eyes dart nervously.
At least until the realization that
I am not Martian and do speak understandable
English.
The 11 o’clock local news made
for some chills up the spine. “New
York or LA one hears, but here?”
said a young man, clearly flustered
and hostile on hearing of the Toledo
trio. And the reporter wraps up “and
all that were interviewed said that
when they are convicted, the three should
be given the harshest punishment possible”.
Peaceful protests and passage of resolutions
and legislation making denigration of
any religion and religious figure a
crime would be sufficient. That amazing
man, the mercy to all mankind, the one
who loved his enemies and treated them
with kindness and compassion, would
be mortified to see the destruction
caused in his name. Especially, the
burning of churches.
And while the crowds in the insular
Muslim world go on rampages, the targets
of retribution will be American and
European Muslims. Especially those that
are obviously Muslim: our hijab-observing
women. Dispelling Islamophobia is an
arduous, repetitive though doable trek;
playing victim, going on rampages and
issuing fanatical fatwas serves to only
endanger fellow Muslims. If only we
did what the Qur’an repeatedly
recommends: think, reflect and then
act.
(Mahjabeen Islam is a physician and
freelance columnist residing in Toledo
Ohio. Her email is mahjabeenislam@hotmail.com)
