Danish Cartoons: The drawings transgress all bounds of decency

PRESS-ENTERPRISE.COM

10:07 PM PST on Tuesday, February 7, 2006

The worldwide flap over a series of cartoons published in a Danish newspaper was avoidable had all sides approached the issue wisely. A Danish newspaper published cartoons that depicted Islam’s most revered personality, Prophet Muhammad, in a light that was inaccurate, derogatory and provocative.

Other than prove visceral hatred toward Islam, the cartoons achieved little. Protests have been mostly peaceful, but some, unfortunately, turned violent.

Media pundits’ characterization of the controversy as a clash of values or upholding freedom of press misses the point of the debate. At the core of the violent reactions in the Muslim world are fears about Western motives, bolstered by lack of redress of ongoing grievances. On the other hand, lack of understanding about Islamic culture explains why many Americans and Europeans seem perplexed at how a mere cartoon could draw such an emotional response.

A tasteless caricature of a religious personality, whose life has informed and guided billions of people for more than 1,400 years, is neither funny nor satirical. On the other hand, burning flags, destroying embassies and threatening innocent people are hardly appropriate responses. Prophet Muhammad, who preached repealing evil with kindness, certainly would not approve of such barbarism. He would have responded by educating the ignorant.

What’s the Point?

Free speech, like every other freedom, comes with responsibility. Newspapers ought to have the freedom to speak the truth. But a cartoon that defames does not further debate or the cause of freedom. Some media outlets, such as CNN, took the appropriate stance of not showing the cartoons “in respect for Islam.”

Those media outlets that fail to exercise such prudent judgment undermine their credibility as ethical purveyors of their crafts.

Why does this cartoon deserve space? What point is being made? Muslims acknowledge that bad apples such as Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida are causing irreparable harm to humanity and Islam. Mainstream Muslims repeatedly have condemned terrorism.

Yet for anyone to insinuate connection between terrorism and a venerated religious figure such as Prophet Muhammad transgresses all bounds of decency. Is there no minimum ethical standard among editorial boards that would resist the urge to mock someone as exemplary as Prophet Muhammad?

Islamophobia in Europe is on the rise. This should be of concern to all people of conscience. Only two decades ago, Islamophobia led Bosnian Muslims to become targets of a brutal ethnic cleansing.

In America, talk-show hosts coast to coast regularly fill public airwaves with their anti-Islamic comments. Unfortunately, such hatred has not been repudiated.

Zero Tolerance

It is time for Europe and America to adopt the same zero tolerance for Islamophobia as they have pledged toward anti-Semitism. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sponsored conferences in Vienna and Berlin that recognized anti-Semitism as a fundamental violation of human rights. The Global Anti-Semitism Awareness Act signed by President Bush in October 2004 asks governments to take note of and respond to instances of anti-Jewish propaganda.

These steps are indeed laudable. Why not broaden them to fight Islamophobia, too? Not undertaking similar efforts to curb Islamophobia undermines U.S. and European credibility in the Muslim world, fueling fear and mistrust, perhaps plunging the world into the abyss of a clash between civilizations.