A sensible opinion
Posted on Aug 05 2006 | Tagged as: Politics, Work, Media, Religion
In researching a(nother) possible, potential article on those cartoons, I came across this map, colour-coded by country as more blue = more publications and more red = more protests/violence. Make of it what you will. (I am.)
It was created by Tariq Abbas Jordan Turner, an American convert to Islam. Curious to know his opinion of the cartoons, I asked him.
My reaction to the cartoon controversy is nothing short of anger. Not at the cartoonists, but at the Muslims who felt the appropriate way to react to the cartoons was to burn, pillage, kill, and denounce “Western values”.One thing I like about Islam is the dedication that many Muslims put towards their faith. However, sometimes, like in this cartoon situation, I feel Muslims take that dedication beyond the proportions of common sense. It has happened many times in history; for example, the Ottoman Empire refused to accept the Gutenberg press, one of the greatest inventions of its time, because the press couldn’t perform wudu (a ritual ablution) prior to printing the Qur’an. Indeed, simply absurd.
During the cartoon controversy, in London, there were Muslims dressed in clothing that resembled that of suicide bombers. In Damascus, the embassies were set ablaze. In Nigeria, Christians were killed for absolutely no reason. Now where could people possibly be getting a negative view of Islam? Hmm…The Muslim community, as a whole, has no one to blame but itself, and yet it continues to point fingers at others. It’s always the fault of the media. Oh really? I don’t think 9|11 was a five-act play on Broadway. I don’t think three London Underground trains blew up themselves. Many Muslims men tend towards the more conservative view that women shouldn’t attend burials of even their own husbands because they’re too emotional. They’re too dramatic. Some men wouldn’t dare shake a woman’s hand for fear they’d be aroused with a second-long touch. And women in Saudi Arabia can’t drive because… er… uh… one has to stick his penis into the ignition? Yes, a great number of Muslim men (even Western Muslim men) just love to propagate these ridiculous gender-based stereotypes that aren’t actually seated in Islam, but when a Muslim man gets a little extra attention at the airport, it’s “oh no, my rights have been violated.” Likewise, the deaths of 3,000 people on 9|11|01 hardly raised eyebrows in the Arab-Muslim world, but the radically unrealistic portrayal of Muhammad is an atrocity of epic proportions.Yes, it’s always the media’s fault even though they are bending over backwards to actually shed a positive light on Islam. “The Simpsons”, for instance, has been on television for over a decade and a half, parodying every culture and faction of society. Except that of Islam.
BBC and CNN blatantly declared that out of respect for Islam, they wouldn’t be displaying the cartoons. “Oh no, don’t hurt us scary Muslims; we won’t print the cartoons.” An April 2006 episode of “South Park” during Christianity’s Holy Week portrayed Jesus taking a crap on the American flag, but the show’s producers were forced to remove a segment that comparatively reverently portrayed Muhammad. My goodness, when is the Muslim community going to take the hint that there’s something wrong here??? Perhaps it will take a Muslim to do it??? No… I don’t think that would even be good enough.The portrayal of Muhammad is not against Islam; Muslims have done it for centuries (albeit not with a bomb for a turban). And so yes, the situation was overblown significantly – by Muslims. The media was simply doing their job, portraying real-world events: the general Muslim community once again acting like barbarians. And now, as the Israel-Lebanon conflict continues, we will surely once again see this gratuitous mob mentality from the Muslim community. We’ve already seen it as a Seattle Muslim man last Friday opened fire on a Jewish center (good job Naveed; after Friday prayers, you decide to go out and kill people). An anti-Israel, pro-Lebanon (nope, not just against the over-the-top response by Israel) rally planned for August 12 in Washington, D.C. is being advertised at every single mosque in the DC-area, as if Muslims have no choice but to side with Hezbollah because they’re Muslims too (presuming, of course, wielding an AK-47 does not invalidate one’s Islamic affiliation). Don’t get me wrong; I love Islam. I just hate the great number of Muslims today who feel the need to f— it up with this mob mentality that allows the introduction of these violent, hateful, and misogynic attitudes that have nothing to do with Islam, but nevertheless reflect poorly on it.
The relationship between publication and protest (your second question) thus is quite clear. Those who understand the necessity of freedom of speech in this world published the cartoons, while those whose judgment is clouded by irrational fanaticism protested against them violently; those two groups are for the most part mutually exclusive. Like the Ottomans who because of irrational thought gave up the opportunity to gain an upper hand when the opportunity arose, the Muslim community of today is going to meet its demise very quickly.
on 06 Aug 2006 at 8:59 pm 1 Charissa said …
I like the way the UK is a sort of murky purple.
*applause*
After reading in the first sentence that his reaction is ‘nothing short of anger’, I nearly left in order to prevent my blood moving from a simmer to a slow, angry boil.
Luckily for my health, I read on. And I have to say that it is probably the most interesting, insightful and refreshing opinion I have had the pleasure of reading in a very long time*.
I think during the ‘incident’ it became very easy to generalise, but this piece does remind you that there were actually people out there who supported the faith and still disagreed with the way it was handled.
*Except for Gary’s rant at Ridler, which still takes some beating.
on 06 Aug 2006 at 9:04 pm 2 Charissa said …
Just to clarify, I was applauding the opinion piece and not the fact that the UK is murky purple.
on 09 Aug 2006 at 9:45 am 3 Christopher White said …
I did the same at the ‘nothing short of anger’ part initially.
I wondered at first whether he was so (relatively) unoffended by the cartoons because he’s a convert and hasn’r grown up with Islam; he’s American, and the have more generally liberal attitudes to free speech anyway (except re: the Flag); and Muslims aren’t really marginalised in the US as they’re perceived to be in the UK because of America’s long tradition of racial and religious pluralism.
But I was having a look around the internet, and a poll at IslamOnline.net had 57% of 70,000 respondents disagreeing that there should be limits on free speech when it comes to the ’sacred’ (nearly wrote ’scared’…) in religion.
I’d pitched the piece that I was researching to Index on Censorship - got a rejection letter last night. (They’re covering a similar topic with one of their staff.)
In it they mentioned about the “right to offend”. Index seem to have missed the point just as virtually everyone else did: it’s not about having the right to offend; it’s about not having the right to censor just because something is “offensive”.
on 09 Aug 2006 at 11:21 am 4 charissa said …
I did wonder the same thing when I first read it. I definitely think converts would be more likey to disagree than those who have grown up with Islam, but the poll is interesting. Then again, I remember half the Muslims ‘interviewed’ by the Western Mail outside the SU didn’t really seem to care that much.
I think people often interpret the purpose of freedom of speech as an opportunity to intentionally get offensive, which may be why they put that… nevertheless, I think we all got high fived way too much for what looked like ‘making a statement,’ when really it was my bad for just not reading the newspaper.
I’m in the middle of a lengthy application for a BBC trainee thingy, and one of the questions asks me to outline a time when I’ve had ‘direct experience of issues affecting diverse communities.’ I think the time has come to bring up gair rhydd, but I’m finding it terribly hard to describe it as a ‘learning curve’ without making it look like we were ignorant towards other people. Tricky.
on 09 Aug 2006 at 12:27 pm 5 Christopher White said …
No, other than the hardcore Islamic Society lot, a lot of Muslim students weren’t that bothered. The loudest voices of protest were the so-called ‘liberals’.
We [you(s) - I’d ‘quit’ by then] may have been ‘high fived’ by people who thought it was a pro-free speech statement but we were equally castigated for the same - the editorial in the Oxford Student, for example.
As for the experience of issues affecting diverse communities… well it is astonishing that people would get so upset over a cartoon; you were trying to show it in the context of a news story, as useful information; and there hadn’t been any protests in the UK by gair rhydd’s deadline night.
Of course, we were ignorant of other people, but so is everyone at some point.
on 25 Oct 2006 at 2:52 pm 6 christopherwhite.info » Falling off the edge said …
[…] Despite my previous comments, by which I still stand, perhaps it’s small wonder that Muslims felt/feel victimised by cartoons of Mohammed, the veil debate and the Pope’s remarks when we live in world so shy of not only causing offence but also simple debate. […]