There Is Hope, After All

I’ve been wrapped up in Alito coverage recently, but there is another story I’ve been itching to write about.

I’m not sure if this is a big story in the U.S., but it is over here. A huge controversy has erupted amongst Muslims worldwide because a Danish newspaper printed a series of 12 cartoons that depicted Muhammad in controversial ways. (For example, wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse.) In Islam, it is considered blasphemous to even create an image of Muhammad at all, and not surprisingly, the cartoons have not been received well.

The cartoons were printed last September, but for whatever reason, the controversy has just now exploded. Middle Eastern countries have erupted with rage and fury: Ambassador’s are being recalled; Danish citizens living in Saudi Arabia have had to flee because of death threats; Danish products are being boycotted; gunmen took over the EU office in Gaza. Last week, most people didn’t know what the Danish flag even looked like and now it’s being torched across the Middle East.

And then yesterday, something completely stunning happened.

On Wednesday, in an act of solidarity with the Danish newspaper and in support of freedom of expression, seven newspapers across Europe reprinted the drawings, including prominent papers in Germany and France. According to the AP, France Soir ran the following statement: “The appearance of the 12 drawings in the Danish press provoked emotions in the Muslim world because the representation of Allah and his prophet is forbidden. But because no religious dogma can impose itself on a democratic and secular society, France Soir is publishing the incriminating caricatures.” French government officials are commenting negatively on the newspaper’s actions (a rare move), while also saying they support freedom of the press, natch. The French-Egyptian owner of the paper has fired the managing editor and is tripping over himself to apologize to anyone who will listen. The paper's staff has come out in support of the fired editor and at least one French MP has spoken out against the firing.

According to the BBC: “In Berlin, Die Welt argued there was a right to blaspheme in the West, and asked whether Islam was capable of coping with satire. ‘The protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they were less hypocritical,’ it wrote in an editorial.” (Apparently, Middle Eastern papers have run cartoons showing Jewish rabbis in a negative way.) You can view some of the offending images here. The cover of France Soir is here.

The chairman of the French organization Reporters Without Borders, Robert Menard, issued the following statement: “I understand that Muslims feel shocked because of depictions of the prophet. They have the right to, but they cannot force others to have the same opinion. It is not up to them to judge what a newspaper in a non-Muslim country should publish.”

The editors who decided to reprint these images demonstrated a breathtaking level of courage. By reprinting the controversial cartoons (and at the height of the controversy, no less) they were essentially giving a big fat middle finger to the enraged mobs demanding censure and censorship. This took courage. This took a hell of a lot of courage. Many of the militant groups protesting the cartoons are not the kind of people you want to piss off.

I cannot imagine an American newspaper taking a stand like this. The mainstream news media in the United States does not have my respect. Why? Let’s see: There’s the rampant corporate ownership and influence; the major scandals that have rocked The New York Times; a White House press corps that has given George W. Bush a free ride throughout his entire presidency; and the way that news networks like CNN are slanting their coverage to the Right in an attempt to catch ratings-leader Fox News. And when it comes to religion, the American media absolutely refuses to offer any sort of honest coverage whatsoever. When the Pope died last year, the news coverage in the United States was a complete love fest. I’ve never seen journalistic ethics thrown out the window in such a brazen way.

So the actions of these European newspapers have restored my faith in the press (the European press, at least) and by extension, democracy. Apparently, there are still people willing to stand up to bullies, even if they have to risk their lives to do so. There are people who refuse to appease religious groups and cower in fear. There are people willing to stand up for freedom of expression and democratic values. After a week in which the United States has taken a giant step backwards, these events are heartening.

There is hope, after all.


Excerpt from France Soir, courtesy of The Guardian:

It is necessary to crush once again the infamous thing, as Voltaire liked to say. This religious intolerance that accepts no mockery, no satire, no ridicule. We citizens of secular and democratic societies are summoned to condemn a dozen caricatures judged offensive to Islam. Summoned by who? By the Muslim Brotherhood, by Syria, the Islamic Jihad, the interior ministers of Arab countries, the Islamic Conferences - all paragons of tolerance, humanism and democracy.

So, we must apologise to them because the freedom of expression they refuse, day after day, to each of their citizens, faithful or militant, is exercised in a society that is not subject to their iron rule. It's the world upside down. No, we will never apologise for being free to speak, to think and to believe.

Because these self-proclaimed doctors of law have made this a point of principle, we have to be firm. They can claim whatever they like but we have the right to caricature Muhammad, Jesus, Buddha, Yahve and all forms of theism. It's called freedom of expression in a secular country ...

For centuries the Catholic church was little better than this fanaticism. But the French Revolution solved that, rendering to God that which came from him and to Caesar what was due to him.