Cartoons of the prophet - a burning issue
As most of my international readers will have noticed, Norwegians (and Danes for that matter) are not popular these days in the world of muselmans. Actually it is a burning issue for them to put our embassies and representation offices to the torch and it is a matter of good luck that no one yet have been murdered. I think it is not a matter of good manners only that they have used the weekend to tear down the walls of the infidel's castles to ensure that the Norwegian staff had their usual weekend leave.
So how can it be that the nice and peaceful Nordic countries have been the objective of such uncontrolled rage? After all, we have donated a lot of development aid to these people, and we all (should) remember the Oslo agreement when Norwegian ministers and diplomats did a magnificent effort to once again make some sort of peace in the Middle East. And the Danes did some good too. Well, it is a matter of cartoons, as you know. Not Disney-like, but cartoons of the prophet of the musulmans, who should not at all be depicted at all, as you know. And these cartoons - some funny, none very offensive - appeared last year in a major Danish newspaper and a maverick Norwegian christian-fundamentalist newspaper. The Danish cartoons are actually rooted in the illustrations of a children's book that nobody dared to publish last year, whereupon the Danish newspaper published some cartoons followed by the Norwegian paper. All very boring until now.
Then somebody decided that this is a major insult of all muslims and provocateurs have been active in the most inflammable areas of the musulman world not only showing the actual cartoons, but totally different and very much more insulting cartoons including a praying musulman being buggered by a dog and that sort of things. This strategy was easy, as a small minority in the Middle East are regular readers of Danish and Norwegian newspapers, we assume. - We then have websites with in absentia killings of the Norwegian editor of the fundamentalist magazine, and of (strangely enough) the chair of the Norwegian media assosiation - the latter presented as a Dane. (When will they notice the difference??) And then the embassy in Syria was burned and even the EU office in Gaza attacked (they assume we are members of EU, what a dream!), the Turks are angry with us, and the Afghans and soon the Iranians. And so it goes on.
What happens in Norway? Well, not even Herodotus had registered the cartoons before the whole matter suddely became a burning issue for us all. The foreign minister is very cross with Syria and will have the pay for the property they were supposed to defend (but obviously didn't).
But the main issue here is freedom of the press and freedom of free utterings. Immediately the crisis arised, bloggers were for instance urged to publish the cartoons or any illustration of the prophet, to show that those who try to threaten the West to show so-called respect to the musulmans believes or else be gagged, burned and killed (in that order) will not succeed. I did so (in a more polite manner) and most of us took part in a heated debate where many understood that this is not a matter of making fun of prophets but fundamental values being opposed. In the West we have got used to free speech and to put a questionmark on all kinds of "fundamental believs" and prejudices. In that way we have actually moved forward from the middle ages. Everyone is entitled to her own believes, but not to enforce others to show absolute reverence to everything she believes in. In many parts of the musulman world - at least the more phanatic parts of the population - we are still in the early days of the crusades, where any joke on their faith is a major insult and a capital offense to be punished by death. Remember S. Rushdie's book being burned. Remember the Norwegian publishing company's director being shot for publishing Rushdie's book. Remember all the statements that "we Norwegians do not understand them" when we protest against forced marriages and murder of girls protesting against it in Nordic countries, circumcising of young girls, the stoning of mentally disabled women having been used as prostitutes and other modern practices of our muslim friends.
If you remember all of this, you might understand there is a certain animosity also in this very liberal-minded region of the north, even if there is a lot of sympathy with the lot of poor people in the musulman world. But now the feeling is that the right to being critical is being threatened. And a vital borderline has been crossed in the murder threats, the burning of our flag and the destruction of our embassies. The thing has of course assumed a political dimension long ago, illustrated by the fact that Syrian authorities were passive during the outrages, that agents provocateurs nurge the flames by spreading false rumours and for instance the fact that Denmark has soldiers in Irak and Norway fighterplanes in Afghanistan. All this is high politics, of little matter to ordinary people - until the day you don't feel safe in your own homeland.
Why is it that people feel a chill in their spine by publishing or laughing at these drawings? Because someone is actually threatening our world with death and destruction if we do. Disguised under a mantle of being "underdogs of the Western world" they try to scare us into silence. We won't take it. Respect is vital but it must be mutual.
So how can it be that the nice and peaceful Nordic countries have been the objective of such uncontrolled rage? After all, we have donated a lot of development aid to these people, and we all (should) remember the Oslo agreement when Norwegian ministers and diplomats did a magnificent effort to once again make some sort of peace in the Middle East. And the Danes did some good too. Well, it is a matter of cartoons, as you know. Not Disney-like, but cartoons of the prophet of the musulmans, who should not at all be depicted at all, as you know. And these cartoons - some funny, none very offensive - appeared last year in a major Danish newspaper and a maverick Norwegian christian-fundamentalist newspaper. The Danish cartoons are actually rooted in the illustrations of a children's book that nobody dared to publish last year, whereupon the Danish newspaper published some cartoons followed by the Norwegian paper. All very boring until now.
Then somebody decided that this is a major insult of all muslims and provocateurs have been active in the most inflammable areas of the musulman world not only showing the actual cartoons, but totally different and very much more insulting cartoons including a praying musulman being buggered by a dog and that sort of things. This strategy was easy, as a small minority in the Middle East are regular readers of Danish and Norwegian newspapers, we assume. - We then have websites with in absentia killings of the Norwegian editor of the fundamentalist magazine, and of (strangely enough) the chair of the Norwegian media assosiation - the latter presented as a Dane. (When will they notice the difference??) And then the embassy in Syria was burned and even the EU office in Gaza attacked (they assume we are members of EU, what a dream!), the Turks are angry with us, and the Afghans and soon the Iranians. And so it goes on.
What happens in Norway? Well, not even Herodotus had registered the cartoons before the whole matter suddely became a burning issue for us all. The foreign minister is very cross with Syria and will have the pay for the property they were supposed to defend (but obviously didn't).
But the main issue here is freedom of the press and freedom of free utterings. Immediately the crisis arised, bloggers were for instance urged to publish the cartoons or any illustration of the prophet, to show that those who try to threaten the West to show so-called respect to the musulmans believes or else be gagged, burned and killed (in that order) will not succeed. I did so (in a more polite manner) and most of us took part in a heated debate where many understood that this is not a matter of making fun of prophets but fundamental values being opposed. In the West we have got used to free speech and to put a questionmark on all kinds of "fundamental believs" and prejudices. In that way we have actually moved forward from the middle ages. Everyone is entitled to her own believes, but not to enforce others to show absolute reverence to everything she believes in. In many parts of the musulman world - at least the more phanatic parts of the population - we are still in the early days of the crusades, where any joke on their faith is a major insult and a capital offense to be punished by death. Remember S. Rushdie's book being burned. Remember the Norwegian publishing company's director being shot for publishing Rushdie's book. Remember all the statements that "we Norwegians do not understand them" when we protest against forced marriages and murder of girls protesting against it in Nordic countries, circumcising of young girls, the stoning of mentally disabled women having been used as prostitutes and other modern practices of our muslim friends.
If you remember all of this, you might understand there is a certain animosity also in this very liberal-minded region of the north, even if there is a lot of sympathy with the lot of poor people in the musulman world. But now the feeling is that the right to being critical is being threatened. And a vital borderline has been crossed in the murder threats, the burning of our flag and the destruction of our embassies. The thing has of course assumed a political dimension long ago, illustrated by the fact that Syrian authorities were passive during the outrages, that agents provocateurs nurge the flames by spreading false rumours and for instance the fact that Denmark has soldiers in Irak and Norway fighterplanes in Afghanistan. All this is high politics, of little matter to ordinary people - until the day you don't feel safe in your own homeland.
Why is it that people feel a chill in their spine by publishing or laughing at these drawings? Because someone is actually threatening our world with death and destruction if we do. Disguised under a mantle of being "underdogs of the Western world" they try to scare us into silence. We won't take it. Respect is vital but it must be mutual.
posted by Herodotus at 08:33
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