Students in Pakistan stage a peaceful rally this year.
Silence of Imams on ’toons
Muhammad cartoons that killed scores reprinted, but where’s the outrage?
35 The percentage by which Danish exports to the Middle East fell as a result of the first cartoon controversy.
57 The percentage of Danes who say a similar clash with Islam will happen within five years.
10 The number of the original 12 cartoonists who stayed in hiding for a year after threats
Not for prophet
The injunction on depictions of Muhammad is not actually in the Koran. It comes from the lore of Muhammad’s life: when he conquered Mecca in the year 630, he forgave all those who had opposed him — except for a handful of poets who had slandered him, who were sentenced to death. METRO
Last week, 17 Danish newspapers reprinted a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.
That cartoon, one of a dozen printed in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 poking fun at Muhammad, led to scores of deaths around the world just 41 months earlier, after it was reproduced by newspapers in countries such as Egypt, Germany, Bosnia, Sweden and Norway.
But the Danes were acting in anger and defiance after authorities arrested three people for planning to assassinate 73-year-old Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist responsible for the burning fuse image.
Shortly after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons in September 2005 involving the Prophet Muhammad, a wave of violence erupted around the globe.
Churches, hotels and stores were torched by protesters in Nigeria, where the deadliest violence took place, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Dozens more died in riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Protestors launched gasoline bombs and stones at Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. In Libya, protesters stormed the Italian consulate after a government minister there wore a T-shirt with the cartoons on it.
Ready for the worst
So, last week, Islamic nations from the Middle East to Africa held their breath. Had the newspapers just reignited a deadly fire?
It would seem, so far at least, that the answer is no. Despite several protests and Danish-flag burnings in the Gaza Strip, Pakistan and Denmark, the reproduction hasn’t provoked nearly as much outrage.
“I think in a way, the Muslim response shows that [Muslim] leadership in Western European communities have learned some lessons from the cartoon controversy,” said John O. Voll, professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.
Scholars have argued the in places with some of the harshest violence — Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan — politicians and religious leaders used the situation to further their own agendas. Widespread media coverage also fed the fire.
“I think they realized the real arena to deal with it is in Western Europe,” said Voll, adding that the media response this time around has also been “appropriately restrained.”
Free speech fight
However, Prof. Hooshang Amirahmadi, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, expressed frustration that a conflict that appeared to have fizzled out had suddenly been brought back to life.
Amirahmadi, speaking with Metro by phone from Iran, said insulting Muslims isn’t the right way to stand up for free speech.
“I think, personally, the reprint is more insulting than the original,” he said.
“As a Muslim, that’s how I see it. Now, going back and restarting the fight and reprinting this is a way of saying, ‘Who cares what you think? Who cares if you’re being insulted?’ It’s a very negative message.”
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of Jyllands-Posten, defended his original decision to run the images in May 2006 in The New York Times.
He called the move “an act of inclusion, not exclusion; an act of respect and recognition,” adding that “equal treatment is the democratic way to overcome traditional barriers of blood and soil for newcomers.”
But Rose took a more forceful tone Friday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
“The cartoon may be offensive to some people, but sometimes the truth can be very offensive. … Sadly, the plot to kill Mr. Westergaard is not an isolated story, but part of a broader trend that risks undermining free speech in Europe and around the world.”
Dangerous game
Amirahmadi says using free speech to court conflict can be dangerous.
“You have to balance individual freedom and national honor, but I’m not sure where that line should be drawn,” he said.
While the response thus far has been mild, only time will tell if taking such a public stand for free speech will outweigh reopening a wound that hurt so many Muslims.
“My hope is that there will only be protests. But when you basically take an issue like this and bring it to forefront, all these extreme groups get motivated again and instigated again, and that’s not useful,” Amirahmadi said.
