Posted on 02/08/2006 2:29:51 PM PST by weegee
The Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad last September, but the backlash from that has sparked renewed anger in the Islamic world — the latest being the burning of the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Syria. The roots of it all actually go back to Sept. 11, 2001, which created a highly charged environment where apparently, no subject is sacred in the West, especially topics related to Muslims and Islam.
The embassy burnings are reminiscent of another controversy that brewed in 1988 and still simmers today. Salman Rushdie — then an obscure novelist of Muslim-Indian origin, wrote The Satanic Verses, in which he attempted to defile Islam. After the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's fatwa (edict) calling for Rushdie's death, Rushdie became, in Western eyes, a champion of freedom of expression. In Muslim countries, he instantly became an embodiment of Satan.
Now world attention is focused on European newspapers — notably in Denmark, Norway and France — that published insulting cartoons of the Prophet of Islam. In the West, freedom of expression is considered sacred. For some, that freedom is absolute, even allowing someone to insult a person's faith. In Muslim countries, there are equally absolute standards regarding Islam, and there, nothing and no one is above Islam, and love and respect for the Prophet are requirements for adherents to the Muslim faith.
On this issue, the long-standing chasm between the West and the world of Islam is getting wider. It may even be heading toward a "civilizational war" like the one Samuel Huntington (wrongly) described as occurring in the early 1990s in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States clearly widened that chasm. Osama bin Laden emerged as a new hero in the Muslim world and villain in the West. But he caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people, so why should he be admired for that? The answer lies not in the Sept. 11 attacks, but in the context of a larger struggle taking place inside the world of Islam.
Among Muslim regimes, the dominance of the United States and the West has been taken for granted. And in those countries, there is little hope about the prospects of political change and economic progress. Moreover, the rot of authoritarianism, nepotism and corruption has been so entrenched that people cannot realistically aspire to be free, prosperous or see prospects of technological advance.
To most Muslims, the West appears content about the state of backwardness, obscurantism and darkness that currently prevails in Muslim countries in the Middle East and elsewhere. And along comes bin Laden, who voices anger over the state of affairs in the world of Islam.
People do not necessarily buy into his murderous philosophy of transnational terrorism, but they agree with his criticism of what is wrong with the world of Islam and why it remains backward.
Freedom of speech is indeed a noble idea. To state that it should have no limits (or that it should be absolute) may be a useful academic exercise, but we also need to keep in mind that exercising that freedom could also lead to the same kind of terrible consequences as when someone yells "fire" in a packed theater.
To Muslims, the West appears stubbornly against compromising on the freedom of expression, and they see hypocrisy in this because this freedom is not as absolute as it is pretended to be in some quarters. Nothing in human affairs can be "absolute."
And at the same time, Muslims are equally uncompromising and "absolute" in their responses to anyone being disrespectful of their religion and their Prophet.
So how to end the confrontation?
In a world that is more of a global village than ever before, there must be compromises. Muslims make a point of not insulting Christians about their faith.
As a quid pro quo, a similar courtesy is warranted toward their religion. As the recent violence underscores, the global village is like a packed theater. Good judgment is a requirement before yelling "fire," even in the name freedom of expression.
--Ahrari is the CEO of Strategic Paradigms, an Alexandria, Va.-based defense consultancy, who writes frequently about issues in the Middle East and South Asia.
This is getting curiouser and curiouser ... apparently these same cartoons were published in an Egyptian paper last October ( during Ramadan, no less.) Did I miss the Boycott Egypt campaign?
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/02/boycott-egypt.html
It's not like these idiots need a reason to riot. We can not be bound by whatever their latest "offense" is. Al Qaeda bombed the trains in Spain because of the Reconquesta in the 15th Century, for cryin' out loud. It's not like the Spanish were going to back and put a Band-Aid on that boo-boo.
News.BBC.co.uk: "CARTOON PROTESTER WAS DRUG DEALER" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A Muslim demonstrator who imitated a suicide bomber in London to protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad is a convicted drug dealer. Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, was jailed in 2002 and released on licence last year after serving half of his sentence for dealing heroin and cocaine.") (Last updated February 7, 2006)
BRUSSELS JOURNAL.com: "'THE WAR IS ON'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Yesterday (Thursday) Mullah Krekar, the alleged leader of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who has been living in Norway as a refugee since 1991, said that the publication of the Muhammad cartoons was a declaration of war. "The war has begun," he told Norwegian journalists. Mr Krekar said Muslims in Norway are preparing to fight. "It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on.") (February 3, 2006)
ISLAMONLINE.net: Cairo - "WARNINGS CARTOONS RISK VIOLENCE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a Danish daily and other European newspapers are risking to trigger acts of violence around the world, officials and commentators warn." (February 2, 2006)
Ah this aint the Islamic world bub.
This IStm Billy Jeff their official view! Your mere presence on their planet is excused for them to murder you, your children, your parents,!!!
Aap aap ahh dap dap!!!!!
It's a religion of peace
It's a religion of peace
It aint Slim W, but this'll gitr done!
Kill A Commie For Mommie
C.S. Lewis called islam "the greatest of the Christian heresies", greatest here meaning "most successful".
There seems to be a script for some part of the anger (war of the 12 cartoons)
I'm still boycotting Egypt for the next few decades. Until I am certain that those who cheered on 9/11 have passed on.
"Pigman, Pigman, ha ha charade you are.....!"
Broke my BS meter.
No mention of the Jews I note.
Apparently, murdering young Christian girls in Indonesia over the holidays was the opening salvo in this compromise solution of which the writer mentions.
Nor does he realize that the Muslims have made a wasteland out of the Christian sections of the Sudan. Maybe they just refrained from swearing in the Lord's name or something as they were doing the killing. /sarc
And someone might want to point out to him that the animated cartoons-aimed at children that run on both Iranian state-run and Palestinian television-depicting the glory of becoming martyrs by way of blowing one's self up in a crowd of people of a different religion might make it hard to negotiate with future generations.
That is absolutely NOT true.
The author of this article has his head in the sand (or somewhere..).
The islam-o-nazis will keep some Christians alive...... as slaves.
Getting cranked off over a couple cartoons is also idolatry. Most are not buying it.
Among the many foolish misjudgments reflected in this column, one of the worst is the author's simple inability to grasp that we are not talking about (let's hope!!) Islamic societies when we are discussing free expression in Europe and the USA. It is not up to Muslims anywhere to tell US whether we can be "absolutist" or not about any of our constitutional principles and traditions. These jackals think they should rule the world and tell Denmark what it's laws should be, etc. This is all a stalking horse for the real problem, the deranged inability of these medieval lunatics to stay in their own hellhole societies and stop telling the rest of us to live under Sharia.
Send 'em back to the Ummah, and build a tall fence.
And ya know, I'm watching this stuff play out surfing TV in the last day or two, and I'm watching these same tired theatrics most of of have seen overplayed since the hostage crisis (thank you Jimmy Carter)
What the hell is it with that one thing they do by beating on their foreheads? Does anyone know what is behind that smooth move?
Furthermore, some of the scum that pulled off 9/11 were at a titty bar getting s-faced and bragging the night before.
So much for the "cleanliness" of the martyrs. Yet they are idolized back home and even here(scumbags like Ward Churchill and Oliver Stone). Oh, what purity! /sarc!
The author would have us believe that if left to their own devices, the Islamic world would be prosperous and advance technologically. This may be the biggest lie in the entire piece. It is precisely because the Islamic world cannot compete with the rest of the world that they wish to destroy it.
For a time in the past century, many Islamic countries tried to become a part of the world system hoping to advance, but they failed miserably. Their culture and the religion upon which it is based keep them backward and unable to compete with other cultures in any field of creation - art, wealth, science, industry, medicine, and all others. What is left is the satanic world of destruction and death, fields at which they have long excelled.
Should Islam in the end rule, the world will be pulled down to their abysmal level and today's Islamic nations will be even worse off than they are now. Perhaps this will make them happy because at least no infidel nation will be better off than them. These descendent's of Ishmael are quite literally bastards.
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