I really created this blog partly as an answer to what I see as an unbalanced representation of viewpoints on the web/in the world. There may be an unbalanced number of proponents of those viewpoints, but I at least want to make it known in cyberspace that others exist. Getting to the point... the Danish Muhammad cartoons are more than a passing interest of mine - actually, it is the topic of my master's thesis.
As I am neither Muslim nor European, I don't have a vested personal interest in the matter. So why am I writing about it? Simply because it is too interesting not to. But I also feel that I have something to say about it that 1] is not being said and 2] that needs to be said.
I first learned of the cartoons in 2006, the way most other people did. I was at first shocked and baffled to read that embassies were being burned in protest to cartoons. I was further shocked to observe my own reaction that, These Muslims are fucking crazy! Their point of view seemed completely unreasonable. Further, like many people, I thought that Flemming Rose, editor of the Jyllands Posten newspaper that first published the cartoons in Denmark, was quite reasonable and cogent in saying that, “if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission.”
But I was further shocked by the response of the European papers that reprinted the cartoons and the politicians that defended them. I did not yet understand what was so offensive about the cartoons, but whatever that was, surely this was not the best response. The Muslim point of view was elusive, but the unity and scale of the response told me that there was something to it.
I was disappointed that there was not more of an attempt to understand the Muslim side. People in the West seemed to view it as evidence either of violent irrationality or an assault on the very essence of Western society. Naturally, perhaps, they understood the behavior of the Muslim community in their own terms. But the Muslim world was not acting within the frame of Western thought, so such an interpretation will of course be problematic.
Those who rallied around 'free speech' were attempting to address real problems. Of course simply capitulating to a terrorist threat grants it power. But the predicament of the many Muslims caught between the extremist element and a hostile West must also be considered. The scope and unity of the West in claiming its "right to offend" must have been very intimidating.
The xenophobia and intolerance that seem to have come out of this episode is disturbing. For writing my thesis, I get 'Google alerts' in my email that inform me of any news or blog activity relating to "danish Muhammad cartoons". About 98% of blogs in my inbox are somewhere between mildly and openly hostile towards Islam. There is a whole Infidel Bloggers Alliance which, as its name suggests, is caustically anti-Islam. I seem to be facing an army of angry bloggers, but they represent well the element to which I wish to respond.
So this is the basic point of view I want to bring to the table through my blog. This is only the beginning, really. Muslims sometimes express some of these views. But they are often inarticulate or are ignored simply because they are saying what they are expected to say as Muslims. People in the West who are accused of being 'PC' have not been nearly articulate enough either. They are allowing words like 'freedom' to be hijacked, and losing the battle for the true spirit of democracy.
I want it to be known that there are other opinions out there. Let me know what you think :)
I was disappointed that there was not more of an attempt to understand the Muslim side. People in the West seemed to view it as evidence either of violent irrationality or an assault on the very essence of Western society. Naturally, perhaps, they understood the behavior of the Muslim community in their own terms. But the Muslim world was not acting within the frame of Western thought, so such an interpretation will of course be problematic.
Those who rallied around 'free speech' were attempting to address real problems. Of course simply capitulating to a terrorist threat grants it power. But the predicament of the many Muslims caught between the extremist element and a hostile West must also be considered. The scope and unity of the West in claiming its "right to offend" must have been very intimidating.
The xenophobia and intolerance that seem to have come out of this episode is disturbing. For writing my thesis, I get 'Google alerts' in my email that inform me of any news or blog activity relating to "danish Muhammad cartoons". About 98% of blogs in my inbox are somewhere between mildly and openly hostile towards Islam. There is a whole Infidel Bloggers Alliance which, as its name suggests, is caustically anti-Islam. I seem to be facing an army of angry bloggers, but they represent well the element to which I wish to respond.
So this is the basic point of view I want to bring to the table through my blog. This is only the beginning, really. Muslims sometimes express some of these views. But they are often inarticulate or are ignored simply because they are saying what they are expected to say as Muslims. People in the West who are accused of being 'PC' have not been nearly articulate enough either. They are allowing words like 'freedom' to be hijacked, and losing the battle for the true spirit of democracy.
I want it to be known that there are other opinions out there. Let me know what you think :)
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