Following up on the Islamictoon controversy: Today the Paris newspaper France Soir fired its managing editor Jacques Lefranc, following his reprinting of the Danish cartoon satire that has inflamed hatred of the West in the Muslim world.
Since the cartoon was released Danes in Arab countries have been attacked, and in the past week armed gunmen have attacked the EU offices in Gaza city.
This firing, strangely enough, comes after the newspaper vehemently defended its right to free speech, triggering solidarity with the European press. The cartoon has been republished in German, Spanish, and Italian countries.
When The Satanic Versus was published, forcing its author, Salman Rushdie, to go into hiding, I opposed the Islamic response. Unfortunately, what seemed at the time as an isolated case (frankly I think Islam was completely off the West's radar, at least culturally), will now be an ongoing struggle as Islam will continue to be an item placed up for satirization. The easy thing, as a Westerner, and a believer in free speech, is to dismiss their outcry, but in this complex world of globalization, I don't believe that is a viable option, and complex problems will require complex solutions.
One thing I believe we must combat is our perceptions of Muslims in general. Look, I'm not trying to get PC here, but one thing we've been unwilling to do, is to break apart the individual Muslim from their factions and rhetoric. There are plenty of good, honest Catholics for instance that are moderate in their beliefs. Likewise, I think that when we see the supposed "reaction" of the Muslim world we are only watching a small but loud segement of the Islamic faith. When we shape our plans to counteract fringe groups then we have already lost the war, because either we force moderates towards these radicals (think of Iraq) or we lose our values in succumbing to these groups' barbarity (Abu Ghraib, torture). Some how our leadership has to proactively find these moderates in the Islamic world, and encourage them to step forward. How will that be done? While specifics would be too long to go into now (and hell, I'm just a friggin blogger over here) I would suggest that we look back at our own history for inspiration. Nowadays we toss around words like 'liberty' and 'freedom,' and we talk about our country as being the greatest in the world, but I think somewhere in our rhetoric we forgot what those words mean, and why America is great. It's not because we have bombs, and a Starbucks on every corner, but because of these very liberties that we have the luxury of taking for granted. These ideals are magnetic for all people, if you let them approach it and not cram it down their throats (something that sorta goes against the idea of freedom in the first place). Out there right now is some Muslim man or woman, who thinks that freedom of speech means only the right to condemn and humiliate them, and the vast spectrum of what that encompasses this liberty escapes their grasp. We need to find away to let them understand that liberty will make you happy, and it will make you sad, but regardless it is the launching point for everything that is truly worthy in mankind, whether they be black or white, man or woman, Christian or Muslim.
Until that time however, I am forced to stand with my brothers in the press. It may make some people upset, but our freedom is the only path to truth.
Read up about it here:
No comments:
Post a Comment