| Cartoon
crisis points to need by Adrienne Frank, American Weekly, Feb. 21, 2006 Instead of fueling violence, a dozen Danish cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad should spark a dialogue between Muslims and westerners, agreed three AU professors who discussed the images and their impact last week. “The first amendment applies not just to people who have important things to say, but to people with bad judgment,” said SOC’s Pat Aufderheide, who was joined by Mohammed Abu-Nimer and Gary Weaver, both of SIS. “In general, the solution to bad speech is more speech. You can survive people doing stupid things, so long as there’s a way to respond, interact, educate, and inform. “In this case, however, hostility and violence are taking the place of engagement,” continued Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media. Last September, Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published 12 cartoons lampooning Muhammad, the seventh-century prophet of Islam. In one, Muhammad wears a turban shaped like a bomb; in another, he greets suicide bombers in heaven. Pictural depictions of the prophet are banned by most schools of Islamic thought, and protests have since erupted throughout Europe, East Asia, and Africa. Nineteen people have died as a result of the violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “This is about more than a cartoon, and by just focusing on the cartoon, we’re failing to see all the complexities of the situation,” said Weaver, director of the Intercultural Management Institute. Weaver said Muslims and non-Muslims, alike, need to “cut through their fear” and develop mutual respect and empathy. He reminded the audience of the nationwide fury that resulted last month from a Washington Post cartoon featuring Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a doctor who lists a severely wounded solider’s condition as “battle hardened.” “People were saying the cartoon was ‘indecent,’” said Weaver. “So, it’s hypocritical for us to say, ‘Well, why are they getting so upset over a cartoon?’” Aufderheide also touched on this double standard. “Journalists ask themselves if they’ll get in trouble for depicting Jesus Christ in a certain way, but they don’t ask that same question when it comes to Muhammad and the Koran,” she said. Abu-Nimer, director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute, offered criticism of people on both sides of the “cartoon crisis.” He chastised American officials for blaming the Syrian and Iranian governments for encouraging the frenzy, rather than examining the “root causes” of the conflict. Abu-Nimer also criticized the Muslims engaging in violence, who are feeding stereotypes and “playing to the hands of those who are Islamophobic.” “It doesn’t make sense to us, here, that they’d attack a McDonald’s restaurant,” explained Abu-Nimer. “But there, they see no distinction between Danish, Swedish, and American people and policy. They’re doing exactly what the cartoon did. The cartoon [depicted] 1.2 billion Muslims as terrorists; but they’re lumping all [westerners] in the same category.” He said a lack of understanding of cultural and religious differences is also to blame. While freedom of speech is at the core of American society, Muslims are comfortable with censorship, especially as it pertains to religious matters. “We need to
create more opportunities for Muslims and non-Muslims to exchange information
and ideas,” he said. “When I see this violence, I’m
left feeling how much work we still have to do.” |
Vol 1. Issue 3 |
March/April 2006 |
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