CARTOON WARS

I'm glad the UK press has generally avoided reprintng the cartoons. There really is a difference between celebrating free speech and causing needless offence.

Both sides of the argument get an airing in A fine op-ed by Charles Moore in today's Telegraph.

BTW, I wasn't being flippant in running the post about football chants yesterday. I think the story illustrates the fact that there are right and wrong ways to be insulting. What's acceptable in the football ground wouldn't be allowed on prime-time TV, for instance. That doesn't mean I have any sympathy for gun-toting, foaming-at-the-mouth demonstrators.

Would like to write more on this, but I'm in a rush.

UPDATE: Very good suggestion from Brownie.

UPDATE 2: I didn't have time earlier to highlight a question posed by Charles Moore:

As I write, I have beside me a learned book about Islamic art and architecture which shows numerous Muslim paintings from Turkey, Persia, Arabia and so on. These depict the Prophet preaching, having visions, being fed by his wet nurse, going on his Night-Journey to heaven, etc. The truth is that in Islam, as in Christianity, not everyone agrees about what is permissible.

Some of these depictions are in Western museums. What will the authorities do if the puritan factions within Islam start calling for them to be removed from display (this call has been made, by the way, about a medieval Christian depiction of the Prophet in Bologna)? Will their feeling of "offence" outweigh the rights of everyone else?

UPDATE 3: Raf Bey, of 'Aqoul, re-prints, and comments on, a Spiegel article examining the background to the controversy. Two points to note: Bey is sharply critical of the Danish imams, but also thinks some of the newspaper cartoons are "racist".

Plus some straight talk from Bey's co-blogger, Lounsbury:

While I have been banging on about the importance of discrimination against the immigrant Muslim communities in Europe, particularly France, the flip side of the coin is the anti-integrationist, hypocritical, lying agitprop of the Salafist separatists that want to prevent "Europeanisation" of these communities. These people are as much a problem as the bigots on the other side of the equation.

And there's more:

Sadly the general reaction in MENA [Middle East, North Africa] merely confirms that too much of the population is juvenile, under-socialised and basically a bunch of rubes.

UPDATE 4: Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble With Islam, is as blunt as ever:

Arab elites love such controversies, for they provide convenient opportunities to channel anger away from local injustices. No wonder President Lahoud of Lebanon insisted that his country "cannot accept any insult to any religion." That is rich. Since the late '70s, the Lebanese government has licensed al-Manar TV, among the most viciously anti-Semitic broadcasters on earth. Similarly, the justice minister of the United Arab Emirates has said that the Danish cartoons represent "cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression." This from a country that promotes its capital as the "Las Vegas of the Gulf," yet blocks my Web site -- Muslim-refusenik.com -- for being "inconsistent with the moral values" of the UAE. Presumably, my site should be an online casino.

Muslims have little integrity demanding respect for our faith if we do not show it for others. When have we demonstrated against Saudi Arabia's policy to prevent Christians and Jews from stepping on the soil of Mecca? They may come for business trips, but nothing more. As long as Rome welcomes non-Christians and Jerusalem embraces non-Jews, we Muslims have more to protest than cartoons.

Comments

[ilana]

Clive, I'm finding I'm quite surprised by reactions to this affair, for example, the European papers standing up to attempts to stifle freedom of expression, while people like you, who I've so far found interesting, intelligent and reasonable, say things like "we should avoid causing needless offence". I think in this case it is absolutely essential to cause offence, for 2 reasons:
1. Not printing the cartoons now looks entirely like giving in to violent threats and pressure.
2. We have to counter this trite comment that "freedom of speech doesn't mean the freedom to offend people". Well, yes it does. That'e exactly what it means. What else could it mean?

There is nothing wrong with being offended by things - it happens to me all the time. But we have to learn to live with that as the price of freedom.

[Clive]

Fair point, Ilana,
I have very mixed feelings about this, as you can see. I was against the religious hatred bill proposed in the UK, but I still think papers should exercise self-censorship in certain cases. I guess what it comes down to is that we should pick our battles carefully, and in this case I don't think those cartoons pass the test.
Brownie's suggestion over at Harry's Place seems a good idea to me: http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/archives/2006/02/03/picture_this.php

[Sunny]

Agree with ya too Clive.
I think FoS should be used to make a specific point... its an important liberty that we should treasure and exercise when necessary, otherwise it becomes devalued if all its used to do is insult people needlessly (without making a specific point) than just about FoS in itself.

[collounsbury]

Dear Clive:

Found this via trackbacks.

A quick note, re Raf's last name is not Bey - Bey is a Turkish honourific that amuses me to attach to him. Well come to think of it, he uses it sometimes as well. Roughly Sir Raf. An inside joke as it were (which is amusing if you know Egyptians, for example, else requires a long and tedious explanation).

Not that he or I would particularly be put out by being so cited (as Mr Bey), but I thought a quick note to explain.

Else, disappointed to have the feeling 'Aqoul may have to specialise in this cartoon nonsense for a while.

Ciao,

Lounsbury.

[J.Cassian]

"I think FoS should be used to make a specific point... its an important liberty that we should treasure and exercise when necessary..."

That sounds a bit too much like this for my liking:

"It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed." (Lenin)

[Clive]

Lounsbury,
Thanks for the tip re Raf's name. I knew about the term "Bey", but decided to go with the name he uses on his own blog,"Raf Bey...The Levantese". And there was always the slight possibility he was related to the jazz singer Andy Bey
;-)