The Muslim reaction to the Danish cartoons of
Muhammad remains very much in the news. Over the past several days I have read several outstanding commentaries, a few of which I mention below.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
the Somali-born Muslim dissident (now an agnostic), and member of the Dutch
Parliament, wrote with incredible
bravery a defense of Denmark and free speech. She requires permanent personal protection because of the
persistent death threats against her. One journalist, Rod Dreher of the Dallas
Morning News, has called her "the Solzhenitsyn of our time."
Nonie
Darwish, Muslim-born in Cairo and raised in the Gaza Strip, exposes
(and laments) the culture of hate which she personally experienced as a youth and
which persists within the Muslim world. “In
school in Gaza,
I learned hate, vengeance and retaliation. Peace was never an option, as it was
considered a sign of defeat and weakness. . . Criticism and questioning were forbidden. When I did either of these, I
was told: "Muslims cannot love the enemies of God, and those who do will
get no mercy in hell." She said
that from a mosque she heard, "May God destroy the infidels and the Jews,
the enemies of God. We are not to befriend them or make treaties with them. . ."
“For 30 years I
lived inside this war zone of oppressive dictatorships and police states.
Citizens competed to appease and glorify their dictators, but they looked the
other way when Muslims tortured and terrorised other Muslims. I witnessed
honour killings of girls, oppression of women, female genital mutilation,
polygamy and its devastating effect on family relations. All of this is
destroying the Muslim faith from within.
“Muslims
need jobs - not jihad. Apologies about cartoons will not solve the problems.
What is needed is hope and not hate. Unless we recognise that the culture of
hate is the true root of the riots surrounding this cartoon controversy, this
violent overreaction will only be the start of a clash of civilisations that
the world cannot bear.
---
Paul Marshall, respected scholar of things Islamic, points out in a Feb 13th
article,
“we should rid ourselves of certain misconceptions. One is that Islam forbids
any visual portrayal of Mohammed; another is that such depictions of Mohammed
are extremely unusual.” According to Marshall, “There
is a strong tradition within Islam that making portraits of Mohammed is wrong,
but it is by no means universal. Some, especially Shiites, believe it is
legitimate. Others believe that it is legitimate to portray him when he was
young, before becoming a prophet.” The article
cites instances, with links, of depictions of Muhammad in various lands and
differing centuries. He concludes his
article by saying,
If we yield now to pressures for
censorship, Islamists and authoritarian regimes overseas will have learned that
by undercutting our trade, attacking our embassies, and threatening our
citizens, they can control our press, just as they do their own, and they will
take those lessons to heart.
Tony Blankley offers a powerful and persuasive column on why the West needs to publish the cartoons. Cal Thomas weighs in as well.
2/14/06 UPDATE: Dennis Prager cites American news media's loss of credibility to two factors: dishonesty and cowardice.
"Everyone
and his mother knows why the networks and the print journals haven't
shown the cartoons -- they fear Muslims blowing up their buildings and
stabbing their editors to death. The only people who deny this are the
news media."
Key quote:
When
it comes to taking on conservatives, Catholics, evangelicals and the
like, liberal news media are Supermen. When it comes to confronting
real evil, however, the news media are Mickey Mouse.