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When Freedom of Expression Becomes a Weapon
By Peter Matthews
02/05/06 "ICH" -- -- Most of us are now well aware of the
caricatures of the prophet Mohammad, solicited by and published
last September in the right-wing Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. This week several publications resurrected
those controversial images of Mohammad as a bomb-turbaned
terrorist and another where he refuses suicide bombers entry
into Heaven as “We’ve run out of Virgins.” Then our news sources
informed us that due solely to these images “outrage sweeps
across the Muslim world.” Such coverage has elicited miles of
text and a Babel of blather denouncing those who would dare
threaten OUR freedom of speech because it offends THEIR
“backward” beliefs.
Like children following the Pied-Piper, many of us now lock-step
behind the tune “Freedom of Expression,” deaf to the fact that
there was precious little of the “RAGE, FURORE, VIOLENCE, DEATH
THREATS” shouting from the headlines of mainstream news sources
during the first two days of those stories. Given the virtual
real-world absence of actual expressions of outrage, the
mainstream media’s handling of this story plays like propaganda
aimed at deepening the divide between “Us and Them.”
On Thursday the largest number of protesters, in a world of over
one-billion Muslims, was “around 300” in Pakistan. As of noon
Friday, the only reported demonstration attributed to these
cartoons consisted of “about 300” Indonesians, which, somehow,
Reuters viewed as meriting the headline “Uproar over Images of
Mohammad Spreads across Asia.” Now, self-righteous and
xenophobic fires fanned by such hyperbolic headlines, the fires
have begun in earnest as people of the East and West glower at
the imagined Other shrieking, “How could they!”
The current coverage of this act of “freedom of expression” and
the Muslim response is further demoralizing and undermining the
anti-war movement as oil-rich Iran gets hauled towards the
Security Council, Bush uses the State of the Union Address to
shore up waning support for the “War on Terror” and Rumsfeld
calls upon the world to unite as, “a war has been declared on
all of our nations” by “Islamic militants” intent on creating “a
global extremist empire.”
Now come on, Osama bin Laden is so far off the map he cannot be
found. And, as for Iran, well yes, their smiley President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad does sound terribly threatening in the press
coverage he’s getting; but then, he’s been elected by a nation
who feels terribly threatened thanks to the gusher of blood and
misery unleashed in neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan ever since
Bush-n-Company came sniffing around for oil, the geo-political
leverage it insures and an ongoing excuse to keep tax-payers
funding their filthy rich defence contractor and
clean-up-the-mess we-made pals.
Moreover, this hyped-up coverage serves to distract (if not
recruit) freedom of expression advocates from their struggle
with the perceived enemy within—i.e., Western governments intent
on using the “War on Terror” as a pretext for spying on and
incarcerating citizens of foreign countries as well as their
own, and, it may also result in diverting attention from
government attempts to monitor and limit freedom of speech as
well as from the numerous scandals besetting the Bush
Administration.
Well, back to those cartoons…and the coverage we’re getting: By
focusing on isolated expressions of anger and by describing
these instances as pandemic, the media is force-feeding its
viewers with the Neo-Con’s “Clash of Civilizations” thesis and
thereby spreading its nefarious “WE—the free, democratic, good,
mature and civilized” against “THEM—the freedom-hating,
despotic, evil, childlike and barbaric” world-view.
When an entire people are subsumed into this thesis of
irreconcilable difference, alarm bells should thunder. One
commentator on a British TV news report went so far as to
describe Islam as a “virus that requires a cure.” As for the
Yahoo Message Boards, a cacophony arose from the featured
articles, many calling for nuking the lands of Islam into a “sea
of glass” and applying the “Final Solution” to Arabs in the US
and Europe. What we are witnessing is a further marginalization
of the marginalized, an increased bullying of the bullied.
According to Islam, the crafting of images of Mohammad is the
height of blasphemy. The way it was done, repeated and then
celebrated is akin to incinerating Holy-of-Holies in public
while dancing around the bonfires jeering and threatening Jews.
And, who, with open eyes and ears, has not heard an echo of the
Nazi’s assessment that Jews behave “like a nation within a
nation;” but; now; it comes from our media, our politicians, our
family and friends, when they refer to the Islamic problem.
As for those leaders of Muslim nations who have condemned these
caricatures, what’s the big deal? They must state, when
compelled, that these images are offensive to Muslims. Our own
leaders are often quick to decry art and statements offending
Christian and Jewish sensibilities—e.g., Andres Serrano’s “Piss
Christ” and the recent imprisonment of David Irving for
Holocaust denial.
Most Middle Eastern rulers rise by force and/or maintain their
regime through force—the source of which is largely supplied by
the arms and military training industries of the West. Several
Arab political analysts have interpreted the condemnation
expressed by the region’s politicos as having much to do with
their attempt to keep power. Popular anger has been focused on
the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; but, with
these cartoons, regional leaders have a paper-tiger to publicly
stab, and thereby show solidarity with their people without
risking the ire of their foreign power-base.
What is cause for real outrage is how the Western media also
appears enthusiastic about making a storm-in-a-tea-cup of the
comprehensible reaction by a small number of Muslims. Doing so,
given the human catastrophe visited upon Iraq by the
self-proclaimed “civilized world” and the subsequent anguish and
humiliation experienced by Muslims, will likely exacerbate this
situation, as the past 24-hours is making worrisomely evident.
Our “free-press” is currently offering neither context nor
analysis when addressing Muslim reactions to these caricatures.
The coverage of what had been tiny isolated protests and threats
of violence has been anything but responsible. As such, these
reports serve only to stoke the flames of hatred while keeping
us in the dark. Our “free-press” is selling-out its stated
mission, and its public, most cheaply.
The context is a long history of invasion, occupation, careless
killing, intensive pillaging, oppression, humiliation and the
subsequent radicalization of many people in the Middle East.
Presenting the public outcry of a few hundred Muslims as
indicative of a billion people spread over dozens of nations
only deepens an already profound sense of divide between "Us and
Them." To do so is not merely sensationalist and irresponsible;
it’s akin to a crime against truth, justice and humanity.
Copyright: Peter Matthews
matthewspeter@hotmail.com
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