Facebook and Muslim Outrage: Gleaning the Wrong Lesson, Again (Ramzy Baroud)

[Tace]

Ramzy Baroud -- World News Trust

June 4, 2010 -- “Any depictions of the prophet are considered blasphemous by Muslims,” wrote Agencies, as reported readily by Aljazeera.net English. The above statement is meant to fully summarize the reason behind the outrage that arises in Pakistan and other parts of the Muslim world whenever some provocative ‘artist’ decides to express his freedom of expression and ‘expose’ Muslims as anti-democratic.

Such a simplistic interpretation of such an intricate issue.

There is no denial – and no shame – in the fact that most Muslims hold their Prophet in the highest regard. Despite the continued decrease in the number of faithful in increasingly secularized Western societies, Muslims are clinching even tighter to their faith. However, while the outrage over the latest transgression by some Facebook user and his “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” may appear as a straightforward news story – that of Western values vs Muslim narrow-mindedness – the true underpinnings of the outrage is suspiciously missing.

The naïve depiction by Western media makes it easy for ‘freedom of expression’ enthusiasts to condemn Muslims for yet again failing the democracy test.

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[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. Sorry, religious dogma that limits the behavior of people NOT of the religion is unacceptable.

   0   -- Hello. I am
  /|\     Mohammed.
   |
   ^
  / \

[snake in the grass]

3. The likeness is stunning! n/t

[burnsei sensei]

7. Positively sparkly!

nt

[Deep13]

2. Sorry, but the writer is dead wrong.

How highly a believer esteems Mohammed is irrelevant. I am not part of that religion and am not bound by its rules. Any Muslim or misguided western liberal who insists that I should be judged by someone else's religious standards is imposing their religious bigotry on me. And I'll go one step further to say that no Earthly authority has any right forcing religious conformity on its own people. I don't care about the subtle workings of Islamic theology. If people can be critical of any other public figure or school of thought, then there is no basis in fact for exempting Mohammed or Islam from that scrutiny.

As a society that aspires to democracy and free expression, it amazes me that otherwise liberal and progressive thinkers are taking the side of the unbelievably conservative, authoritarian, theocratic side of Islamists. We should always side with free inquiry and free exchange of ideas.

:-) <--- Mohammed.

[sledgehammer]

9. Interesting points, and some thoughts...

Let me say this before I bring up some thoughts. I have been brought up as a liberal Muslim, but I'm quite apathetic toward religion. Well, not really. I hate organized religion, but personal religion is totally fine with me. If someone wants to believe in Allah or the flying teapot or nothing at all, it's all the same. Just don't impose your beliefs on anyone and don't make laws that apply to anyone besides yourself.

Now, my thoughts...

As for the whole Prophet cartoon outrage, it's pretty stupid in my opinion. I have argued with close friends and family about how the outrage is pointless and that Muslims need to get their act together and ignore this stuff.

However, at the same time, I can see how many people are offended. As much as we might want to ridicule it, it's their right to protest it (just as much as it is anyone else's right to offend them). Just like Catholics were offended by Da Vinci Code. Just like African-Americans were offended by Imus' comments. Just like Helen Thomas was forced to resign due to offense taken by so many different groups. Just as Puerto Ricans were offended when Kramer of Seinfeld burned a PR flag on the show. Just as Southern Baptists boycotted Disney over their support of domestic partner benefits.

When the offense is limited to peaceful protests and sane measures, that would make sense and it's fully within their rights. A few years back, the cartoon protests turned violent and death threats were issued and embassies were attacked and people (all Muslim I think) were killed. That was a terrible situation. And beyond that, Muslims have responded horrifically to various "offending" acts (Theo Van Gogh is a glaring example).

This time, however, besides the pointless banning of Facebook by Pakistan for a period of less than two weeks, there was nothing really untoward about the outrage. There were some vehement protests in Pakistan, but those even went away after a day or two. The rest of the Muslim world ignored it, as did most Muslims in America. Even in Pakistan, nothing changed; life is completely back to normal, Pakistan is Facebooking away, no one cares about the issue...until the next time Mullahs are bored and want some attention.

I think some progress has been made by Muslims and this is being ignored. Just look at the recent Miss America - a Muslim. Besides a couple of lunatic comments here and there, her victory has been celebrated among Muslims, despite the fact that many thought that Muslims would be offended by it. In fact, most Muslim Americans are quite proud of Rima Fakih, and others are apathetic toward her and her achievement.

And then there's the South Park Prophet episode. The group that issued the death threat (Revolution Muslim) is a group of less than 10 people. A group so insane that they celebrate 9/11, call the Fort Hood shooter a hero, etc. But they number less than 10 people! They make the Phelps Church look like a megachurch. The rest of Muslim America made mostly nothing of the episode. The majority of my Facebook friends are Muslim, and they posted comments that ranged from "LOL!!!" to mild disgust.

Muslims, like everyone else, are far from perfect. And when it comes to freedom of expression (especially religious), Muslim countries have a very poor track record. However, most Muslims in the Western world are becoming a lot more tolerant and accepting of freedom of expression - values that are new to them so they don't really understand them, but they are learning. I know Muslims here who are not comfortable criticizing the US govt in front of others because they are not used to criticizing their own govts back home.

There will always be lunatics. Whether it's the Phelps group or Revolution Muslim. But by and large, Muslims in America and the Western world respect the law of the land, respect other people's right to believe what they want (even if they disagree with them), but will always maintain their right to be offended and their right to protest peacefully. In fact, racist Teabaggers are much more scary and violent than Muslims in America.

Muslim countries still have some ways to go, and hopefully with time things will change. Many of them have Blasphemy laws which cover even figures like Jesus and Moses (my dad tells me that there were protests in Pakistan when The Last Temptation of Christ was released, and the movie was banned in Pakistan). The laws are somewhat draconian and are heavily abused, but they are not enforced at every little infraction. New media and exposure is changing the way people handle things. It's a slow process, but things are changing.

At the same time though, some Western countries (specifically European countries) can't really hold a moral high ground when Prophet cartoons are fine and dandy (I totally agree that it should be protected form of speech), but Holocaust denial is a crime punishable by jail time (as pointless, factless, and offensive as Holocaust denial is, how can expressing an opinion be a crime?). Thank goodness for the US of A!

Anyways, those are my thoughts...got a bit longer that I had anticipated! :)

[supernova]

4. What Ramzy Baroud fails to understand

is that in the West, there is no right not to be insulted by someone else's behavior, or your perception of someonelse's behavior to be more precise. He seems to think that Islam gets picked on more than Xtianity or Judaism. He's wrong.

The Islamic world would do far better to learn how to moderate their public response to intentional goosing from certain wiseacres in the West.

This has become an all too familiar pattern:

1) West does what it normally does, makes fun of everything, including certain aspects of Islam.

2) Predictable cries of "Fatwa! Kill them!" from the M.E.

3) Original instigators laugh all the way to the bank.

4) Muslim world chagrined and frustrated into purple rage.

5) It's quiet until someone else starts the cycle all over again.

This won't stop until the M.E. stops responding to the intentional picking on.

[burnsei sensei]

5. The point here is that

the physical depiction of Mohammed is blasphemous to MUSLIMS.
It is not blasphemous or even remotely offensive to non-Muslims.
If Muslims had drawn the cartoons or pictures, they could be called blasphemers.
But non-Muslims drew them.
They are not blasphemers.
They have committed NO CRIME.

[Igel]

8. Even that "blasphemous to Muslims" line is ambiguous.

People miss the ambiguity. They're fools when they miss it, but they do it often anyway.

Quick question: Is it the case that all Muslims find physical depictions of Muhammed blasphemous?

Options: "Yes," in which case we've just defined "Muslim" and declared quite a few Muslims over the last 1000 years to be non-Muslim. "No," in which case the sentence is fairly vacuous a far as import, because it if it's only blasphemous for some then why do the others get pissed off at non-Muslims for doing what Muslims do? (Unless they decide it's the mockery that's involved, which isn't the claim at issue.)

We see the same kind of ambiguity in headlines like "Experts predict X" or "Researchers claim Y." We hear "all" but usually it's just "some." Perhaps "most." Perhaps "at least more than zero."

Now, I'm not picking on you. This is precisely the kind of formulation that we hear constantly, and we assume that "all" is intended but, in fact, it's either trying to define the faith for us (so that we discount other Muslims' thinking) or it's trying to claim offense where, in fact, there's much less offense than claimed.

[burnsei sensei]

6. Mr. Baroud,

democracy is not some casual test.
It is the reality of my world.
It is central, not peripheral.