Just when you thought the hypocrisy of Middle Eastern despots couldn't become any more extreme, the region's potentates once again have managed to outdo themselves. We refer of course to the growing broohaha over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons featuring satiric depictions of Muhammad (cartoons since reprinted in other European media outlets as a sign of free speech solidarity).
The "cartoon crisis" has suddenly become a Satanic Verses redux for 2006 - and the dictators seem desperate to get in on the act. In a telling campaign that reflects their worldview, they are boycotting the government of Denmark. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have announced a boycott of Danish goods. Qaddafi has closed Libya's embassy in Denmark. The image at right (from the "No Denmark" Arabic website) reflects the hostility, stigmatization, and threatened brutality the campaign has assumed.
Chan'ad Bahraini highlights the decision to target the government of Denmark, which in no way was responsible for the cartoons' publication:
Here in Bahrain, as in many developing countries, the state keeps a watchful on eye everything that is printed in the newspapers. In some cases the line that separates the state and the press is very very blurry indeed. On the other hand, in Denmark and much of Europe, the state and the media are strictly independent. Maybe people here in the Muslim world are mistakenly assuming that what applies at home applies everywhere, and therefore they hold the Danish state responsible for everything printed in the Danish press.
He goes on to dismiss his own theory - but it seems right on the money. The instinct to target the Danish government reflects the torpor of the Middle East's civil rights repression.
Denmark, presumably, will be able to withstand the onslaught, and passions will likely soon subside, at least for a while. But it is the Middle East that will retain the permanent damage. As Freedom for Egyptians eloquently puts it:
I wonder why Muslims do not get so fervent about a dying patient for the lack of medicine, about a corrupt government that is stealing all their money and leaving them in shit, about the right to enjoy life in freedom protected by the laws and legislation, about bribing police and traffic officers to cancel contraventions, about more than one million street children in Egypt abused by the people everyday, about injustice in general…the list so long to continue.
When the Satanic Verses death-threat fatwa insanity erupted back in 1989, there was no blogosphere. Today, thankfully, several Middle Eastern bloggers have independently launched anti-boycott campaigns, sending their message around the world. Sandmonkey has declared a "Boycott the Boycott anti-retardation" drive, and Chan'ad Bahraini is plugging Danish products close to his heart.
We should support their calls, as what is at stake here is the future of free expression in the Middle East, not just Europe. The very concept that political leaders exist to censor free expression must be rejected. Now let's see some good cartoons making fun of Qaddafi, the Saud clan, and region's other gagging despots.
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Posted by: Bush | November 18, 2007 at 07:37 PM
Thx! :)
Posted by: honda-radio | February 17, 2008 at 12:04 AM