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Non-Muslim world needs to respect Islamic convictions

Opinion by Gilbert Friend-Jones
For the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Feb. 11, 2006

That a few mean-spirited caricatures in European newspapers could stir up violence and exacerbate tensions worldwide is inconceivable to many of us. Yet fire, death and destruction have followed the publication of recent cartoons that negatively depicted the prophet Muhammad. Extremists of all persuasions are having a field day. What's all the fuss?

We are learning that Muslims never depict the prophet directly, even in the most praiseworthy way. This is true for all of the recognized prophets in Islam, including Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Mary, etc. This is not a Quranic prohibition per se, but a deeply held respect for the chosen mouthpiece of God. Thus, any cartoon or picture, much less a negative one, is considered an affront to the religion. Whether we agree or disagree, it is important for us who are not Muslim to understand and respect this conviction. These cartoons fuel suspicions that we in the non-Islamic West view this religion with disdain.

Of course, at least one of these particular cartoons is not merely a representation of the prophet; it is an insulting representation. Many of us know what it is like to be deeply offended when our sacred symbols are maligned. Andres Serrano's photograph "Piss Christ" might be considered an equivalent insult to Christians. Images of protesters burning American flags continue to bring rage and tears to Americans who love their country. Just so, a cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb for a headdress touches the deepest sensitivities of devoted Muslims.

It hardly needs stating that a few European cartoonists do not have a monopoly on the literature of hatred and bad taste, nor are the media in predominantly Islamic countries above reproach. Jews often are portrayed by damning stereotypes that deepen antipathies on all sides. Even in the United States, talk show hosts regularly descend into the muck and mire of wildly exaggerated accusation. But we generally do not respond to such rhetorical or artistic extremism with violence. The vast majority of Muslims are not responding with violence today.

Most people, non-Muslim as well as Muslim, are disgusted by the cartoons. But the cartoons are providing Islamist demagogues fuel to pour upon the fires of a complicated resentment. Most people, Muslim as well as non-Muslim, are repulsed by the ensuing violence. But rampaging mobs are providing "justification" to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab extremists for their own demagogic stereotypes. This is a very dangerous situation.

Free press, civic duty

In the Western democracies, we have become hardened by the relentless diatribes and caustic irreverence from both the left and right along our own political and religious fault lines. But we cherish the freedom our Constitution guarantees for the press. So, in fact, do many Western Muslims, as their leaders have repeatedly asserted.

We know that sacred principles sometimes become sacred cows. Too often tyranny and corruption hide behind facades of untouchable sanctity --- religious and secular. The iconoclasm of the Western press is a mighty force for justice. Yet in the end, everyone is fair game --- prophets and presidents included. The "public square" in which the press operates can be a rude, unruly and uncivil place. The abrasive irreverence of a free press is a powerful weapon against the unscrupulous and incompetent. Its excesses make us all uncomfortable at times.

However, this very weapon can mobilize the forces of civility and, yes, even civil righteousness. Like all weapons, it must be employed with care. That it was not so employed is one cause of the convulsive violence we are witnessing. There is free speech, and there is civic responsibility. No civic purpose was served by creating and publishing these caricatures.

The publication of these particular cartoons last September by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten was intended by the editors to be provocative and inflammatory against Denmark's immigrant and Muslim population. Soon after their publication, a group of Islamic diplomats petitioned to meet with the Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen to express their concern, but he refused to see them. The cartoons then spread to other newspapers across Europe, while the articulated concerns of Islamic leaders went unaddressed.

Last month Saudi Arabia and other countries announced nonviolent economic boycotts of Danish and Norwegian products to express their disapproval. Many European Islamic leaders expressed their misgivings even about this move, preferring conversation to confrontation. Still official government and press representatives in Europe resisted invitations to dialogue. With "moderate" Islamic voices failing once more to be heard, more radical elements have exploited this issue for their own purposes.

Just below the surface of these provocative cartoons and the rage they provoked lies the deep alienation of Europe's predominantly Islamic immigrant communities within their host societies. There is enough blame to go around for everyone, but the bottom line is that Europe is moving toward two societies (to paraphrase the report by the Kerner Commission, which investigated extensive rioting in the United States in 1968) --- one that is immigrant and one that is not, separate and unequal.

These violent protests may be a contemporary equivalent of the 1965 Watts riots and other disturbances in the United States. But the resentment goes beyond the disparities encountered every day. It includes the colonization of their homelands by many European countries, whose consequences persist into the present time. Obviously, the continuing Iraqi war and the failure to arrive at a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians are contributing factors to this worldwide unrest. While the cartoons triggered the outbursts, the outbursts themselves represent a deeper and more dangerous alienation.

Need for understanding

None of this is to justify the extreme reactions to these cartoons. Except for the radical fringe, there is everywhere a continuing call for calm and dialogue. Leading Islamic, ecumenical and interfaith organizations in Europe and North America are defending the rights of a free press, denouncing these particular cartoons and the violent responses to them, and calling for dialogue aimed at deepening our understanding of one another. Danish Islamic leaders are defending Danish values in the Saudi press and calling for an end to the violence and the boycott.

In the tinderbox of multi-cultural Europe today, the anti-Muhammad cartoons are inflammatory. They may reflect a fear of jihadists, but they go too far. Anti-Jewish hate literature in the Middle East is incendiary. It may reflect a fear of Israeli domination, but it goes too far. Hideous propaganda and disproportionate reaction reinforce bigotry on one hand and dread on the other. In giving offense, they elicit further offense. They stress to the breaking point the center --- where most people of all faiths wish to dwell together, and where problems may be resolved. They lead to a culture of cynicism in which our humanity is held captive to our vengeance, and we sacrifice our happiness on the altar of our apprehension.

Building mutual respect

We have had enough. Within the "fierce urgency of now" we must interrupt the cycles of vengeance and shame, violence and retaliation, and reach out to one another. It is time to imagine new ways to rectify old grievances, and new words to heal old pain. It is time to model new relationships, granting to each other the dignity of respect. The most urgent task facing our world today is to build a culture of mutual sensitivity and regard, beginning with the public square. This is a local as well as global obligation, and it involves us all.

We in Atlanta are privileged to inhabit a multicultural region rich in languages, traditions and beliefs. Many of our businesses are global in organization and influence. We are home to more than 20 interfaith organizations and are developing an ethos of mutuality and cooperation. The city of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King produced much of the leadership and vision for the American civil rights movement. Now is the time for all Atlantans to join with others around the world to extend this dream, inspired by a common faith that, as King so eloquently conveyed, can "transform the jangling discords of our [planet] into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood."

The Rev. Gilbert Friend-Jones is senior minister of Central Congregational United Church of Christ and an organizer of World Pilgrims and the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta. Rev. Friend-Jones can be reached at budd@central-ucc.org. For more information about Central Congregational, visit www.central-ucc.org.

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