Caricatures, Carnage & Colonialism

Caricatures, Carnage & Colonialism

By Leila Khaled Mouammar - March 8, 2006 ( leila (at) web.ca )

On 19 August 1099, the Qadi of Damascus, Abu Sa'ad al-Harawi led a small group of Palestinian refugees - the only survivors of a Crusader attack on Jerusalem - into the great mosque in Baghdad.

It was the month of Ramadan when the faithful fast before sunset. In the afternoon, as people congregated at the mosque from all over the city to pray, al-Harawi began eating.

An angry crowd soon surrounded him, but he calmly rose to his feet to ask how it was that they "could feel so indignant at the violation of the fast whereas the massacre of thousands of Muslims and the destruction of the holy places of Islam met with their complete indifference" (1984, Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, p. 53).

THE STAGE IS (A) SET

At the time of writing, the month is February, and the year is 2006.

Millions of Iraqis, Afghanis, and Palestinians are living under American and Israeli military occupations. Daily, civilians are killed, homes are ransacked and destroyed, and new refugees are born.

The leaders of so-called "Western" countries continue to make menacing moves in the region that bode badly for Syria and Iran. Most of the region's leadership is either shockingly silent, or quietly collaborating behind-the-scenes; while its peoples seem to be sleeping.

Caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in a Danish newspaper some months ago suddenly become a hot button issue, and there appears to be life on the streets.

There is extensive media coverage - demonstrations, the occupation of an EU office in Gaza, outraged imams, and intense discussions on freedom of expression and how to bridge the "civilizational gap" in understanding.

On 4 February, in my hometown of Nazareth, one of the loudest demonstrations since the beginning of the Intifada of 2000 was held to denounce the caricature and demand redress. Faint cries from the indignant masses could be heard throughout the city.

But throughout this period, many also asked, as did al-Harawi some 907 years ago:

Are blasphemous, or even racist drawings more attention-worthy than the concerted machinations of "Western" leaders - including the leaders of some Arab and/or Muslim vassal states - to dominate, subjugate, divide and conquer our peoples, lives, and lands?

A LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAINS

Now before jumping to hard and fast conclusions about where the priorities of Arab and/or Muslim populations lie, it must be noted that for many, the caricatures serve as a symbol to rally around to let off steam generated by the current pressure-cooker-like wider socio-political context.

There are too, several ongoing non-violent protest efforts mounted by dedicated groups of individuals, in and from the Arab and/or Muslim world and beyond, directed against wider injustices and global processes afflicting the region at large.

For example, in Bi'ilin, weekly protests are carried out by Palestinians against the Apartheid Wall that is confiscating much of their farmland; and in Montreal, the weekly vigil for Palestine outside the Israeli consulate - attended by members of community groups ranging from Jews Against the Occupation to the Muslim Students Association - hasn't missed a week for at least 5 years now.

But these, and other diverse collective efforts around the world - like the demonstrations of millions in hundreds of cities in April 2002 when Israel slaughtered civilians and placed sieges on residential areas in Jenin and Nablus - never do garner the kind of media coverage devoted to fallout over the caricature of Mohammed, or say the treatment of the Koran at Camp X-Ray.

This is no surprise since the winning media narrative in the "West" today is one that gives great prominence to information about Arab and/or Muslim societies that reinforces a distorted and monolithic picture of intolerant, backwards, irrationally angry Islamic fundamentalists bent on imposing their faith and way of life by force, in confirmation of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" thesis.

It is the "West," however - or more exactly, the global elite represented in the leaderships of many "Western," or "Westernized" governments - that exhibit a tendency towards intolerance and imposition.

DENIAL (OF DEMOCRACY) IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT

Often touted as fundamental rights based in law, freedom of expression and democracy are practically reserved for those whose positions either uphold or merely make demands of the present "Western-dominated" system, without challenging underlying power structures.

"Non-Western" peoples - who include the vast majority of people geographically located in the "West," but who lie outside power centers by reasons of class, race, or place of birth, etc. - are supposed to be content with agendas imposed on them by force (e.g. elections under occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq()) or deception (e.g. the war on Iraq), nodding approvingly for the cameras (a al Hamid Karzai), or else being branded a "terrorist" or "radical" or "trouble-maker" - along with the potential slew of ramifications those labels entail, spanning anything from job-loss to wire-taps to jail-time to assassination-by-Hellfire-missile-without-warning-one-day-as-you-go-about-your-daily-business-based-on-suspicions-never-proven-out-in-a-court-of-law-or-understood-by-your-family-and-the-public-at-large.

When the drawing of Mohammed with a bomb as his headdress becomes a rallying point around which "Western" leaders base their defense of freedom of expression, this hypocrisy between what is practiced and what is preached becomes too obvious for many to ignore.

Recall also the Al-Jazeera memo scandal that made headline flashes in November 2005, and then quickly went down Big Brother's "memory hole:"

Instead of publishing the 10 lines in the 5-page memo allegedly recording Bush()'s suggestion that al-Jazeera headquarters in Qatar be bombed (!), the UK Attorney General invoked the Official Secrets Acts, taking the two civil servants who leaked the memo to court, and making ominous intimations about the Act's applicability to media intending to publish the memo - which no one subsequently dared do.

The sacred right of journalists to freedom of expression, and more importantly, the public's right to know when their leaders are pondering actions that constitute crimes against humanity, took a back seat to some nebulously articulated "national security" concerns.

No Western leader waxed poetic on how freedom of expression forms the basis of "Western civilization" at that time.

Yet the right of some halfwit to draw pictures mocking a figure sacred to some one billion human beings, well that's simply sacrosanct.

If that is what freedom of expression and democracy are all about in the "West," better to pack it in and head off in search of a more gullible souq - if one can be found.

For despite the very real economic and political threats, at least some "non-Western" voting publics do not seem to be buying in.

Palestinians and Iranians, for example, have recently voted in governments with strong grassroots bases running on anti-corruption platforms whose politics challenge existing global power structures, go beyond the mere anti/pro politics of the liberal spectrum, and respond to domestically identified problems/needs.

Yes, Islam, and a rejection of "Western" plans for the region are key to both party's platforms. Real democracy though, means respecting the right of people to choose, and to represent themselves.

DIVERSITY: RHETORIC & REALITIES

A lack of "Western" respect for peoples whose practice of self-determination differs from the acquiescent role envisaged for them is perhaps to be expected.

Relatively-speaking, the experience of diversity in the "West" is short-lived, particularly when compared to large swathes of the Arab and/or Muslim world, where interactions and exchanges have long formed a natural part of life.

Greater Syria (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria), for example, located at a geopolitical crossroads between three continents, became home to diverse individuals and groups.

Those who identify as Syrian have presently and historically included Bosnian Muslims, Armenian Christians, Circassian Muslims, Sephardic Jews, and many other non-Arab or non-Muslim groups. Many continue to partake in the traditional religious celebrations of their neighbours, and hold a number of customs in common.

In large parts of the Arab and/or Muslim world, ridiculing the belief systems of others is a shared cultural taboo that probably developed as a strategy to avoid interreligious strife.

It also finds a strong basis in the teachings of Islam, the deep respect for "believers" and "peoples of the book," and the tone set by the leadership of the various Islamic empires that ruled the area, who often gave refuge to minority religious communities fleeing persecution in "Western" empires.

When one considers Jesus' maxim, "Love thy neighbour as thyself" - or Rabbi Hillel's maxim, "Do not unto others as you would not have done unto you (Shabbat, 13a) - it is perhaps understandable why there is outrage when Islam becomes the target of outside challenge or ridicule.

There are individuals and societies for whom some things remain sacred, not everything has a price, and certain things are simply not done; not as a matter of law, but as a matter of custom built from centuries of experience.

Understanding this does not mean that all must stop questioning faith, using sarcasm, or even writing things that are in poor taste.

No one is qualified to draw the boundaries that justly delimit what is acceptable speech or thought for others. Seekers after the truth must "shun no science, scorn no book, nor cling fanatically to a single creed (Rasa'il I : 42)."

While positions borne out of racism or hatred are misguided, unhelpful and wrong, their free expression means that they can be engaged, challenged and defeated by others who should be equally free to respond with rejection, criticism, or condemnation.

DRAWING (ON) DEHUMANIZATION TO DISPENSE DEVASTATION

Buried in the voluminous debate centering on the right to freedom of expression since generated however, is a discussion of deeper processes reflected in and perpetuated by the caricatures.

By mocking and stereotyping a community of people currently under attack based on a deliberately distorted and homogenous interpretation of what their religion means, the caricatures and their uncritical defense, both facilitate and reflect the de-humanization process that underpins the war of aggression and occupation in Iraq - and countless other places around the world that have been the unfortunate recipients of "Western civilizing missions" throughout history.

"Western" attempts to colonize the Middle East with the aim of "Christianizing" or "civilizing" began in 1099, and have yet to end. Ironically, the majority among the Christian populations indigenous to the region have fought against these foreign onslaughts - even when the resistance was carried out under the banner of Islam.

Under the banner of Christianity, the "West" colonized the New World, exterminating indigenous populations considered less than human, and purging non-Christian populations from within their domestic base (e.g. via the Spanish Inquisition).

The new satellite states like Canada, the United States, and Australia in particular, were set up to absorb immigrants - preferably of European stock, with non-Europeans acceptable at first only as a source of cheap/slave labour, and later as colourful tokens of diversity - so as to outnumber local indigenous populations, and solidify the theft and colonization of those lands, building demographic "facts on the ground," much as Israel does today.

Now that the task has largely been accomplished (Israel excepted), and in the face of increasingly diverse populations in these satellite states and in Europe itself, "Western" discourse has become obsessed with the "problem of immigration" or the "crisis of multiculturalism."

The accompanying "you're-either-with-us-or-against-us" type rhetoric that plays on fear to paint a technicolour world black-and-white sets the stage for crimes of collective punishment, torture, and murder unleashed by those engaging in zero-sum war games that might very well end in mutual annihilation - and underpins the smooth functioning of a global economic apartheid system that places the vast majority of the world's population on the losing end.

In the place of nihilistic, exclusionary world views that attempt to ridicule, radically transform or annihilate those who do not share a comprehensive appreciation for the "right" and "mighty" (might=right) values of the "West," current injustices and hypocrisies must be acknowledged and rectified.

With genuine respect for the diverse perspectives that each individual and society has to offer, there is no end to what we can learn, or the ways in which we might choose to live.

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Leila Khaled Mouammar is a Christian Palestinian activist and writer. She can be reached at: leila (at) web.ca
See also:
http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/caricatures.htm