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December 9, 2005
Something is rotten in Denmark's free speech:
Twelve despicable Danish cartoons of Islam's Holy Prophet
by Mohamed Khodr
"The media has always served, at least initially, as an extension of governmental foreign policies, especially, war policies. To inflame American passion against Spain prior to the Spanish-American War, the most powerful media mogul in the country, William Randolph Hearst sent his reporters to Cuba with the admonition: “You bring me the pictures, I’ll supply the war."
While Denmark joined America’s “Coalition of the Killing” in Iraq committing what amounts to war crimes against humanity, a tabloid paper, the JP, saw fit to make its priority the prejudicial and racist depiction of Islam’s Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) rather than focus on much more serious issues such as the war in Iraq or domestically such as the lack of future workers to support Denmark’s aging population. [1]: The 12 Cartoons of the Prophet)]
Yet the Muslim world is repeatedly told by the civilized west that the “war on terrorism” is not a war on Islam but on Islamofascists. True to form---lies, hypocrisy, double standards, media propaganda, and spin have always been the hallmark of western civilization and democracy---whereby “all men are created equal” meant only white Christian landlords have equal rights, damn the “others”.
The media has always served, at least initially, as an extension of governmental foreign policies, especially, war policies. To inflame American passion against Spain prior to the Spanish-American War, the most powerful media mogul in the country, William Randolph Hearst sent his reporters to Cuba with the admonition: “You bring me the pictures, I’ll supply the war”.
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." -- Samuel P. Huntington, Jewish Harvard Professor, Author of “Clash of Civilizations”
The “war on terrorism” is not a clash of civilizations but a clash of extremists in both the Muslim and the western “civilized” worlds, otherwise named the “Judeo-Christian” world after the Holocaust. The silence and absence of majorities in both worlds have created a political vacuum readily and gladly filled by extremists and special interest lobbies with pro-wealth, pro-empire agendas, supported by compliant politicians, financial institutions, and media corporations united in “manufacturing consent”, as termed by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book of the same name.
“In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda” --- Chomsky, N; Herman, E. “Manufacturing Consent”, Pantheon Books, 1988
To Paraphrase the American historian Henry B. Adams---western, not just American, “society is a sort of flat, fresh-water pond which absorbs silently, without reaction, anything which is thrown into it.”
In my lifetime I’ve met many generous, caring, and extraordinary Danes who’ve dedicated their lives to the betterment of mankind. To them I express my deep respect and gratitude.
The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (pbuh) said “You have not thanked God unless you have thanked your fellow man.”
The Danish paper, the JP, deliberately invited cartoonists to submit blasphemous cartoons to uphold “freedom of speech” and to show its refusal to “subordinate” Danes to alleged Muslim threats against depicting the Prophet in any literary or media format. Mr. Carsten Juste, the paper’s Editor in Chief, described these abhorrent depictions as “a journalistic project”, in effect, a Danish Experiment to test the limits of freedom of speech by any method proving that “religion shouldn’t set any barriers on that sort of expression.” [2]
“People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid”. --- Kierkegaard, Soren (1813-1855 Danish Philosopher, Writer)
It’s difficult to reconcile such vile journalism with the paper’s website statement of a strong “commitment to journalistic accuracy and reliability….with a high reputation for unbiased news.”
Given your self proclaimed reputation for “unbiased news”, your assertion that any religion can be satirized, allow me to put you to the test of another “journalistic project”, a project, if published, will forever solidify your paper as a paragon of liberty, democracy, and freedom of expression.
I would ask that under your definition of an unbiased commitment to freedom of speech, you consider publishing this most vile of a German Anti-Jewish cartoon, “The Eternal Jew” drawn in 1937 as a “journalistic project”, akin to your publishing the cartoon of the Prophet.
“We create an environment where it is alright to hate, to steal, to cheat, and to lie if we dress it up with symbols of respectability, dignity and love”. -- Whitney Moore, Jr.
“The Eternal Jew, 1937” [3] Obviously, for political, economic, and intimidating considerations you won’t even consider publishing the “Eternal Jew” cartoon and rightly so. Yet you feel comfortable to lambaste the Prophet of Islam, a faith of 1.4 Billion people. The Holocaust began with such demonization of Jews in “civilized” Europe. One of the strands of George Orwell's 1984 was that in a dehumanized society hatred naturally becomes state-sponsored.
“The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next”. -- Helen Keller
In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, November 10, 2005, Bjorn Moller, a senior research fellow at the Danish Institute of International Studies said: “The cartoons seem to have been a deliberate move by the newspaper to provoke Muslim sentiment…citing one right-wing member of parliament who compared Denmark’s Muslim community to cancer.”
Freedom of Speech is among the most litigious freedoms around the world. Its definition and application is complex and has varied over time, place, context, and circumstance. The most problematic issue for this freedom is defining its limits in society. Yet the Danish Prime Minister and the JP paper seem to have a clear cut black and white understanding of what constitutes freedom of speech. Translation---if it’s Islamophobic--it’s freedom of speech, otherwise Denmark does limit such freedom.
In 1919, the American Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that “the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic”.
On September 3, 2005, Kevin Sullivan wrote an article in the Washington Post titled “Denmark decides Free Speech has Limits in world with terror”. It dealt with a Danish citizen prosecuted under the 2002 Anti-Terrorism law for making CD’s of internet videos dealing with the Iraq War. The article expressed the view that such a curb on freedom of speech was remarkable given Denmark’s tolerance for all points of view.
Another case that shows Denmark’s does limit and censor Freedom of Speech was reported in The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, February 13, 2004. The case dealt with the government halting the distribution of 60,000 CD-ROMs of sexual education material for students throughout the country due to some obscene content. [4]
Under the Danish Constitution Freedom of Expression is found under section 77. It states: "Any person shall be at liberty to publish his ideas in print, in writing, and in speech, subject to being held responsible in a court of law”.
Under the Responsibility of Media Act (Act no. 348 of 6. June 1991), the author, publisher, and editors are responsible for their actions under the law. AND: “While carrying out their tasks mass-media should recognize the need to take the individual citizens rights to personal integrity into account and recognize the need of non-infringement without due course”.
The updated Media Liability Act of1992 includes sections on Press Ethics and the Right of Reply. The Minister of Justice appoints the eight council members to the Press Council. A Right of Reply to a media story must be made within four weeks of the incident in question in writing.
The National Code of Conduct - Denmark Press Council
A legal code adopted by the Danish Parliament with the acceptance of the National Union of Journalists in 1992.
The rules comprise all editorial materials (text and picture) published in the written periodical press, in radio, television and remaining mass media.
The rules comprise persons mentioned and depicted, including deceased persons and also corporations and similar association.
Correction Information
1. It is the duty of the press to bring correct and prompt information.
2. The sources of news should be treated critically, in particular when such statements may be colored by personal interest or tortuous intention.
3. Information which may be prejudicial or insulting to somebody or detract from other persons' opinion of the person concerned shall be very closely checked. [5]
Additionally, the Danish penal code: Section 266b states:
"Any person who publicly or with the intention of dissemination to a wide circle of people makes a statement or imparts other information threatening, insulting, or degrading a group of persons on account of their race, color, or national or ethnic origin, "BELIEF" or sexual orientation shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years."
According to the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC): "The terms "statement or other information" should be interpreted broadly. They cover both oral and written expressions, pictures, "CARICATURES", and also symbolic acts and objects".
The EUMC Report also states that: "In 2002, the Muslim organization "Hizb-ut-Tahrir" distributed threatening and insulting "flyers" that were Anti-Jews.”
On the same day such flyers were distributed, the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, immediately met with Jewish leaders to discuss the incident and afterwards promptly condemned the incident.
Under Section 266b, the leader of "Hizb-ut-Tahrir" was found guilty. [6]
However, in keeping with western double standards vis-à-vis Islam, Prime Minister Rasmussen described the more egregious attack on Islam's Prophet as "freedom of expression". He said; "freedom of expression is the very foundation of the Danish democracy".
But, if one applies the JP’s newspaper definition of “freedom of speech” that justified publishing the atrocious cartoons of Islam’s Prophet, such "flyers" are protected by the Constitutional right of "freedom of expression" and thus the leader of "Hizb-Ut-Tahrir" should have neither be condemned nor found liable for insulting or degrading "Jews".
The March 2005 Annual Report of the E.U.M.C. singles out Governmental policies and Media influence as feeding the Racism and Xenophobia experienced by ethnic minorities in Europe, including those in Denmark.
The report states:
“The media in particular can have a significant influence on public attitudes…National and local media reports about ethnic minorities, migrants and asylum seekers also shape majorities’ attitudes towards minorities, with overt or covert racist bias in reporting both reflecting and influencing negative attitudes. Consideration needs to be given to political and policy standpoints, and in turn, media reporting of these standpoints, with respect to immigration and diversity -in particular with regard to the anti-immigration and racist sentiments of some nationalist and populist politicians in the EU…As the EUMC’s report on ‘Racism and cultural diversity in the mass media’ comments, these negative stances are increasingly reflected across the political spectrum and can serve to enhance the majority public’s sense of insecurity about immigration and minority populations. Too often, media reporting neglects to advance positive messages about diverse communities living in relative peace alongside each other…Whereas reports about radical Islam and the threat it poses to Europe are regarded as ‘newsworthy’, reports about cultural diversity and co-existing communities are comparatively rare. In addition, reference to majority and minority populations with respect to shared human rights is absent from most media reporting. In sum, reference to majority and minority populations’ rights and responsibilities towards each other, with respect to human rights and associated legislation relating to ‘race’ and ethnicity is sidelined by media and political parties that focus on negative images of minorities in Europe”. [7]
As law abiding and tax paying citizens of Denmark, Muslims must investigate all legal avenues to redress the paper’s action as to whether freedom of speech in Denmark allows for inflammatory depictions that may result in violence or terrorism or perhaps under the libel in fiction statute claiming defamation of a real character through the use of fictional parody. Unlike the U.S., Denmark does not have a First Amendment protecting free speech but the courts have drawn a line against racist speech online as occurred in 1998 with the Warming Case
The Organization of Islamic Conference, the Arab League, the Association of Muslim Lawyers (U.K.), Muslim Lawyers Guild (Germany), The Malaysian Bar, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, and any and all Lawyers, Muslims or otherwise, who practice in the area of civil litigation, freedom of speech cases, human rights and international law should seriously consider filing suit against the paper, JP, and its editors.
According to the Organization of Islamic Conference (O.I.C.: personal email), Denmark exported products to the 57 member Muslim nations in 2003 worth $2,075,000,000 (over two billion dollars), an increase of 18% over 2002.
That’s an enormous leverage that must be considered in dealing with Denmark’s xenophobia, racism, and strict immigration and asylum policies that have been condemned by International Human Rights Organizations including those of the European Union and much of the western press.
Already some courageous Danish lawyers and professionals are taking the Danish Government to court for joining the Iraq in contradiction to Denmark’s Constitution. -- AFP, October 12, 2005.
Sadly, Mr.Juste is not alone in attacking Islam without any shred of knowledge of the faith as one would’ve expected from a 100% educated western “civilized” nation. He is only the “fool du jour” in a long and continuous pandemic of ignorance about Islam reverberating throughout all facets of western consciousness. The transformation of the west from Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” to Disneyland’s “I don’t think, therefore I’m civilized” is near completion. What prompted the paper’s insane “test” to defame a prophet rather than the conduct and behavior of some Muslims is beyond comprehension.
Mr. Juste, do not judge any faith by the actions of some of its followers, but by the content of its Scriptures.
"Over the course of no less than thirteen centuries a stubbornly biased and consistently negative outlook had persisted, permeating deep levels of European consciousness. In the works of an overwhelming majority of European writers, Muhammad was portrayed as a man of deep moral faults. Churchmen, historians, orientalists, biographers, philosophers, dramatists, poets and politicians alike had sought to attribute to Islam, and especially to Muhammad, fanatical and disreputable, even demonic characteristics." [8]
Yet, even in Europe’s Post-Enlightenment period, the Prophet was not spared but continued to be denigrated
“But when a camel dealer stirs up rebellion, claims to have conversed with Gabriel, and to have received this incomprehensible book, in which every page does violence to sober reason….such conduct can be defended by no man….unless superstition has choked all of the light of nature in him.” -- Voltaire, Preface to Mahomet ou le Fanatisime, 1742 [9]
Even Britain’s famous warrior and Noble Prize Winner, Sir Winston Churchill wrote thus on Islam:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome”. -- Sir Winston Churchill, “The River War” Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).
The published cartoons in question today, in the twenty first century no less, persist in such demagoguery and demonization of a man whose moral character was unassailable even by his enemies during his lifetime.
Mr. Juste, prior to publishing the despicable cartoons in question, did your paper perform the most rudimentary journalistic research on the Prophet’s life and character? Did you read the Qur’an and a biography of this man? Do you know anything about this man’s morals and values? The rush to publish anti-Islamic propaganda reminds one of the “rush to war in Iraq”.
Your slander is consistent with the flawed and historically racist approach of the “white man’s burden” toward -–the different, the colored, the religiously, culturally, exotic foreign “other”; the opportune scapegoat for a dying immoral civilization.
“It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings”. -- Mohandas Gandhi
ISLAM—TERRORISM--DEMOCRACY:
The cartoon showing the Prophet as a suicide bomber is beneath contempt but is consistent with the western association of Islam and terrorism. No other faith is used to identify terrorist acts committed by Non-Muslims---no Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, or Hindu terrorist is ever identified by his/her faith. For example: The “Catholic Terrorist Group the I.R.A.” today killed five Protestant Irishmen.
It’s obvious, Mr. Juste, you’re uninformed as to who began terroristic attacks in the Middle East using car bombs as well as the first hijacking of a civilian airline. No one has succeeded in defining terrorism, neither the United Nations nor the U.S. Government, but it’s obvious that the west considers any military antagonism to its hegemony or occupation as terrorism while its “chemical and conventional bombs” are smart, precise and instruments of peace, not terrorism.
“Because I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with a whole fleet and are called an emperor” -- St. Augustine’s “City of God”
The Euro-Mediterranean Conference just held in Barcelona, Spain (November 27-28, 2005) failed to agree on the definition of “terrorism”. The Arabs sought to identify Palestinian and Iraqi resistance to foreign occupation as legitimate enshrined by International law while Israel and Europe wanted such resistance is “terrorism”.
The ultimate irony is that on December 7, 1987 the United Nations General Assembly voted 156 – 2 to pass--A/RES/42/159--that dealt with combating international “terrorism” and to “study the underlying causes….including those in which States are directly or indirectly involved”. The only two nations that voted against the Resolution were the: United States and Israel. Reason: because the resolution “reaffirmed the principle of self-determination of peoples as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirmed the inalienable right to self-determination and independence of all peoples under “colonial and racist” regimes…and upholding the legitimacy of their struggle, in particular their struggle for national liberation.” [10]
By this international definition Palestinians, Iraqi’s, Afghans, Chechens, Kashmiris, and all people seeking to free their land from foreign occupation are resistant fighters and have the right to fight for their independence. But not according to the colonial occupiers, “they” are terrorists and must be “silent” and accepting of the democratic benevolent occupation.
No one who’s studied the foreign policy of the United States, Israel, and colonial Europe will find the opposition of the civilized states to people’s independence, freedom, and self-determination shocking. Democracy as practiced by the west both domestically and in foreign affairs has always been the “Achilles Heel” of western ideals and values. Yet, the “coalition of the killing” led by Bush and Rasmussen seeks to spread democracy in the Muslim world by force in the delusion that a democratic Muslim world will make the world safer for their greed and hegemony.
No one believes that the west truly seeks a democratic Muslim world, for such a world will oppose western colonialism in a much more powerful fashion than is currently manifested.
In an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs, F. Gregory Gause III, associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont and director of its Middle East studies program, asks, "Is the security rationale for promoting democracy in the Arab world based on a sound premise?" His answer is NO.
He writes:
“Although what is known about terrorism is admittedly incomplete, the data available do not show a strong relationship between democracy and an absence of or a reduction in terrorism….Nor is it likely that democratization would end the current campaign against the United States… Nor is there any evidence that democracy in the Arab world would "drain the swamp,"In her book, "Terror in the Name of God", Professor Jessica Stern of Harvard has argued that "democratization is not necessarily the best way to fight Islamic extremism,"
In his book, “Dying to Win: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” Robert Pape, Associate Professor of Political Science in the University of Chicago has collected the first complete database of every suicide-terrorist attack around the world from 1980 to early 2004. His conclusion thoroughly dispels the widely held misconceptions that suicide bombers act out of religious fundamentalism; rather, they act out of a secular impetus against foreign occupation. Here are some Facts that dispel propagandistic myths designed to ensure perpetual wars against Islam. Incidentally, suicide attacks accounted for only 3 percent of all terrorist attacks from 1980 to 2001.
It’s the Occupation, Not Fundamentalism
FACT: Suicide terrorism is not primarily a product of Islamic fundamentalism. The world’s leading practitioners of suicide terrorism are the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka–a secular, Marxist-Leninist group drawn from Hindu families.
FACT: Every suicide terrorist campaign has had a clear goal that is secular and political: to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. Al-Qaeda fits the above pattern. [11]
There is no such thing as total freedoms, least of all “freedom of speech” anywhere in the world. Governments and the mass media decide what is and isn’t freedom of speech. . It depends on their ideology, agenda, campaign donors, advertisers, fear and intimidation from special interest groups, and keeping their jobs. Would the New York Times publish an article by David Irving questioning the extant of the Holocaust? Would you publish a near naked photo of a Danish political figure especially of a right wing extremist as was a photo of Saddam Hussein splashed around the world? Many media outlets reject publishing advertisements opposed to their ideology or out of fear of a backlash. Recently FOXNEWS in the U.S. refused an ad against the appointment of the nominated Supreme Court Judge Samuel Alito. CNN just fired a switchboard operator who told an irate caller complaining about a large “X” placed on the face of V.P. Dick Cheney because she told the caller that placing the “X” was “freedom of speech”. Zionist groups in America headed by Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz and others have launched a national campaign to silence any academic or political criticism of Israel as well as decry liberals. [12]
I’m sure you’ve read the reported story of Bush wanting to bomb the Arabic channel Aljazeera? Or of the U.S. military bombing the Aljazeera stations in both Kabul and Baghdad killing a reporter. Or of the U.S. paying Iraqi journalists to run favorable stories. Or the Bush administration paying American columnists (with tax monies) to write stories supportive of its domestic agenda such as paying Armstrong Williams $240,000 to support Bush’s educational initiative “No Child Left Behind”. Or of Bush’s Department of Education showing prepackaged videos promoting the same program as regular news stories. Or of the murder of over 56 international journalists in Iraq? Or of the bombing of the Serbian television station during the Kosovo war? There is a national governmental campaign in the U.S. to silence any dissidents against the Iraq war. Bush even refused the media to publish photographs of soldiers coming home in coffins. No American who is opposed to U.S. policy or to Israel’s brutality against the Palestinians is ever invited to a television or radio news show. Mainstream publishing companies refuse to publish books with opinions opposing Israel’s occupation leaving authors to go abroad to publish their books or get interviewed. Such dissidence is deemed unpatriotic by the few major corporations left who own the majority of the media in the U.S., while only nine such corporations own the majority of all media around the world. If you research the owners, CEO’s, Board of Directors, editors etc. of such corporations you’ll understand why there is no “freedom of speech”.
Many studies on the media in the U.K. and U.S. have been done that factually show the enormity of bias toward Israel’s viewpoint.
REFERENCES:
[1]. http://www.newspaperindex.com/blog/wp-images/Mohammed-drawings-newspaper.jpg (12 Despicable Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)]
[2]. Copenhagen Post, October 12, 2005
[3]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Der_ewige_jude.jpg
[4]. http://www.freespeechcoalition.com/newsletter2-27-04.htm
[5]. http://www.ifla.org/faife/report/denmark.htm
[6]. http://www.iit.edu/departments/csep/codes/coe/jour-denmark.html ;
http://www.pressenaevnet.dk/english/indhold.html (Filing Complaints to Press Council)
[7]. http://eumc.eu.int/eumc/as/PDF04/AS-Main-report-PDF04.pdf
[8]. Reeves, Minou, Muhammad in Europe, A Thousand Years of Western Myth Making, N. Y. University Press, 2000
[9]. Ibid; page 139
[10]. http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/42/a42r159.htm
[11]. http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400063178 and;
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1020/dailyUpdate.html
[12]. Daniel Pipes’ site: http://www.campus-watch.org and:
David Horowitz’s site: http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/
Mr. Mohamed Khodr is an American Muslim physician and a native from the Middle East. He has worked in Academic Medicine and Public health with national and international health experience. He is a freelance writer who often writes columns on the Palestinian cause, Islam and on America's Foreign Policy in the Middle East.
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