– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

01. Feb 2006

Lidt flere arabiske kommentarer

 
The Black Iris of Jordan skriver:
One cannot put aside the fact that through worldwide condemnation there was a desire to seek a diplomatic solution upon which the paper should have apologized but instead Muslim protests were met with silence. It is at this point that things started to go awry.

Islamic governments failed to distinguish between a newspaper in Denmark and the whole of Denmark. Instead of focusing on the newspaper they went after its government which had nothing to do with it. Instead of focusing on the newspaper they went after companies that had nothing to do with it. Did they not think that there are Muslims who live in Denmark that could be affected by it?

What drives me crazy is that the Gulf governments, most of who were the architects of these boycotts, were so prepared to boycott over offensive cartoons yet I haven’t seen such a reaction towards Israel since the oil embargos in the 70’s. I mean, come on! The cartoons were offensive yes but this land is being occupied for heaven’s sake!
(...)
More inappropriate reactions were the gunmen who took over an EU office in Palestine, flag burning and my favorite: beating up Christian university students in Iraq. All of this was despicable in my opinion, specifically the last one which I am stunned by. The irony here (and Muslims reading this will appreciate this) is that upon feeling their religious teachings had been offended some Muslims reacted by forgetting their religious teachings.
Oleander, endnu en jordansk blogger, har har også en kommentar eller to:
The cartoons were tasteless and offensive, provided that what's considered tasteless and offensive is a matter of viewpoints. But there are many many tasteless and offensive things out in the world that we really have no control over, what we can control however, is the way we react to such things. The reaction to the cartoons in the Arab and Muslim world has been outrageously extreme. And as always it's unfortunately the people with the most extreme views that get heard, some in the west retaliated with their own extremism through websites that preach hatred towards Muslims.

We in the Arab world have a long way to go before understanding concepts like free press and free speech, I can see people justifying boycotting everything Danish because the Danish government would not FORCE the newspaper to apologize, or they wouldn't themselves apologize, people don't understand that in the free world, government has no control over the press. As Muslims we need to stop being overly sensitive about religious issues, we can't force our beliefs down the throats of others, we can't expect others to hold our holies in the same regard we do, and we seriously need to stop wanting to kill anyone who doesn't hold them as such.

What I don't understand is that if the Jyllands-Posten was going to cave in and apologize, why did they wait until the situation deteriorated to this level? Maybe a publicity stunt...
Vel, faktisk var det naturligvis, fordi man ikke vil "tabe ansigt" blandt sit kernesegment af Dansk Folkeparti-medlemmer, som onkel Henning gør opmærksom på.

Det nuværende billedforbud i Islam skyldes ikke så meget respekt for profeten som en frygt for, at ærbødighed for afbildninger af Muhammed skal udarte til billeddyrkelse som man ser det i katolicismen og de fleste "hedenske" religioner.

Dette billedforbud har ikke altid været gældende. Den ligeledes jordanske Roba Al-Assi skriver herom i et af sine indlæg i "tegningsdebatten":
What I will actually write about is one of my favorite issues- figurative illustration of human form in Islamic art throughout the centuries. The early Bedouin artists of Islam also disliked depicting the Prophet because to Muslim's, he is the embodiment of the "ideal man"- an ideology that can't be represented through physical properties. However, as Islam spread, the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula came in contact with many civilizations and cultures, including Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Coptic, Sassanian, Buddhist, Chinese, Berber, Turcik, Gothic and various others cultures, each of which had its own system of beliefs as well as its own artistic traditions.

It is only natural that illustrated stories of the time of the Prophet would find their way into books, especially as most of the cultures that the Muslims strove to convert to Islam didn't speak Arabic, making illustration a necessary tool for communication.
Roba viser også nogle eksempler - go read, om du er interesseret.

Den ægyptiske kommentator Mona Eltahawy, som vi også citerede i går, ser i modsætning til de højreparanoide danske kommentatorer sagen som et vidnesbyrd om den islamiske verdens magtesløshed og desparation:
Perhaps the Muslim governments who spearheaded the campaign - led by Egypt - felt this was an easy way to burnish their Islamic credentials at a time when domestic Islamists are stronger than they have been in many years.

Must we really boycott Danish products, as one e-mail I received exhorted? And why did an audience member at December’s Arab Thought Foundation conference in Dubai insist on delivering a lecture on the Danish cartoons, instead of focusing on the topic of the panel, namely Arab media and terrorism? Of all the issues that plague the Muslim world today, are our priorities cartoons published in a newspaper in a country inhabited by less than 6 million people? If we really want to pick a fight with the West, have we forgotten that 500 Muslim men continue to be detained without charge at the makeshift prison run by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which last week marked its fourth anniversary?

The fracas over the cartoons is a sad testament to the impotence of the Muslim world. That clerics and leaders of Muslim countries gain any sense of power over this issue is a reminder of how powerless they really are and also a reminder, as if we needed one, of the moral bankruptcy of our self-appointed moral guides. It is no wonder that these same moral guides have gone on a power trip over cartoons – after all, clerics in Egypt have been arguing over whether married couples can be naked during sex.
Go read - jeg er ikke 100% enig i alt, hvad hun skriver (og som så mange andre udenlandske kommentatorer kender hun naturligvis ikke den danske kontekst af antiislamisme og sygelig mistænkeliggørelse af muslimer), men det er ikke noget dårligt sted at starte.

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