Jan. - March 2006 
Year 12    No.114

Cover Story


The Cartoon Controversy

 

More fundamental issues 

Does the search for justice only apply when the perpetrators of the injustice are non-Muslims?

BY AYMAN S. ASHOUR

I woke up yesterday to morning papers and Internet news showing pictures of angry people on the streets
of Cairo. A boatful of poor Egyptian labourers returning from Saudi Arabia to the south of Egypt went down in the Red Sea.

A fire erupted on the boat some 90 minutes after it left the Saudi port and for some unknown reason the boat did not return to Saudi and it kept going farther out to sea. Some hours later, the reports are still conflicting but most say two hours, the boat took in water and 15 minutes after that went down with some 1,400 people in the dark shark-infested waters of the Red Sea. Rescue operations commenced some eight to 13 hours later, again conflicting reports, and less than 400 people were saved and taken to hospitals in Egypt.

Poor Egyptian labourers from the south of Egypt often go to work in the oil-rich countries; they often work in the construction industry and many at relatively low-paying jobs that do not afford them the luxury of annual trips home. Thus the workers stay away from home for several years and finally return with their savings, carrying gifts to their families. I expect some would use bank facilities to wire their savings home but the vast majority would have carried all of their earthly possessions back with them on board. So down went some 1,000 people and the livelihood and hopes of some 1,400 poor families; all lost to the bottom of the Red Sea. The War On The Poor continues to claims its victims from New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico coast to Pakistani Kashmir and now to the Red Sea.

So far I have not heard of people taken to hospitals in Saudi or any Saudi participation in the rescue, perhaps the poor drowning Egyptians lacked the necessary re-entry permits. Naturally I assumed that the angry demonstrations on the streets of Cairo were against the Saudi and the Egyptian authorities. I was mistaken; the angry mob was demonstrating against …the USA for Iraq …no, no …Israel for Palestine …no, no, the angry mobs on the streets of Cairo were demonstrating against Denmark and the now infamous anti-Muslim offensive cartoons. Egypt was not that bad, in Syria where self-expression without government approval is as rare as balanced coverage on Fox News, the Danish and Norwegian embassies were torched …not a word about the 1,000 or so Egyptians that drowned!

The Danish cartoons were doubtless offensive. An attempt to defy self-censorship and to reassert the freedom of expression is somewhat more acceptable when lampooning one’s own culture or heritage but attacking others, especially at a time of rising incidents of racism and Islamophobia, is unacceptable behaviour. While the prime minister of Denmark publicly expressed regret over the publication of the cartoons, I am unaware that either Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, nor any of his predecessors, has ever expressed regret over the much more offensive portrayal of Prophet Muhammad by Dante.

If the Danes want to continue to portray themselves as a forward-looking liberal egalitarian society yet support a newspaper (by buying it and advertising in it) that promotes racism, I say let them.

Islam is not insulted by such bigotry any more than it was by Dante centuries ago. Islam and Muslims, however, are insulted far worse when we allow the extremists to steal the banner of Islam and commit heinous crimes under its name and remain silent. Danish cartoons are a bigger danger to Denmark and to what and how the Danes claim to see as their values. Some have argued that it is up to Muslims of Demark to deal with this problem. I would argue that it is up to non-Muslims of Denmark to boycott the offensive paper and those who advertise in it. I would argue that this needs to be done through discussions and dialogue and not even a boycott of Danish products let alone violent demonstrations that reinforce the negative stereotypes that we object to in the cartoons.

I wish that the sense of activism and outrage on the streets of Cairo and Damascus and many other Muslim countries is redirected towards more fundamental Islamic issues. "Mercy" and "Compassion" and their linguistic derivatives are by far the most repeated words of the Koran.

Where is the mercy and compassion towards the passengers of El Salaam 98? Where is accountability or justice? Isn’t the seeking of justice fundamental to Islamic belief or does that only apply when the perpetrators of the injustice are non-Muslims??

February 7, 2006.

(This item is located at:
http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2006/02/cartoons_ships.php)


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