Using Violence: People are Afraid to Criticize Islam

Monday February 6, 2006

An important, and probably deliberate, consequence of all the violence perpetrated by Mulims in reaction to the Danish political cartoons is that people will become even more afraid to criticize Islam. The cartoonists are already in hiding; who else will voluntarily subject themselves to that sort of thing now?

Der Spiegel interviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali about this and she explains that this incident is merely the latest in a long line of similar incidents:

In 1980, privately owned British broadcaster ITV aired a documentary about the stoning of a Saudi Arabian princess who had allegedly committed adultery. The government in Riyadh intervened and the British government issued an apology. We saw the same kowtowing response in 1987 when (Dutch comedian) Rudi Carrell derided (Iranian revolutionary leader) Ayatollah Khomeini in a comedy skit (that was aired on German television).

In 2000, a play about the youngest wife of the Prophet Mohammed, titled “Aisha,” was cancelled before it ever opened in Rotterdam. Then there was the van Gogh murder and now the cartoons. We are constantly apologizing, and we don’t notice how much abuse we’re taking. Meanwhile, the other side doesn’t give an inch.

Ali herself has been criticized for “going too far,” but how far is too far?

Oddly enough, my critics never specify how far I can go. How can you address problems if you’re not even allowed to clearly define them? Like the fact that Muslim women at home are kept locked up, are raped and are married off against their will -- and that in a country in which our far too passive intellectuals are so proud of their freedom!

We must remember that the Muslims rioting in the Middle East are not upset because they were forced to view images which they found offensive — if that were the case, it might be easier to feel some sympathy for them. Instead, they are upset that the images were created at all and that anyone, anywhere in the world might see them. This isn’t a case where one can readily say “if you don’t like it, turn the channel or read another newspaper” because Muslims are seeking the total elimination of these images, not merely the ability to ignore them.

HL Mencken wrote that “A Puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun.” One might say today that Muslims are becoming deathly afraid that someone, somewhere, is creating or viewing images and material critical and disrespectful of their religion. Why does this bother them? Why can’t they abide by the idea that people somewhere might disrespect, satirize, or mock their religion? Fear is the most likely explanation — fear that the critics might be right.

If Muslims were confident that they were in the right, mocking from ignorant barbarians wouldn’t be a cause for much more than a bit of derision and pity. Muslims would be justified in objecting to ignorant mocking, but the riots and threats of murder are quite another matter entirely.

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