The Daily Star - - The Danish cartoons: a neo-colonial slap

Copyright (c) 2006 The Daily Star
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
The Danish cartoons: a neo-colonial slap
By Rami G. Khouri
Daily Star staff
Many have been surprised by the scope and intensity of angry crowds throughout the Islamic world demonstrating against the offensive cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad that were published last year in a small, right-wing Danish newspaper. It is perhaps time that we stopped being surprised by a routine phenomenon: the affirmation of Islamic identity as the dominant form of national self-assertion in developing societies whose citizens hold major grievances against the quality of their own statehood and governance, as well as against Western and Israeli policies. The cartoons, including one depicting the prophet‘s headdress as a bomb, were only the fuse setting off a combustible mixture of pressures and tensions anchored in a much wider array of problems. These include the cartoons themselves; provocative and arrogant European disdain for Muslim sensitivities about the prophet Mohammad; attempts by some Islamist extremists and criminal-political elements to stir up troubles; the Europeans‘ clear message that their values count more than the values of Muslims; and, a wider sense by many citizens of Islamic societies that the West in general seeks to weaken and subjugate the Muslim world.  The Danish cartoons only sparked some mild complaints when they first appeared last September. The current wave of intense protests was sparked when half a dozen other newspapers throughout Europe provocatively reprinted the cartoons last month. This was coupled with European political and press leaders flat out telling the Islamic world that Western freedom of press was a higher moral value and a greater political priority than Muslims‘ concern that their leading prophet not be subjected to blasphemy and insult.  Clearly, some troublemakers in Europe and the Islamic world stirred up Muslims‘ anger and provoked some of the destructive protests, especially burning embassies and offices in Damascus and Beirut. This is the political equivalent of football hooliganism in Europe - a small minority of unruly criminal thugs that preys on the legitimate sentiments of otherwise peaceful crowds that take to the streets in orderly if lively protests. It would be a huge mistake to focus mainly on the few violent political skinheads, and to ignore the meaning of the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of protestors who marched in earnest and in an orderly way. This occurs at a time when Islamist political movements throughout the region are winning election after election. Islamist identity repeatedly triumphs where traditional ruling elites have had to open up and make space for others to contest political power democratically and peacefully, in Arab states, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and others. The most consistent source of Arab-Islamic angst in the past two centuries - Western colonialism - has now run up against the resistance of the single most consistent form of indigenous identity and anti-imperial opposition - cultural and political Islam. It is too simplistic and easy to categorize this as a clash of civilizations, a very Western perspective that explains political tensions primarily through the lens of cultural and values differences. Most Muslims (and non-Muslim Middle Easterners, including several million Christians) probably see the current tensions as a political battle, not a cultural one. This is not primarily an argument about freedom of press in Europe, much as our European friends would like to believe it is. It is about Arab-Islamic societies‘ desire to enjoy freedom from Western and Israeli subjugation, diplomatic double-standards and predatory neo-colonial policies. This is no mere clash of cultures. It is a new form of the colonial struggle that defined European-Arab and Asian relations in the 19th century. The difference this time is that the natives in the South are not helpless and quiescent in the face of the West‘s large guns, disdainful rhetoric, or insulting cartoons. Muslims, Arabs, Asians and others today are much more aware of the policies of Western states, concerned about their goals, angry about Western double standards, able to resist through mass media, political and other channels, and willing to stand up, fight back, and assert their right to live in freedom and dignity. The message from the Arab-Islamic heartland is that the 19th century has officially ended. Muslims have been deeply insulted by much of Europe‘s behavior regarding the Danish cartoons; but not only the cartoons, because our concerns and fears are much wider and deeper than that. Many ordinary citizens in the Arab world and Asia see the European position on Iran‘s nuclear industry and the victorious Hamas party in Palestine as moving closer to American-Israeli positions that grossly discriminate against Arabs or Muslims. Coming after the American-led assault on Iraq, this explains why large majorities of people polled in Arab countries just three months ago believed that the main motives of American policies in the Middle East were "oil, protecting Israel, dominating the region, and weakening the Muslim world." Editorial cartoons by nature send a message by symbolizing much larger political and social issues. Similarly, the current protests by many Muslims should be understood as reflecting much deeper concerns than solely the insulting, blasphemous cartoons in a Danish newspaper.
Rami G. Khouri writes a regular commentary for THE DAILY STAR.

Copyright (c) 2006 The Daily Star
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