Synthesised GP Blog

Caricatures or some provoked sense of truth?

I am sure after struggling through a thousand and one articles on the Danish caricatures, you too must have had a feel of the perils of speech. Before I even begin planning for the question, “How far should an individual be allowed to exercise his freedom of speech?” I feel I have some pointers about the issue to jot down.

DISCLAIMER: This post is based on a secular and neutral view as far as possible and any points touching the core of the conflict is strictly for academic exploration only. The defence of either party (free-speech or the religion of concern) is not of priority. Readers are advised to practice discretion.

I can summarize the entire conflict as a clash between the Muslim's conservationist religion - Islam - and presumably the free-speech advocating West. Perhaps still shadowed by the 911 tragedy, the US had exercised little of its freedom in press. Views were mainly found from Europe and the general Muslim society. To keep from another 10 pages read, I've summarized some points below:

• I feel it is right for Danish Government to not apologize. After all, her press freedom equates to granting autonomy to all press organizations in the country. Since they have no control whatsoever of the organizations, the responsibility they shoulder should be little, if not none. Just as an independent country not held responsible for another country's mistakes, the independent press is as good as every other private institute the government does not play the dice of and hence not be blamed for its misgivings. Forcing the Danish Government to apologize would be akin to asking the parent of a runaway child to be liable for the child's crimes.
• Why the potrayal of core Islamic religion as such? A question perhaps people who have seen the cartoons may find easy to understand but difficult to testify for. If in any case, the potrayal must have had some basis before it may be published. Sadly, though not all of the Muslims are as assumed by the authors, there are extremists present which cannot be ignored. The image of the mainstream followers have been smeared by the misled. That should be the right point of outrage.
• Following the Muslim's point of view, it is definitely condemnable the publisher's insensitivity. Globalization has integrated the Muslim (once minority) into the West so deeply that any mistreatment is indeed an injustice that will be identified and reacted upon. Therefore, I feel the point that the Danish press did not expect such a furore is a shallow reasoning to its ignorance.
• The reaction of the Muslims in certain parts of the world is really not a good way to revenge on the Danish press. Threats and burning of flags are definitely not the method to use for arguing that the religion is a peaceful one and seek no war... If otherwise, there is little possibility of denying the caricatures entirely.
• If we had explored the morality of the issue, Jyllands-Posten had repeatedly argued that they had no intentions to enrage the entire world's Muslims and gain itself and its country so much boycotts and threats. There was no intention to begin with despite the results being as such.
• Another noteworthy point is that, Islam is not the only religion made fun of in that press. Why haven't others generated this big a problem? Is it the minority syndrome that they feel discriminated against? Unlikely, Islam is now the second largest religion in many European countries. A possible problem may lie in the very nature of the religion: conservativeness which is the direct opposite of the West's ideologies of freedom.
  

Undoubtedly, an experiment had been conducted. An experiment to test whether opposites attract. It seems though, the experiment gone haywire.

However, we can no longer hope for the opposites to disappear; globalization has made all of us one family. Whether it will be a broken one or a prosperous and harmonious one is up to each and every of the citizen to have sensitivity. The interdependence can be a good thing in working towards peace if maintained as positive. Should it be tipped, it will only collapse everyone.

Similar to a family, every member has its weaknesses and virtues. If only we could depend on each other's virtues to cover up our weaknesses such that a blend may occur, perhaps today, there wouldn't have been this conflict at all.

posted by synthesis @ 9:31 PM