In a column commenting on the recent violence linked to cartoons in European newspapers that satirized the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, right-wing US pundit Ann Coulter suggested that Islam is “a car-burning cult,” and wrote that Muslims have “a predilection for violence.”
Category Archives: Resisting Islamophobia
How many were in Trafalgar Square?
Richard at Lenin’s Tomb takes issue with the initial BBC report that no more that 4,000 attended the rally in Trafalgar Square. He writes:
“It was easily much larger than the four thousand being claimed by the media, but probably not the forty thousand claimed by the organisers. At a pinch, and based on previous demonstrations in the same location, I would guess it was around 10-15,000 at its peak. That’s a large turnout by anyone’s standards. And the square was packed, and overflowing, and loud. And what is more, I’ve noticed the coverage of the protest on teevee appears to be speaking of the putatively low turnout (‘only a few thousand’) in connection with the organisers’ aims of expressing anger about the cartoons in a peaceful manner that represents mainstream Muslims. Well, excuse me, but how many turned out for the Danish Embassy protest in Knightsbridge last week? The one that caused all the offense and got acres of newsprint and hours of television coverage? A hundred? If that. A small protest organised by a phone-box organisation, and probably half of those were intelligence assets. That’s worth media alarm. Thousands of British Muslims denouncing Islamophobia in a dignified and impassioned way and all it’s worth is a few seconds, some unflattering footage and a mournful sigh from the journalist. Okay, I get it: if it isn’t panto Evil Doers, it isn’t news.”
No clash of civilisations – Anas Altikriti
“The furore around the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has brought forth claims that we are at the centre of a long-heralded clash of civilisations.
“Richard Littlejohn even wrote in the Daily Mail this week that this is war, adding ruefully that ‘we’ are losing it. I don’t believe we are witnessing a clash of civilisations, nor do I think such a clash is imminent or necessary. But when people of such varying backgrounds live together, a clash of sorts can be expected. And it is the appreciation of each other’s backgrounds and sensitivities that keeps those conflicts civil, peaceful and even productive….
“Is it so difficult to digest that Islam considers insulting the prophets of God a profound violation of what is sacred, just as Europe rightly regards denial of the Nazi Holocaust? Indeed, if freedom of speech were really the non-negotiable absolute in the west it is now claimed, then we would expect there to be uproar at legal bans on Holocaust denial or laws against incitement to racial hatred.
“Those who claim to uphold freedom of speech by defending the right to reproduce insulting depictions of the prophet are in effect saying to Muslims that what they hold dear and sacred is far more worthy of protecting than what Muslims hold dear and sacred. The cartoons had more to do with incitement of hatred, racism and Islamophobia than with freedom of expression.”
Anas Altikriti of MAB in the Guardian, 10 February 2006
Stand by for David T of Harry’s Place to post a denunciation of the Guardian for providing a platform to Islamic fascism, theocratic reaction etc etc.
Media a ‘platform for racists’ in cartoon row, says Ken
The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone spoke at a press conference in City Hall today alongside Muslim leaders and urged that the views of mainstream Islam be heard in the current debate about the publication of the Danish cartoons that have caused offence around the Muslim world.
The press conference was called in support of this Saturday’s rally ‘United against Incitement and Islamophobia’, the aim of which is to explain the views of the mainstream Muslim community in condemning the publication of the Islamophobic cartoons, and to dissociate the mainstream Muslim community from the tiny minority of extremists who have been given media coverage out of all proportion to their numbers.
The Mayor said: “I am supporting this event because, unlike some of the BBC’s coverage, it will allow the views of the mainstream Muslim community to be properly heard. Too many media outlets have given excessive weight to the fringes of this argument including giving a platform to racists.
“The publication of these cartoons was a deliberate and gratuitous insult to the Muslim community, designed to destroy trust and understanding. Had such images, bordering on racist, been used to portray other groups they would rightly have been condemned as racist or anti-Semitic.
“There is no excuse for breaking the law and anyone who does so should and will face the prospect of prosecution, but there is no getting away from the fact that this whole episode has allowed much of Europe’s media to engage in an orgy of Islamophobia. The only beneficiaries will be the racists and Al Qaeda. It should stop now.”
Abu Aardvark on the cartoons crisis
Marc Lynch writes: “By emphasizing angry voices on both sides, but especially on the Muslim side, the media is playing into the hands of extremists. It’s typical of the media – sensationalism sells papers, and gets viewers. But it isn’t constructive.
“When Qaradawi says that Muslims should be angry and should boycott, but should not engage in violence, don’t report the first and ignore the second…. this is not a clash of civilizations, and we should stop treating it as such. Yes, most Muslims I know are angry and genuinely offended, but they aren’t violent about it.
“If a similar cartoon had been run about Jesus, or Anne Frank … or Martin Luther King, lots of Americans would be angry and genuinely offended. By focusing on the extreme voices, the media really does an injustice to the legitimate, human feelings and ideas of that vast majority of Muslims who deserve the right to be heard without being reduced to some cliche of Muslim rage.”
Abu Aardvark weblog, 9 February 2006
Somebody should point this out to Anthony Garton Ash, who in yesterday’s Guardian endorsed the prominent media coverage given to irrelevant and totally unrepresentative nutters like Omar Bakri and Anjem Choudary.
Friday sermons to reflect on Islamophobia and urge peaceful protest
Muslim Association of Britain called on Mosque imams around the country to use their tomorrow Friday prayer sermons to reflect on the offensive Islamophobic campaign in Europe and to urge their followings to attend the rally against Islamophobia on Saturday.
The Trafalgar Square event will be attended by figures from across public life in an attempt to provide a legitimate stage to voice concern and anger over the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as a terrorist.
Commenting, Anas Altikriti, spokesman for MAB said:
“The Islamophobic attitudes which have been pervading across the European continent for a sustained period have come to a head over these cartoons. There is an understandable anxiety among Muslims about where this kind of portrayal will lead. Many are rightly linking these to similar anti-Semitic caricatures over the years, which are now being used against Muslims.
“The imams will in their Friday sermons simply reinforce that we have to work with the many non-Muslims that are ready to hold hands, to create a more peaceful and respectful world. We’ll be seeing that in force no doubt on Saturday itself.”
Muslim Association of Britain press release, 9 February 2006
Pipes on the ‘clash of civilisations’
“The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise….”
Daniel Pipes in a predictable response to the Danish cartoons controversy.
See also the excellent reply at Mere Islam, 7 February 2006
Gay rights: who are the real enemies of liberation?
“The bigoted outburst by the magazine of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association calling Islam a ‘barmy doctrine’ is the clearest example of the co-option of many in the gay liberation movement into the barmy doctrine of the clash of civilisations.”
Ghassan Makarem in Socialist Review, February 2006
Rotten judgment in the state of Denmark
The Danish paper that printed the cartoons of Muhammad wanted to stir up trouble – and the government wanted a culture war. They got more than they bargained for.
Jytte Klausen analyses the Danish cartoons crisis.
It’s no joke if you’re on the receiving end
Today’s Independent includes an excellent piece by Mark Steel, entitled “It’s no joke if you’re on the receiving end”, on the issue of freedom of speech arising out of the Danish cartoons controversy. Steel points out that:
“… it isn’t just The Sun denouncing Muslims for ‘threatening free speech’. Almost everyone regarded as vaguely clever has appeared somewhere to confirm that free speech, however unpalatable, is the foundation of etc etc. I expect the Shipping Forecast has gone ‘Biscay, five rising to eight, a gale that, while I may not like it, I would die for its right to blow. Easterly.’
“But a debate about free speech is meaningless unless it relates to the society in which things are being spoken. When Goebbels commissioned cartoons of grotesque paedophile Jews, he was exercising free speech. So if you approach the matter as an abstract debating point, we should defend his right to do so. But that’s obviously mad. Similarly, it wouldn’t have helped much to advise Jews to draw their own cartoons of grotesque paedophile Nazis, saying ‘Then we’ll all be laughing at each other, so isn’t that lovely.’
“But you get the impression that if the academics discussing the matter now had been around back then, there’d have been an edition of The Moral Maze which began ‘Our first witness is a Miss Anne Frank. Now you’ve been complaining about some of the images that have appeared recently, but surely if you’re not prepared to accept other people’s viewpoints you’ve no right to be in the country.’
“Because speech leads to actions. The reason we no longer accept golliwogs and black and white minstrels and the joke of throwing bananas at black footballers is because their existence effects the status of black people in society. If it’s legitimate to portray an entire race as sub-human idiots, they’re more likely to be attacked, abused and made to feel utterly dreadful. And yet the debates about the reaction to this Danish cartoon have almost all ignored the position of those who feel most threatened by it.”