With Gordon in Khartoon
Oh we make the standards and we make the rules
And if you don't abide by them you must be a fool
...We have the power to control the whole land.
Standards rule ok .
-- Jam, Standards. 1978
As the l'affaire cartoon unfolded one of the first things that I read concerning it was a post by Michelle Malkin. It was in Blogdex, I read Michelle when something of hers makes the first page of blogdex. THE STATE DEPT TAKES SIDES IN THE CARTOON WARS.
"To Denmark and the European newspapers that published the cartoons: I just want you to know that the State Department does not speak for me and countless other Americans.
It never usually does.
Contact the State Department here."
What part of the State dept's statement do you suppose antagonizes her the most? Perhaps "... We call for tolerance and respect". You have to distance yourself from that kind of talk. She often strikes me as possessed by a simple vanity: she must have enemies and they must be bad, for her to see herself as good. When one dismisses tolerance out-of-hand., and is so sure of the vile nature of their enemy that they seem to enjoy having enemies. That is the point where one is mistaking self-righteous for righteous. Confusing one's own opinions and prejudices for a thoughtless false appropriation of God's understanding. The right seems full of those holding the position that there are no Muslim moderates. Islam is Jihad Jihad is War. As I read through other online commentary two facets emerged quickly.
First those entities tied to bricks and mortar buildings capable of being fire-bombed were more sedate, or at least more circumspect, in their criticism. The other thing struck me as an apples and oranges issue. A certain vagueness to the debate. The issue is not run of the mill racist or blasphemous characterture. Or ridiculing of minor aspects of a belief. It is depicting Mohammed prophet of God under which the Islamic community is formed as a bomb throwing anarchist. This is like speaking the name of God, or doubting the virginity of Mary for others. More than mocking Christ, which is part of the passion, denying an uncorrupted Jesus. It is like denying Jesus ever said or wanted to say "get thee hence Satan." It is a forceful deliberate and hostile step that abrogates in its clear outright refusal of respect, that the other has genuine belief at all. It is a central provocation. Much of what I have read from commentators in defense of these cartoons being published has not presented truly analogous counter provocations (I thought this op-ed in the Jerusalem Post after a fashion.) Add also to the West's pious attitudes of detached objectivity towards these illustrations, trading hard on their own very recent arrival to the modernity which gives them such mannered presumptions of tolerance. If we in the west want to unburden our hearts of darkness by offering others advice, we should remember that while our fault lines and taboos are buried deeper now and harder to find, they still exist and will effortlessly overturn our frail edifice of reason if disturbed. When The White house and Condeleeza Rices reverse course, a curious correction to the earlier State Dept statements. Laying their criticism soley against the Isalmic world, for the recent destructive demonstrations. It is an example of the tin ear with which the West listens to the rest of the world. An ear predisposed to hearing only the worse voices. A repeated point in the assorted articles I read on the worldwide reactions is that this affair impacts more broadly than a simple freedom of expression (freedom of the press vs respect for religious taboos) debate. Commentary by Krauthammer Curse of the Moderates and Kinsely The Ayatollah Joke Book lay blame at the feet of Islamic moderates, (even as David Ignatious does not Hope Beyond the Rage? ) or pretend to indifference between moderate and radical islam. Moderates are painted by turns as liars or deceived and undercut by western liberals (the notion of victimhood), but never as agents of their own being and destiny. Nearer to their own voice the SF Gate article relays a key point for a great deal of the exasperation seen in the Islamic world comes from not merely the cartoons but just this: The enterprise of western voices telling muslims what they believe and know and what they don't. What Islam is and what it isn't. What they need to 'get over', because we say they don't own the right to feel as they do. All of which is being spun out of a damp mix of ulterior motive and a greater ignorance. Violence and rioting are illegitimate responses though. It should be remembered respect is thing earned not held innately as a birthright. The only world that exists is the one we all live in together now. A culture that insists that its boundaries and sensitivities trump everyone else's, cannot coexist in this world. It can only destroy and be destroyed, leaving nothing. The principle of free speech, should be embraced despite occasional thorns in handling; because in the end a greater and full freedom of the press will be the ultimate vehicle of, and guaranteer of mutual respect. The INQ7 link (sidebar) an editorial in a Philippine newspaper makes this point.
Irregardless of the uses this incident has been put to in Syria, Iran and other places in the mid and south east. It is centered in Europe, in the attitudes of western secular governance, the expectation that those living in western cultures ought live by western laws and western cultural norms. Understood principally as the egalitarian notions embodied by multiculturalism and pluralism. It is a point that can not be insisted on. In the end it is not a matter of law but of numbers. For Europeans it may mean the terms of immigration and guest worker policies need to be re-examined. Change, cultural synthesis, is the only outcome of merging populations. Pushing only slightly on this topic uncovers a dark body of discussion that can be found under the name Dhimmitude. This refers in its root Dhimmi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediato the historical legal regimes by which non muslims lived in islamic states. In the expanded form (see Bat Ye'or - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) it is used to refer to the replacement of Western law and norms by the lifting edge of sensitivity to islamic belief, while they offer none in return. A process this notion's adherents insist is deliberate and systematic. It is important that some ground rules or standards be established for the engagement that will carry us over this furor. What matters first for everyone is their own actions. Their own motivations. Not anyone else's. The actions of others do not exculpate our own. The middle-east is the "old country" of Europe's immigrants, towards which the binds of sentiment lead. When western nations do not walk the path of democracy as much as they talk it, in their dealings with the regimes of the region. Democracy will continue be seen as a diminished and self-serving thing. Less freedom than arrangement. In the combined tradition of Abraham, in theory at least, there are two rules, restating the others for brevity (and clarity). Love the good (God for those who prefer symbolic logic) with all your heart and mind. Then, (and only then) when you have the hang of that, as you would be considered and understood, so consider. Maintaining that this says "do to others as you perceive they have done or might do to you," captures neither the spirit nor intent of this. --- 03Mar06 : title is in reference to Gen. Charles 'Chinese' Gordon massacered in Khatoum, Sudan in 1884 while trying to put down and Arab/Islamic revolt. This might have been less obsure if I had spelled Gordon right,
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