On Cartoons, Rioting, and Suppressing Speech

Well, the demonstrations against the Danish cartoons has bloomed into full blown rioting in various parts of the world, with the Danish Embassy in Syria torched by rioters.

Hundreds of Syrian demonstrators stormed the Danish Embassy in Damascus today and set fire to the building, witnesses said.

The demonstrators were protesting over offensive caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed that were first published in a Danish newspaper several months ago.

Witnesses said the demonstrators set fire to the entire building, which also houses the embassies of Chile and Sweden.

(Hat tip: Killgore Trout)

Rioters in Gaza tried storming the EU offices there over the cartoon publication.

Anyone sensing a theme there? Terrorist states have no problem letting rioters go after those they do not agree with. And these rioters were organized. This wasn't some spontaneous demonstration - not when these cartoons were first published last September.

Not that the violence was confined to Gaza or Syria. The cartoonists themselves are worried for their own safety and have gone into hiding (shades of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie).

Syria has no problem terminating free speech - its former leader, Hafez Assad terminated the entire city of Hama back in 1982 for daring to speak out against Assad. More than 20,000 people were killed in that operation (the Syrian military basically shelled the entire city into rubble and razed it with tanks). And only last year Syria's government was complicit in the assassination of pro-Lebanese politician Rafik Harari and several other notable pro-Lebanese journalists for telling Syria to get out of Lebanon once and for all (Lebanon was and still is dominated by Syria). The outcry over the Harari assassination began the Cedar Revolution (viva la Protest Babes) and showed cracks forming in Syria's government, but the key was people having the right to speak out and peacefully protest.

The groups seeking to limit free speech and crush dissent by spurring the boycott and taking matters into their own hands are simply following Syria's example (or insert your own example of a totalitarian government crushing dissent). We're seeing the Muslim extremists whipping up violent sentiments and taking matters into their own hands. They are seeking to crush dissenting viewpoints and silence anyone who takes opposing viewpoints. To these groups, freedom of speech is solely a vehicle for them to spread Muslim teachings to the exclusion of all other views.

Indeed we're seeing the various Muslim groups acting in an extremist manner. There's no tolerance of dissenting views, no belief in freedom of speech or realizing that these are cartoons. The folks whipping the masses into a frenzy are doing so with political goals in mind.

Even more disturbing has been the reaction of governments, several of which have recalled their ambassadors or registered other diplomatic protests. Seventeen Arab countries have called on Denmark's government to punish the newspaper, an absurd thing to ask of a democratic country that guarantees free speech.

The uproar underlines an alarming tendency in Islamic societies to lash out at the West at the slightest provocation. When a few simple drawings, however controversial, can trigger outrage from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, it is clear that something is askew in the psyche of a civilization. To put it plainly, the Islamic world has a chip on its shoulder.

It is commonplace in the Islamic countries to blame the West for nearly everything that goes wrong, from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to the wealth gap between Muslim and Western countries. Anti-Americanism is rife, anti-Semitism all too common. When Iran's President called the Holocaust a myth, many people in Arab countries quietly nodded in agreement. Bernard Lewis, a British scholar of Islamic history, calls this "a twilight world of neurotic fantasies, conspiracy theories, scapegoating and so on."

In truth, most of the Islamic world's problems -- from economic stagnation to political paralysis, from the oppression of women to the poor level of education -- are homegrown. By and large, these societies have failed to come to grips with the modern world and as a result have fallen far behind much of the rest of the planet. Out of this failure to keep up springs a keen sense of grievance that does nothing to help them progress.

As Prof. Lewis has written, "If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression." But "if they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavour, then they can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major centre of civilization."

The victimhood meme isn't going to change as long as the Muslim leaders continue down this path.

Indeed, we're seeing various Muslim dominated countries demanding that the Danish government take action to silence the newspapers and cartoonists. They're organizing economic boycotts and taking other actions. And it would certainly appear that the media is getting the message - don't broadcast these images or else you might run into trouble.

According to Monsters and Critics:

In the United States, Cable News Network and other broadcasters reported on the conflict but blurred out the cartoon images.

Debate ensued between Philadelphia Inquirer managing editor Anne Gordon, who wanted the Associated Press news agency to distribute the images, and Washington Post editor Leonard Downie Jr., who said the images would not meet its standards for 'language, religious sensitivity, racial sensitivity and general good taste', according to Editor and Publisher and the media website Romanesko.

Again, are we seeing a double standard on not showing those images that demean one religious group, but showing demeaning images of another religious group? That certainly appears to be the case. Anyone recall the Sensation exhibit in NYC, where one artist showcased an image of the Virgin Mary with a pile of dung on one of her breasts and pornographic cutouts? Or maybe the Piss Christ. Media outlets had no problem broadcasting those images. Yet we're witnessing those same media outlets having ethical quandries over whether to show the cartoons?

Have they been cowed into not showing them because of fears of retaliation by Muslim extremists? It certainly appears that way, despite their claims that these cartoons do not meet publishing guidelines. The fact remains that people should know what all the fuss is about and why these Muslim extremists are taking to rioting and torching Danish flags, and even one of their embassies.

We should know what is going on without the media hiding the ugly reality - that these Muslim groups do not believe in free speech and are willing to not only espouse violence, but actually condone and perpetrate it.

UPDATE:
Wouldn't it be nice if Blogger had a spellchecker? Would make spotting typos easier. Fixed on in the title.

UPDATE:
Reports also indicate that the Norweigian embassy in Damascus was torched.

Eugene Volokh examines the double standard being displayed by big media outlets and takes a closer look at the issue I raised above. Eugene pulled editorials from the Boston Globe relating to the Piss Christ and Virgin Mary controversy and notes that there was no admonition for the need to respect other religious groups. He too wonders why there's a difference. I think it boils down to the fact that the Muslims are more than willing to do violence, whereas other groups are far less likely to take to the streets, condone violence and suppress speech through violent means.

UPDATE:
Jay Tea has more on the rioting and Islam's fundamental rejection of freedom of speech.

UPDATE:
A must read posting from Ibn Warraq. Go forth and be educated.

UPDATE:
Michelle Malkin notes the difference between a row and a widespread and growing conflict? Too bad the media keeps trying to downplay the conflict, when this is a mess that is growing - with or without the coverage.

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