To the Editor:
Burning embassies, threats of beheading and offers of money for murder are among the more intriguing “cries for help” that the Islamic street displayed in response to the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. But I find Farooq Tirmizi’s portrayal of the anguished Muslim mass, boxed into a corner by Western stooges and frothing at the mouth in utter helplessness, singularly unconvincing (“It Isn’t About the Cartoons,” THE HOYA, Feb. 28, 2006, A3).
The rabid response – from the ill-conceived boycott of Danish goods to the lunatic fatwah issued by a Pakistani imam against a cartoonist to the pointed anti-freedom-of-speech sign hefted at a protest rally outside a European embassy – indicates that the protesters knew precisely the nature of their target. Rather than a spontaneous eruption of long-repressed despair, their protests were an abject refusal to acknowledge freedom of expression. The fact that “these weren’t madressah students” distressingly narrows the pool of moderate Muslims the world is counting on to quell the crackpot element.
By nimbly sidestepping the issue of virulent Islamic anti-Semitism, Tirmizi arouses sympathy for Muslims, who are running out of options for political expression in their dictatorial states. He does not explain, however, the threats of violence and gruesome posters which were lifted at protests in European capitals. Some of these posters exceeded the “tastelessness” of Jyllands-Posten a thousand times over. In Europe, all citizens can vent anger and frustration through the ballot box to their hearts’ content.
The only ones who should cry for help in this whole sorry episode are the Danes. Excepting a display of solidarity outside the Danish embassy last weekend (attended by 200 demonstrators and at which rocks and flame played no part), the imam-incited, testosterone-fueled dismissal of fundamental rights exercised in Denmark hasn’t received the condemnation it deserves.
Anand Prakash (GRD’06)
March 1, 2006