| North American media shy away from Muslim cartoons By Michael Conlon -- Reuters February 3, 2006 |
North American newspapers have given extensive coverage to the
anger that cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad unleashed across the
world but have taken a hands-off approach to reprinting the caricatures
themselves.
"I don't see it as a necessity to run them," said John Diaz, editorial
page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"There's a lot of ways that we can gratuitously offend our readers. We
want to avoid that."
Muslims generally believe their faith forbids any image of the Prophet
and consider the cartoons printed in Europe as blasphemous. One of
the cartoons depicted the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb.
Washington Post's Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said the paper
is covering the controversy over the cartoons but not reprinting them
because "the very nature of depicting Mohammad editorially is not an
ambiguous question. Either you do it or you don't."
"It's never a concern over reactions," he added. "It's a concern over
what the Washington Post decides to publish. We're maintaining our
standards."
Newspapers in the United States and Canada have described the
cartoons and carried pictures of readers in Europe scanning them in
publications there. The images were first published in September in a
Danish newspaper.
Toronto Star editor-in-chief Giles Gherson said it's unlikely the paper
would run an editorial cartoon that was "gratuitously offensive," to a
segment of the population.
Once that cartoon becomes global news, however, the question arises
as to whether it needs to be reprinted so readers can understand
what's going on, he said in an article carried in the newspaper.
"We're going to describe in text the cartoons," he said on Thursday.
"We're going to see if we can explain to our readers what the issues
are, what happened, what is portrayed in the cartoons, without actually
showing the cartoons if they are inherently deeply offensive to a
segment of our society. That would be our preferred approach."
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on
American Islamic Relations, said American newspapers have not
rushed the cartoons into print perhaps because they feel secure in
their constitutional free press protections.
"They don't feel the need to go out and be gratuitously insulting just to
prove that they can do it, which is what the European media seem to
be doing in almost a childish overreaction," he said.
The controversy has also produced a muted response generally among
U.S. Muslims, who make up less than 2 percent of the population by
most estimates. Leaders say their communities are clearly upset
though there have not been demonstrations or noisy public outcries.
"Some people are feeling hurt but they also see it as part of the overall
Islamaphobia in the media," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the
Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. He questioned
whether an anti-Semitic cartoon or one showing the pope in a
compromising sexual position would have been tolerated in Europe the
way the cartoons of the prophet were by those who published them.
"Islamaphobia has a real impact on people's life," he said. "It is hurting
us as a society. We are becoming less open to listen to the voices of
dissent and voices which are different."
Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs
Council, also said there is a double standard among political leaders,
opinion makers and the media. There would have been a "tremendous,
correct response" if the cartoons had been anti-Semitic, he said.
U.S. Muslims, he said, are unlikely to take to the streets in outrage. "We
admonish against that because we don't find it helpful to our situation
in America," he said.
While the cartoons involved in the controversy are not being published
in North American newspapers, they are readily available on the
Internet.
anger that cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad unleashed across the
world but have taken a hands-off approach to reprinting the caricatures
themselves.
"I don't see it as a necessity to run them," said John Diaz, editorial
page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"There's a lot of ways that we can gratuitously offend our readers. We
want to avoid that."
Muslims generally believe their faith forbids any image of the Prophet
and consider the cartoons printed in Europe as blasphemous. One of
the cartoons depicted the Prophet with a turban resembling a bomb.
Washington Post's Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said the paper
is covering the controversy over the cartoons but not reprinting them
because "the very nature of depicting Mohammad editorially is not an
ambiguous question. Either you do it or you don't."
"It's never a concern over reactions," he added. "It's a concern over
what the Washington Post decides to publish. We're maintaining our
standards."
Newspapers in the United States and Canada have described the
cartoons and carried pictures of readers in Europe scanning them in
publications there. The images were first published in September in a
Danish newspaper.
Toronto Star editor-in-chief Giles Gherson said it's unlikely the paper
would run an editorial cartoon that was "gratuitously offensive," to a
segment of the population.
Once that cartoon becomes global news, however, the question arises
as to whether it needs to be reprinted so readers can understand
what's going on, he said in an article carried in the newspaper.
"We're going to describe in text the cartoons," he said on Thursday.
"We're going to see if we can explain to our readers what the issues
are, what happened, what is portrayed in the cartoons, without actually
showing the cartoons if they are inherently deeply offensive to a
segment of our society. That would be our preferred approach."
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on
American Islamic Relations, said American newspapers have not
rushed the cartoons into print perhaps because they feel secure in
their constitutional free press protections.
"They don't feel the need to go out and be gratuitously insulting just to
prove that they can do it, which is what the European media seem to
be doing in almost a childish overreaction," he said.
The controversy has also produced a muted response generally among
U.S. Muslims, who make up less than 2 percent of the population by
most estimates. Leaders say their communities are clearly upset
though there have not been demonstrations or noisy public outcries.
"Some people are feeling hurt but they also see it as part of the overall
Islamaphobia in the media," said Abdul Malik Mujahid, chairman of the
Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. He questioned
whether an anti-Semitic cartoon or one showing the pope in a
compromising sexual position would have been tolerated in Europe the
way the cartoons of the prophet were by those who published them.
"Islamaphobia has a real impact on people's life," he said. "It is hurting
us as a society. We are becoming less open to listen to the voices of
dissent and voices which are different."
Salam al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs
Council, also said there is a double standard among political leaders,
opinion makers and the media. There would have been a "tremendous,
correct response" if the cartoons had been anti-Semitic, he said.
U.S. Muslims, he said, are unlikely to take to the streets in outrage. "We
admonish against that because we don't find it helpful to our situation
in America," he said.
While the cartoons involved in the controversy are not being published
in North American newspapers, they are readily available on the
Internet.
| Link to view cartoons -- http://www.courrierinternational.com/dessins/galeriedessin.asp?dos_id=229 5&p |
| Editorial excerpts from around the world: DENMARK'S JYLLANDS-POSTEN We had no way of knowing that a group of Imams would travel to the Middle East and spread lies and misinformation not only about Jyllands-Posten, but about Danish society as a whole... Boycotting Danish produce can be accepted, but real-life death threats cross the line between the acceptable and the unacceptable. SERGE FAUBERT IN FRANCE SOIR It is not religion that is being called into question, but rather intolerance. Faiths are not being targeted, but the outrageous intentions of some people who want to impose their commandments on those who do not share their beliefs. YVES THERARD IN FRANCE'S LE FIGARO To depict the Prophet as a terrorist is an act of stupidity rather than heroism. People are praising the courage of the authors, but what sort of courage is it?... In the current international situation, the world's Arab and Muslim populations see this as pretext to rage against the heathen West. The violence of their reactions is intolerable... But it is also possible to misuse the freedom of the press. HUNGARY'S NEPSZABADSAG We express solidarity with Jyllands-Posten not only because they are our colleagues, but because we also believe that religious dogmas have no place in democracies which separate the church and the state... No-one has the right to threaten violence, mainly because this action would offend the Prophet. UK'S THE GUARDIAN It is one thing to assert the right to publish an image of the Prophet... but it is another thing to put that right to the test, especially when to do so inevitably causes offence to many Muslims... That is why the restraint of most of the British press may be the wiser course - at least for now. There has to be a very good reason for giving gratuitous offence of this kind. UK'S DAILY TELEGRAPH The right to offend within the law remains crucial to our free speech. Muslims who choose to live in the West must accept that we too have a right to our values, and to live according to them... Those Muslims who cannot tolerate the openness and robustness of intellectual debate in the West have perhaps chosen to live in the wrong culture. FEHMI KORU IN TURKEY'S YENI SAFAK In today's atmosphere, when minds are clouded by the 'clash of civilizations' thesis, the real danger that will spark a clash could be the perception that the West is attempting to attack the divine entities of Islam. The situation is rapidly being escalated to this level of tension. ABD-AL-RAHMAN AL-SHAYKH IN SAUDI ARABIA'S AL-RIYAD The issue of insulting and ridiculing the [Prophet Muhammad] is larger than can be confronted by the refusal of a citizen to buy a kilogram of cheese, a tin of butter or a tin of milk from a supermarket because it is manufactured in the country of the newspaper publishing the pictures. MUKHLID AL-FA'URI IN JORDAN'S AL-RA'Y The extent of the repeated offence against Islam and against the person of [Prophet Muhammad] by the scum of the Danish press is a matter which calls for provocation and disgust for that bad group of people who chose journalism as a profession. AHMAD DAHBUR IN PALESTINIAN AL-HAYAT AL-JADIDAH The Danish caricatures insulting Prophet Muhammad and Islam are a snowball rolling down the hill and getting bigger and bigger... Thus an insulting pincer movement closed down on us from two directions: the slander against our faith and our presentation as tyrants who do not recognise freedom of expression. SHIREEN MAZARI IN PAKISTAN'S THE NATION The hypocrisy and falsehoods surrounding [Europe's] claim to "freedom of expression" is what needs to be exposed. Legal and political challenges are far more effective than simply burning flags or death threats which only undermine the strong case that Muslims have against these forces of hate in Europe. SOURCE |
