We are not terrorists!

BEIRUT - Alternative Staff

January/February 2006

The publishing of cartoons depicting Mohammed the Prophet of Islam in a Danish newspaper provoked uproar in the Arab world. (The cartoons may be seen on http://democracyfrontline.org/blog/?p=133)

In Gaza, groups burnt the Danish flag. In Saudi Arabia, the government severed diplomatic ties with Denmark. In Lebanon, there were calls for the reprimand of the artist and his newspaper. Petitions were being circulated with comments that called to war against the infidels until victory.

Not only Arab Muslims were angry. Some Christians, such as Lebanese president Emile Lahoud whose mandate was extended thanks to his Muslim supporters, also joined those condemning the depiction of Muslims as terrorists.

But the Arab Muslims have proven to have been acting just like the people in the controversial cartoons. Intolerant, short-fused Muslims behaved all but peaceful during this whole debacle as they threatened Danish interests around the world, called for the punishment of the artist and the newspaper.

Is this intolerance a Muslim trait? Is it Arab? Do all people of other religions with their dignitaries slandered in cartoons and other media works feel the urge to boycott, reprimand and even kill?

As some Arab might argue, the Jews have been especially ticklish about works pertaining to Israel or the holocaust. But for all what we know, scores of Israelis such as Israel Shahak, Jews such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein among others, have seriously disputed all what is believed to be true about the history of the Jewish people and Israel. Such theories were countered by Israelis with accusations of racism, anti-Semitism and what not. Yet, no one got as far as requiring that these people be punished or their books censored and taken off the market. Even more, these people were never forced to apologize or repent as they persisted with their opinion in the context of freedom of expression.

Such issues, however, have taken a different turn in the Arab world. Not only Muslims have objected to the Danish drawings, the famous fiction The Da Vinci Code was prohibited in Lebanon and joined a list of other banned works about Christianity including Steven Spielberg's The Last Temptation of Christ.

In Egypt, the list is even longer and includes Lebanese-American Gebran Khalil Gebran's fiction Al-Nabi (The Prophet). It also includes political books such as a biography about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that does not fall in line with how the Egyptian regime depicts its president.

Governmental censorship and popular protests were not all. Intolerance in the Arab world often reached terrorist levels with the Syrian regime's assassination of Lebanese journalists Samir Kassir and Gebran Tueni, known to be outspoken critiques of Syria's dictatorship.

So were the Danish cartoons accurate when they depicted the Muslims as short-tempered ideologues? The answer is irrelevant for what is more important is whether Muslims are open to criticism and freedom of expression or not.

As Arab Muslims and non-Muslims on the Alternative team we call on our Arab brethren to behave themselves and stop this intolerant craze nearing violence. The Arab culture is peaceful, tolerant and entertains freedom of expression so let's keep it this way. The Islam-influenced Arab culture is not about censoring books, movies and cartoons, even if these works contain some kind of stereotypical depictions. Stereotype should be countered with tolerance and the spreading of awareness, not with burning of flags, boycott and barbarism.

To the Danish artist and his newspaper, we apologize for the Arab Muslim harassment and say that whatever these people have said or done, they haven’t done it in our name.