The fallout from the Danish cartoons gets worse: 11 demonstrators now dead in Afghanistan and Norwegian soldiers there attacked, an attack on an international observers’ mission in Hebron, Bangladeshi demonstrators trying to attack the Italian Embassy in Dhaka. The editor of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that started it all, has a lot on his conscience. The situation is dangerously out of control. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has little credibility in the Muslim world but we can agree with him on one thing — that this is now a “global crisis”.
The air is being poisoned with blanket accusations and counter allegations — by Europeans that Muslims who are increasingly intolerant, by Muslims that it is the Europeans who are increasingly intolerant. That is a gross exaggeration on both parts. There are hundreds of dailies across Europe; only a handful reprinted the odious cartoons. Others could have done so; they chose not to. Most Europeans have not seen them nor wish to. Likewise, while Muslims worldwide are deeply offended by the cartoons, their protests have been overwhelmingly peaceful and dignified. Yet both these sides to the affair are ignored. Instead, the image of an unbridgeable gulf between Muslims and the West is being drummed up, not just by extremists on both sides out to hijack the row but by politicians and sections of the media who should know better. The way that this crisis has stirred up had done more to set back relations between Islam and the West and promote the dangerous “clash of civilizations” theory than anything in living memory. The decision by a French weekly yesterday to republish the cartoons, adding a few more of its own, throws further fuel onto the fire. That it did so purely to make money from the crisis, from Muslim hurt, makes it the most outrageous and most offensive of all the publishings.
What is needed now is some calm. We do not want see a single extra death as a result of these odious cartoons. Boycotts, yes; that is a personal choice. Demonstrations, yes, providing they are peaceful. Violence, attacks and threats, no.
It is significant that the plea for calm comes loudest from Muslims in Europe. Their voice needs to be heard because this row threatens them uniquely. If this row grows in violence, and with it the perception of a widening gulf between Western and Muslim cultures, they are going to be under intense pressure to come out and say where they belong. That would be intolerable.
The world of Islam and the West need a dialogue of cultures as never before. There is a crisis of understanding that needs to be resolved; it must not be allowed to be hijacked by extremists on either side. That way leads to destruction. There are grounds for hope. It was very encouraging to hear the British judge who on Tuesday jailed maverick imam Abu Hamza Al-Masri for inciting murder and race hate say that his mix of hatred and violence has “nothing to do with the true teachings of Islam as it is practiced peacefully and tolerantly by millions of people in Britain and around the world”. It is also encouraging that the overwhelming majority of British Muslims agree with the verdict.
Dialogue means re-examining our world. We do not want the Danes to appease Muslim opinion with a groveling apology, quickly issued and quickly forgotten; it would be easy but also cheap and counterproductive. We would prefer them and others who think that it was right to publish the cartoons to reflect on why they have caused such deep offense and to be more generous minded in future. Likewise the Muslim world perhaps needs to understand the West better. Dialogue is the only way forward. We both have to live in the one global village. We have to live with each other.
