Newsgroup: it.cultura.religioni.cristiani
Titolo: Taking on the Wrong Enemy

Punishing Denmark: Taking on the Wrong Enemy
This is not an attempt to defend Denmark or its apparently selective
'freedom of the press', but to highlight the misconstrued priorities
inundating the Arab world today.
By Ramzy Baroud
PalestineChronicle.com
Only an irresponsible and intellectually inept individual would sketch such
insulting images as those depicting Prophet Mohamed by a cartoonist in the
Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper. And no self-respecting newspaper would
allow itself to run such filth. However, the backlash in the Muslim world
highlights a much more serious issue.
Jyllands-Posten -- among other newspapers that re-ran the offensive
cartoons -- is obviously neither self-respecting nor serious. What good will
it do to depict a prophet revered by hundreds of millions all around the
globe as a terrorist, carrying a bomb under his turban? Nothing at all. What
it will do though, is intensify and cement the feelings of bitterness and
humiliation experienced by millions of Muslims as they endure the wrath of
US-led Western wars, with all of their tragedies and endless bloodshed.
Not even the handy excuse of freedom of the press is so reasonable a defense
to the mockery. Such freedom should not be the kind of versatile pretext
unleashed only to widen the divide between the West and the Muslim world.
Moreover, why not admit that in most Western societies, there are many
unquestionable values, ancient and recent, that are taboo, which few dare to
approach, the Holocaust being one of them.
But it's not the Western media's inconsistencies that I wish to focus on
here. What I wish to examine are the inconsistencies of the Arab and Muslim
collective response to aggression, tangible or otherwise.
The anti-Danish movement managed to build up across Muslim countries at such
an impressive speed: grassroots collective action and decisive political
moves led by various governments - with Libya and Saudi Arabia on the helm -
quickly turned into determined diplomatic efforts. Arab League missions in
Denmark and across Europe united in one of the most coordinated campaigns
organized by Arabs since the 1973 War, heaping even more pressure on both
Denmark and Norway. Meanwhile, a serious economic boycott campaign is
rapidly translating into empty shelves in grocery stores that once offered
Danish products across Saudi Arabia and other countries.
The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, although he didn't
apologize personally, commended Jyllands-Posten for offering a clear apology
for offending Muslims and Muslim nations for its editorial decision to
publish the cartoons. But that would not suffice in the face of the
gathering storm, as Arab League representatives are surely taking the matter
to the United Nations, with the hope of passing a UN resolution, backed by
sanctions that would protect religion from insults, according to the BBC.
While one must commend such a unified Arab and Muslim stance -- hoping that
it would remain confined to legitimate forms of protest -- one cannot help
but wonder where was such collectiveness when it was needed the most?
This is not to suggest that transgression on a people's beliefs -- any
people and any belief -- should be taken lightly. However, if Arabs can be
so efficient in organizing such popular (and effective) campaigns that
utilize economic, political and diplomatic leverage to extract concessions,
then why the utter failure to carry out such campaigns protesting against
the US war on Iraq, its unconditional support of Israel and its
condescending foreign policy and grand democracy charades it wishes to
impose on everyone?
Isn't it rather strange that cheap Israeli products are penetrating Arab
markets from Morocco to Qatar in the most blatant of ways, despite the fact
that Israel occupies land belonging to three Arab nations?
Isn't it peculiar that Muslim countries are shrewdly paving their way
towards normalization with Israel -- some overtly like Pakistan, others
sneakily like Malaysia -- despite the fact that Israel unabashedly moves
forward with its policy of targeted assassination, killing hundreds of
Palestinians?
And how belligerent could the Danish media be if compared to its
counterparts in the United States and Britain? Nonetheless, is there one
Arab household that lacks access to CNN, HBO and Fox?
It's rather ironic that many in the Arabic media discovered by total chance
that 530 Danish soldiers are taking part in the illegitimate US war on Iraq,
by way of the Danish newspaper controversy. Thus, it cannot even be claimed
that popular response to the insulting comics was the culmination of years
of resentment harbored towards Danish foreign policy, whether in Iraq or
towards any other Arab or Muslim related issue.
This is neither an attempt to defend Denmark (or Norway) or its apparently
selective "freedom of the press", but to highlight the misconstrued
priorities inundating the Arab world today. During a decade of US-led UN
sanctions in Iraq, neighboring Muslim and Arab countries were commended by
the US, saying that their cooperation was vital to the success of the
sanctions imposed on the stricken nation. According to the most modest and
outdated UN reports, over 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of the
lack of medicine. Where was the popular uproar then, the diplomatic fury and
the boycott campaign?
I am afraid that the Muslim and Arab-led anti- Danish campaign will widen a
chasm separating both worlds, bolstering the Arabs' reputation of being
intolerant while providing an unimportant cartoonist with the opportunity of
a lifetime: a chance for martyrdom on behalf of freedom of the press and
perhaps a book deal, and if lucky, a spot on the Oprah Winfrey show. But
that's all that one should expect.
Prophet Mohamed is revered because of his daily-felt contribution to Muslim
life everywhere. He needs not a Danish cartoonist to validate or nullify his
relevance in the lives of millions. Of that Muslims are to be sure. However,
it is discouraging that the collective energy of the Muslim world is
consumed punishing a small European country over a drawing, while US
military bases infest the heart of the Arab world, and American fast food
restaurants crowd every street corner, from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Arabian Gulf, while few seem to notice or even care.
-Originally published in Al Ahram Weekly.
-Ramzy Baroud is a veteran Arab-American journalist and the editor in chief
of the Palestine Chronicle. He currently teaches mass communication at
Australia's Curtin University of Technology, Malaysia Campus. He is the
author of the forthcoming book Writings on the Second Palestinian Uprising:
A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London).
Copyright © 2003 
palestinechronicle.com
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this page are owned by their respective owners.


sorry, sbagliato destinatario

 sorry, sbagliato destinatario
Era comunque un articolo interessante.
Quando ho letto "one cannot help but wonder where was such collectiveness
when it was needed the most?", per un attimo mi sono aspettato che
l'articolista facesse notare l'incoerenza tra chi protesta contro Maometto
con la bomba in testa ma non protesta contro il terrorismo islamico.
purtroppo non era così, e l'articolo offre invece un interessante spaccato
di quale sia la tiritera retorica del tipico intellettuale arabo (e non
solo): l'olocausto è un tabù occidentale, gli USA ed Israele blabla, etc.
Su cosa fare per sfatare questa, presunta, falsa immagine dell'Islam
terrorista, neanche mezza parola. Tanto per cambiare.
-- 
Attilio
- While you are away my heart comes undone
Slowly unravels in a ball of yarn
The devil collects it with a grin, he'll never return it
So when you come back we have to make new love.

 terrorista, neanche mezza parola. Tanto per cambiare.
Dovresti ascoltarti il podcast di Democracy Now! - Tuesday, February 07,
2006. Nota trasmissione radiofonica razzista e di estrema destra :-)
Alla fine c'è un dibattito tra un esponente islamico ed un'attivista dei
diritti umani.
riguardo invece alle posizione del mondo arabo moderato:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/printstory.php?sid=020706232314
con questo passaggio interessante:
"For the Arab League to demand that the Danish government shut down the
newspaper Jyllands-Posten shows how deeply entrenched dictatorial practices
are in many Muslim countries. They are so accustomed to closing down their
own newspapers, they could not understand why the Danish government could
not issue a decree closing the Jyllands-Posten."
sottolineo, nuovamente, che a parte scene isteriche e prediche, non ho
ancora letto di una proposta concreta per risolvere il problema in modo
razionale.
y

 razionale.
A Bologna, qualche tempo fa, consiglieri comunali avevano proposto, ad
esempio, di imbiancare gli affreschi della Cappella Bolognini in S.
Petronio. Per sottrarre alla sensibilità musulmana l'orribile visione di
Maometto all'inferno. 
E'una proposta concreta,no?
-- 
Attilio
--
Ma se mi toccano dov'è il mio debole
Sarò una vipera, sarò
E cento trappole prima di cedere
E cento trappole farò giocar
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