Racism cannot be Justified in the Name of “Freedom of the Press”
In September
2005, JyllandsPosten,
a right-wing Danish newspaper with close ties to the ruling Liberal Party,
published 12 cartoons that presented a racist stereotype of Mohammed and
Muslims. The Muslim community in Denmark responded with protest
demonstrations and calls for the newspaper to apologize. The newspaper’s editor
refused to do so, invoking the principle of “freedom of the press”.
The following
month, ambassadors from 11 Muslim countries requested a meeting with Danish
Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, but he
arrogantly dismissed their request, also citing “freedom of the press”. While
the cartoons were hotly debated within Denmark, at that time they did not
become an issue outside of that country. However, several months later, in
January 2006, numerous newspapers in France and other European countries
reprinted the cartoons, also supposedly in defence of
“freedom of the press”. This, in turn, sparked the massive protests in the
Muslim world which continue to date.
In Canada, the
mainstream newspapers have refused to publish the anti-Muslim cartoons, while
editorializing about the right of the press to carry such material.
Interestingly, the same newspapers regularly condemn Muslim newspapers for
carrying cartoons which depict Jews in a similar racist and stereotypical
manner. In fact, many of them have printed editorials and letters to the editor
justifying the Danish cartoons on the basis that the Muslim press prints anti-Jewish
cartoons. Recently, two Alberta publications, the Calgary Jewish Free Press and the Western Standard – a journal that has historically espoused a vision
of a white, Christian Canada - decided to reprint the racist anti-Muslim
cartoons. They, too, have defended their decision under the banner of “freedom
of the press”.
Clearly, this
issue is not, as some would have us believe, an isolated incident in a
small-town Danish newspaper that somehow got blown out of proportion. Rather,
it has all of the hallmarks of a conscious and systematic effort to inflame the
passions of Muslims in order to justify the “war on terror” being conducted by
the U.S. and its allies, Denmark
included. At the time that the cartoons were published, a mass movement was
growing in Denmark in
opposition to the participation of Danish troops in the occupation of Iraq. The cartoons, as well as the predictable violent response from a small
section of the Muslim community, has served to divide that movement and
render it ineffective.
In addition,
throughout Europe, including Denmark,
during the past few years there has been a growing movement against the
neo-liberal policies of the European Union and individual European governments.
For some time now, anti-Muslim racism has been systematically fomented all over
Europe as a method of dividing the working
class and people and providing a scapegoat to be attacked instead of the
capitalist system. This most recent insult to the Muslim community is obviously
part of that campaign, as well.
The fact that a
small section of the Muslim community has reacted inappropriately to the cartoons
does not justify printing them in the first place. Nor does ‘freedom of the
press” justify printing material which is offensive
and humiliating to a large section of the world’s population. Just as it is
inappropriate and unacceptable for newspapers in the Middle
East (or anywhere else for that matter) to print anti-Semitic
cartoons in order to offend and provoke Jewish people, so too is it
inappropriate and unacceptable to depict Muslims in such a way. There is only
one reason for such acts – to demonize and dehumanize one’s “enemies” in order
to justify acts of violence and genocide against them.
While the
Canadian and international media is deliberately focusing on the violent
response of various Muslims and the inflammatory calls of various Muslim
leaders, the outpouring of popular anger in the Muslim world represents far
more than an irrational and excessive religious response to the Danish
cartoons. A large component of this public anger has a distinct
anti-imperialist character. It is aimed less at this specific provocation than
at a whole century of oppression, humiliation and provocations at the hands of
the Western imperialists. The fact that various reactionary governments in the
Middle East are attempting to exploit this anger to focus attention abroad
rather than on their own complicity in the imperialist humiliation of their
nations, does not justify supporting this latest imperialist provocation against
the peoples of the Middle East.