I haven’t been tempted to weigh in on the controversy surrounding the offensive Muslim cartoons. Not after reading lenin’s comments, or the endless headlines here and there defending the “free press.” Not after reading the excellent piece by Simon Jenkins in Sunday Times recommended by Eli at LeftI even though I thought he could have gone into more detail about globalisation and the intensity of the fairly recent social upheaval in reaction to it behind the politics of the “right-wing Danish newspaper” that commissioned and originally published the cartoons.
As Jenkins intimates, the Danes were well aware what reaction this would elicit, but their motivation in doing so he doesn’t make so clear. One of the most common reactions in America has been to cite the threats to Salman Rushdie and murder of Theo Van Gogh as if the newspaper was merely attempting to enlighten Muslims that in secular societies religion isn’t taken so seriously. Reading these comments one might easily glean the idea that Denmark, a perplexed victim of Muslim extremism, just wants Muslims to lighten up.
But I still wasn’t moved to comment, despite recently viewing directors Dorthe Vest Anderson and Paul-Erik Heilbuth’s documentary Home Sweet Home, which provides a stunning examination of the right-wing resistance to globalisation in Denmark, not only because the solicitation of foreign professionals is perceived by Danes as robbing them of jobs, and refugee policies strain the social budget, but mainly because the very presence of “aliens” is so threatening to the Danes’ collective cultural identity an entire movement has arisen to address their fears and take action. Suzanne Nossel at least makes mention of the legislation Denmark has pursued to address the demands of Danes repulsed by the Muslims amongst them, the “colour” that stains the fabric of their society, which amounts to an ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of globalisation or what a man in the documentary called, the failed social experiment.
But today I came across Josh Marshall’s take on this, albeit several days old now, who called Muslim reaction to the pictures “absurd” and goes on to blame the riots on the lack of “interface.” How Muslims are unrealistically expecting respect of their values to supercede the sovereignty of borders.
Does he mean as America respects the sovereignty of their borders? As we build permanent bases on their lands, brand their lands and invade their culture with American values, preach the need for their societies to embrace a U.S.-controlled global economy that decides when and where their goods and services will be needed?
His entire approach to this issue reminded me of a post Kevin Carson did more than a few days ago and followed up on more recently. In breach of minimising them basically they deal with the motivational approach proferred by anti-free trade capitalists who say sure, this life we offer you is unfair but that’s the way it is, instead of resisting the inevitable you need to accept the crumbs we dust off our table and learn to be thankful for what you get.
Or as Kevin put it in Choose Your Attitude:
Too bad the Nazis didn’t post that over the gates at Auschwitz. Everybody would have been so much more positive on the way to the gas chambers, without all those “change resisters” complaining and bringing everybody else down. You may not be able to do anything about that jackboot stamping on your face, but you can stop being such a Gloomy Gus about it. Keep an eye out for the next touchy-feely motivational book: You Will Be Assimilated. Resistance is Futile.
The “civilised” West didn’t need to call for censorship or disavow an alleged devotion to the principles of free speech. But these critics are extremely remiss by neglecting to acknowledge these cartoons were the bitter fruits of the backlash to globalisation in an increasingly racist Denmark currently in the throes of rejecting the same economic engine being imposed with the full weight of America’s military and economic might upon Muslim societies.
Cartoons and free speech are not the issue, but the blind arrogance of so-called “secularists” in Western society, waging a war on Islam, who reject as absurd the deeply held beliefs of the “Other” as their jackboot is stamping their faces.
The silence is deafening.
Update: Today, Marshall links to this diary on DailyKos that accuses Saudi Arabia of orchestrating the riots based upon the words of this guy. Juan Cole says the timeline doesn’t support the accusation. Marshall also continues to condemn the rioting through “what he would do” glasses, or more generally speaking, how the superior, reasonable persons of civilised Western societies would react if pictures defacing their most sacred religious figures began appearing in newspapers all around the world.
And he does so as the U.S. is putting the pedal to the metal of its regime changing war machine and threatening to pre-emptively strike yet another country based upon more distortions of evidence. And in this latest arsenal of fear-mongering propaganda, the old excuse of needing to protect a well-armed nuclear state from one that presents no real threat, beyond words spoken by its threatened president.
If Americans had ever endured decades of military, economic, and covert aggressions against its state institutions and most popular religious identity, Christianity, including the oppression of its expression by some other nation’s hired thugs and regime change whenever that nation decided it was time to realign the chain of authority, I can only guess what they would do when that nation joined in with a lot of other countries and began ridiculing and defacing Jesus.
Maybe Marshall is right. The streets in America wouldn’t be filled with outraged Christians. They would just shrug their shoulders and say that’s life, or otherwise react intellectually.
Sure, I can see that.
Update:
Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
The Guardian
by Gwladys Fouché
Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.
In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten. (…) (via)