Muhammed as a dog

I'm sorry I haven't written in forever, honestly I didn't think anybody was reading what I wrote so I didn't have such bad feelings. Now that I have learned that I have at least one reader, I am happy to continue. Thanks!

I'm back in Alex, it's Ramadan and I am following the now international debate about the Swedish artist Lars Vilk's drawings of Muhammed as a dog (actually a dog meant to be put in a roundabout, which has been a Swedish hype since sometime early this year. I mean dogs of all kinds in roundabouts, not Muhammed the prophet). Again the discussion of freedom of expression is under way and in Swedish media one can read many good articles about the importance for a secularised state to uphold the liberties of a free society, including of course a freedom of expression.

Per Baun writes in Svenska Dagbladet today:
"The secular democracy presupposes free questioning of convictions. But if we want to avoid harming conviction we need to give up that principle.

In such a scenario it is the groups who are most easily insulted (and prone to violence) who draw the limits of the freedom of expression. However you call such a state, it is not a democracy.

The enemies of freedom of expression want to make their message more easily digestible by presenting it as an appeal for consideration and respect. By describing themselves as victims, fundamentalists surprisingly often succeed in getting the debate to be about how insulted they are and not about their own intolerance.

They use the soft democracy's inherent fear of not being inclusive enough to advance their positions. But the secular democracy has no reason to apologise for its freedom of expression.
And those who now protest in the name of the Islamic indignation should be aware of that they can do so only in the protection of the same secular freedom of expression that they wish to restrict" (the latter of course applies to those in secular democracies).

Not a bad article and I have read many like it, but let's see what we are overlooking here. For all of us working in the Middle East this kind of illustrations can harm the work we are trying to carry out. In today's globalised world it is enough that one intolerant person hears that someone has defied the rules of Islam and depicted the prophet to create mass protests and casting of fatwas on the responsible artists and publishers of the illustrations. We know this of experience since Jyllands Posten (the Danish newspaper) published caricatures of Muhammed in 2005.

I am occidental and I would hope that the world could be a freer place, but lets face the facts most fundamentalists (Christian, Muslim, Hindus etc.) live in those countries where poverty reigns and democracies a best are the names given to the reign by its leaders. Palestine is a Democracy, but there the secularised democracies did not let the people's choices rule due to the nature of Hamas. What had have happened if the West had accepted Hamas and the money flow had not been cut etc.? We will never know. Poverty, desperation and corruption and rivalry between countrymen is reality there and in so many other Muslim countries.

Poor people often are poor out of external factors, not because they are lazy and do not work. If one does not have anything how can one then begin to understand that the only thing in their life which gives them hope and provides them security in which they trust can be questioned and humiliated by the people they see on TV and that seemingly have all they need and even more? I can imagine that they do not understand why an artist on purpose humiliates Islam, and depicts Muhammed and also humiliates the prophet by making him a dog. The Muslim leaders who are well educated and live in the West have accepted the discussion but how can poor people in rural areas who at best know how to read and write, take this information and process it as we who have food, safety and even luxurious goods in abundance can?

I have a hard time knowing what this debate will bring. My conclusion would be to educate the poor- voila! It's what I am trying to do, but it is a far bigger task than drawing Muhammed as a dog to stir up emotions and to put freedom of expression to the test.

Many of my friend back home categorically dismiss the Muslim world's reaction to these depictions but I cannot help finding them arrogant and intolerant in another way: they cannot imagine life without all that they have and have gotten use to. I bet if they were even only quite poor in Swedish standards they would not even get into the discussion from such an angle - they would be more concerned about paying their bills and finding work or, unfortunately hating the immigrants for their intolerance, turning to nationalistic and racist organisations which, after all isn't any better than the reaction we see from the Muslim world.

Happy Ramadan to all of you - it is after all a month of love, peace and reflection.