Cartoons Meant to Provoke - UP Prof

In Muslim faith, belief on sacred tradition is very alive, and the prophet represents a central position in that sacred tradition, explained Prof. Julkipli Wadi of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Islamic Studies. “So if you touch it, defame or vilify that tradition, then you can expect reaction. In this sense, not only ordinary reaction but a rage, a collective psyche of the Muslim world,” he said.

BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat

During the past week, the world witnessed violent protests from Muslims, incensed by the cartoons, attacking Danish embassies, European and American companies. A Danish paper first published the cartoons last September, which included Prophet Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb. “It may look like ordinary cartoons, but there are captions accompanying the cartoons that are intended to elicit anger and hate, worded in very strong statements,” said Wadi. He also said that the cartoons and the violent reactions it elicited also showed that there are rifts not only between peoples, but also between ideas, representations and orientations. He cited the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and the Sept. 11 attack as manifestations of these rifts. Freedom of expression or defamation?

AGAINST RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY: Muslims protest against the anti-Islamic cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper at the Danish consulate in New York

The Danish paper, as well as some Western nations, justify the publication of the cartoons as an expression of the freedom of the press. But for many Muslims, Wadi said it can be conceived as an act of defamation, vilification, or in the more extreme sense, blasphemy.

Wadi argued that “although the freedom of the press is inviolable, this is not absolute.” He also stressed that “the freedom of expression is being nurtured and strengthened by the presence of other freedoms.”

In an interview with Bulatlat, he said that there was a misstep on the part of the newspaper and a misreading of the psyche of the Muslims.

In Muslim faith, belief on sacred tradition is very alive, and the prophet represents a central position in that sacred tradition, explained Wadi. “So if you touch it, particularly defame or vilify that tradition, then you can expect reaction. In this sense, not only ordinary reaction but a rage, a collective psyche of the Muslim world,” he said.

Ren Jalaluddin Ropeta, vice chairperson of the Moro-Christian Peoples’ Alliance (MCPA), shared the same sentiment.

“At all angles or levels of analysis, the caricatures highlight the discrimination and stereotype that characterizes not only the identity but the very lives of Muslim people all over the world ---- that Muslims are bombers or terrorists,” he said. “Indeed, wittingly or unwittingly, the caricature projects, and to some extent endorses Islamophobia.” 

Ropeta also said that the cartoons could not be considered “work of art or expression of freedom” as these caused “insult, pain and provoke outrage” among Muslims.

Meanwhile, for Commissioner Taha Basman, if everyone only applies the simple golden rule that “do not do things you do not want be done unto you,” there could no longer be problems like this.

Basman is the president both of the Mindanao Research Institute and the Center for Moderate Muslims (CMM), and commissioner of the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines.

International outrage

Wadi said that the international protests and violent reactions to the cartoons could have been prevented if only the Danish government listened to the statements of protest and concern expressed by the local Muslims in Denmark. Because the Danish government chose to ignore them, the local Muslims in Denmark sought the support of the international Muslim community.

“What keeps stoking the anger of the Muslim community is that the Denmark government and the Danish newspaper, which published the cartoons, have yet to apologize,” said Wadi.

In the Philippines, about 600 Filipino Muslims burned Danish flags in a protest outside the Danish honorary consulate in Makati City on Feb. 15.

The Philippine government is silent over the issue. Basman said he has talked with Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo who expressed the government’s sympathy to Muslims.  But Secretary Romulo, said Rasma, refused to issue a public statement expressing sympathy for the Muslims in order not to alienate its Western allies.

Wadi said the showing its sympathy to the Islamic sacred tradition is the least the Philippine government could do which it did not.

“This government has an attitude that it only gets itself involved if there is a trade off,” he said, citing the monetary aid it got being a U.S. ally during the “war on terror.”

“Maybe it will intervene if there would already be violence,” he added. “But that’s wrong.”

Calls for sobriety and struggle

Although Wadi understands the violent reactions of his fellow Muslims because of the harm done by the cartoons, they still call on their fellow Muslims to resolve the issue peacefully.

The anger and violent protests of Muslims provoked by the cartoons could be exploited to further vilify and portray Muslim as terrorists and justify the U.S. “war on terror” and its global dominance, warned Wadi

Wadi added, with the negative portrayal of the protests, there’s “no need to create Al-Quaeda” anymore.

Wadi said there are other outlets to express their displeasure over the cartoons and channel this through positive efforts such as lobbying with the United Nations, through the League of Arab States, to include in its conventions and protocols provisions prohibiting defamation of another’s beliefs.

Meanwhile, Rapote challenged his fellow Muslims to unite in overthrowing “the primary agents of Islamophobia” and the “real common enemy of all faiths, nations, and people, that enemy which wages war against our nations, undermines our sovereignty, and kills our people.” Bulatlat

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