In fact, the episode could have been stopped almost immediately from getting worse; however, it turned into an international crisis due to erroneous policies. The flames of the “clash of civilizations” were fanned once again when Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen apparently adopted a nonchalant attitude towards the crisis; he even blocked his ears to friendly warnings, and figuratively kicked the ball out of play all the time. Belgium was about to support the cartoons; however, a group of Belgian politicians made smart maneuvers to avert the fair reactions of Muslims. After that, several French, German and other European newspapers also defended the publication of those cartoons. The idea behind reprinting such cartoons was supposedly the freedom of the press and freedom of expression! There are no examples in the past in which disrespect has been shown to holy figures in the West, no one would even dare to try! For instance, newspapers are not allowed to use any articles or drawings which advocate anti-Semitism. The Western media displays this kind of fastidious attitude towards Judaism, however, it does not care about the holiness of the figures at all when Islam is at issue.
Zaman Europe needs to be congratulated
Selcuk Gultasli, the Zaman correspondent in Brussels, had an excellent interview on February 4 with the first US Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, Robert Seiple. In this interview, a very important side of the truth was shared with Zaman readers. The headline of the interview was even good enough to explain the cartoon crisis: “Cartoons Triggered the Holocaust too: Europe Should Learn from History.”
Gultasli phoned a day after the interview was conducted. The clues Seiple provided in his interview led Gultasli to discover some historical facts. It was later found out that the Internet provides access to the cartoons the ambassador mentioned; and it is, said Gultasli, far easier to access these cartoons on the Web. “Can those drawings be published?” asked Gultasli. His suggestion did not involve anti-Semitism, it was only intended to learn from history. We arrived at a conclusion that it would be wrong to publish those drawings. Any provocative publication of anything with a religious content could turn into a dreadful mistake. Our courtesy should be adopted by all from different religions, and by other media organizations as well, because one who does not want his/her religion to be insulted must not insult the religions of others.
ECHR’s approach to the insult of the Prophet
The case of insulting Prophet Mohammed had come before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from another incident.
Ali Erguven, the author of the book “Yasak Tümceler (The Forbidden Sentences), that includes defamations of Prophet Mohammed, was penalized. The case against the book was approved by the ECHR and the Berfin publishing house was found guilty. As known, the writer was sentenced to two years imprisonment but the sentence was later reduced to a fine. The court in its ruling said, the judiciary should intervene in issues related to public peace and it is a legal duty in “democratic societies;” adding, “Besides the intent to insult, this book also includes certain unpleasant and provocative ideas…”
This means, there is no excuse for humiliating a prophet on legal grounds either! There is also no relation between Western values and disguising this act under the cover of the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.
Zaman has maintained its calmness during the cartoon crisis and also ran important stories which could contribute to the solution of the problem. For instance, Emre Demir’s news report from Strasbourg was great. Our friend’s interview with the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil Robles, was published on Thursday under the headline, “Decision to Combat Islamophobia Should not be Forgotten.” Zaman readers know the reality beyond recall quite well. In the last meeting attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the European Commission pledged to battle enmity against Islam.
There was another great news report in our February 2 edition. Oktay Yaman and Suleyman Bag from Berlin interviewed Lambert, the German federal assembly speaker. The German speaker criticized the discrimination against Muslims in Germany and said, “The conscience test is nonsense.” The same day, our Copenhagen correspondent Hasan Cucuk displayed a good example of journalism. Cucuk’s interview with Tim Jensen, a professor of religious studies, implied that the Danish Jylland-Posten daily had asked Jensen’s opinion before publishing the cartoons; however, the newspaper did not listen to the professor’s advice and so got itself into another trouble. Zaman Europe’s staff were examples of onsite and investigative journalism. I congratulate them all.
Apparently, some are trying to alienate Muslims and creating a global hostile atmosphere against Muslims. The situation might become more indelicate. Muslims need to be alert, prudent and should react reasonably. Otherwise, there is a risk of becoming a part of the game planned in dark and unknown places.
February 7, 2006
