We haven’t yet fully recovered from the aftermath of the Danish cartoon controversy and a whole new menace is upon us. Last month, the Comedy Central show ‘South Park’ self-censored an episode meant to feature Prophet Muhammad after receiving threats from a New York-based extremist group. As a result of that censorship, artists – claiming to be defenders of free speech – have responded by organising an event they call “Draw A Muhammad Day” on May 20.
The campaign claims to be an attempt to defend the freedom of speech. But a Facebook group used for campaigning the event has been widely condemned. The blogosphere, Twitter, and Facebook have been abuzz with counter-groups and protests. Facebook users are calling for a site-wide boycott to object to the fact that the social networking site has failed to remove the page, despite it being reported for offensive content numerous times.
Pakistani blogger Awab Alvi raises valid points regarding Facebook’s stance on the campaign:
I believe this might be a good case study on how tolerant Facebook administration might actually be. On one hand they are quick to delete the facebook page of a civil activist group [Peoples Resistance] which was organizing street protests in Karachi on the mere whim that we might be promoting hatred and violence, while in reality we were peacefully protesting against a military dictatorship, our democratic right – that group was deleted quickly and the administrators were issued warnings, this group continues to reign supreme raking over 34,400 fans since April 25th.
Alvi also mentions an interesting point that redefines the campaign’s claims of freedom of speech, providing a link to a radio interview by Molly Morris, the force behind the campaign. When asked if she would draw or make fun of the Holocaust, Morris replies, “No, there is nothing funny about it.” Moreover, owing to the frenzy that followed after the campaign was launched, Morris has published a disclaimer on her website declaring her disassociation with the campaign.
Laughably, the campaign website also claims that the point is not to promote certain “personal/political/religious” messages, but to show the world that “we’re not afraid to depict Muhammad.” But, the question remains, who is the target audience for such a campaign? And what is the purpose of a mass campaign that has the potential to target and offend people of a certain religion? The truth is that ‘South Park’ has a wide viewership, which includes Muslims who have remained silent or protested peacefully despite knowing about the about ‘South Park’ caricatures of Prophet Muhammad for years. It was only recently that a New York-based Muslim group lead a campaign titled ‘The Defense of the Prophet Campaign’ to condemn the caricatures.
Part of the campaign included a seven-minute YouTube video titled ‘Help Us Remove This Filth,’ showing pictures of the dead body of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gough, who was murdered in November 2002 in reaction to his film ‘Submission’. It was this campaign, which was seen as a direct threat, that led to ‘South Park’ being self-censored. No doubt, the group crossed the line by issuing such a threat to the creators of ‘South Park.’ For that they should be properly prosecuted in accordance with American law.
Given the aggressive and inappropriate content of the ‘Defense of the Prophet Campaign’, the Facebook campaign can be understood as a direct response to the extreme actions of a particular Muslim group. But doesn’t anyone realise that “Draw a Muhammad Day” is nothing more than a discriminatory campaign aimed at hurting Muslims worldwide? The Facebook campaign makes an extreme group of Muslim bloggers representative of the entire Muslim community and shows no regard for the millions of Muslims who have used their right to protest peacefully against offensive iconography. If the Facebook campaign is truly directed against those who stifle free speech, shouldn’t it target the group directly responsible, rather than the Muslim community at large?
The fact is, the New York-based group has earned quite a dubious reputation, even among American-Muslims. In the words of Ahmed Rehab, executive director, Council of American-Islamic Relations, Chicago:
The “Muslims” in this case are a group of literally 5-10 people who are widely reviled by the mainstream community for their radical and confrontational style including harassing Muslims outside mosques (where they tend to be banned) with outlandishly provocative anti-American rhetoric. Most suspect the group is fraudulent. Its mysterious leader, born Joseph Cohen, is an American Jew who converted to Islam in 2000 after living in Israel and attending an orthodox rabbinical school there. Whether true Muslims or agent provocateurs, the result is the same: they are five community outcasts.
Although it is clear that this small, fringe, extremist community chose to hit out against ‘South Park,’ the news headlines have stated, ‘Muslims attack freedom of speech once again.’ In these tense times, there should be more responsible reporting, and more thoughtful – and proportional – responses to the activities of certain Muslims of an extremist bent, who are often sidelined within their own communities.
That said, this can also be an occasion for self-reflection for the Muslim community at large. The truth is that there are plenty of people out there who will be willing to support the death threats against the creators of ‘South Park’ and join violent protests to register their condemnation. We, too, need to pause and re-think our options. Are death threats, violent outbursts, burning tires, and other acts of aggression really the way forward? Don’t they simply add more fuel to the controversy, draw more publicity to fringe activities, and further malign the image of the global Muslim community? The fact is, the best response to free speech campaigners is an attempt by the Muslim community to use its own right to freedom of expression to register protest and call for an end to offensive campaigns.
Let’s act rationally once and for all, and help change the trend of the freedom-of-speech excuse being used to justify discriminatory campaigns. Most importantly, let’s sort out the issue of representation. The Muslim community at large – and not a fringe, extreme element – should retain the power to decide how to react to such situations. If our stance is that of peaceful condemnation, then we must rid ourselves of those who behave otherwise. The “Draw a Muhammad Day” campaign appears to be nothing more than a desperate attempt to incite and provoke Muslims – let’s not give them the satisfaction.
Sana Saleem is a Features Editor at BEE magazine and blogs at Global Voices, Pro-Pakistan her personal blog Mystified Justice. She tweets at twitter.com/sanasaleem.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
We must Boycott until all such event remove from facebook
Very well said and rightly so. I am not a Muslim and that is besides the point. Freedom of speech also means responsibility. And people who are doing this are making a farce of freedom itself. The cartoons and pictures on facebook are deeply offensive to me even though I am from a different religion and I can understand the provocation it can cause. These are people who think their idea of freedom of speech is the only idea and that has to be imposed on the rest of the world.
Yeah.. They are trying to ignite the Muslims.. but .. Islam teaches us to remain calm.. we will protest peacefully by boycotting Facebook.
Thousands of users have reported .. ..The creator of the event has been deleted.. but the event is there. Its not deleted yet…
We, the Muslims, have declared a peaceful boycott of facebook.. Until facebook deletes that event.. else we are ready to leave facebook for ever…
love of the PROPHET MOHAMMAD P.B.U.H is more valuable than Facebook..
Its a request to all my Muslim brothers and sisters, boycott, but peacefully, dont harm or damage any thing or hurt any human being…
.. just do it!
(y)
“..the best response to free speech campaigners is an attempt by the Muslim community to use its own right to freedom of expression to register protest and call for an end to offensive campaigns.”
totally agreed!
A very good read indeed. The article clearly highlights the actual agenda that such an event is carrying forward and calls to light the fallacy of those that claim that this is a movement to preserve the rights of freedom. What people don’t realize is that certain freedoms are allowed to everyone within society, so long as they do not infringe upon the freedoms and rights of other individuals. Moreover, freedom of expression also incorporates a freedom to make known what offends a certain facet of society so as to avoid hurt sentiments and social backlash on a large scale such as this. This episode may have been carried out with the noble intentions of securing freedoms for all, but has actually proved to be an attempt at discriminating and disregarding the feelings of an entire community.
I totally agree with the author that we should not fall prey to the designs of the perpetrators of this insensitive campaign.
I am all for the freedom of speech, but with equal passion I abhor the use of this freedom in a way to hurt the feelings of a community. Simultaneously, I don’t think any kind of violence is a fitting response to any kind of insensitive expressions. The physical and virtual media is littered with material that smells of bigotry and violence. My personal response to such stuff is not to see/read it. After all, no one forces anyone to see or read it. This is exactly the same response I had when M.F. Hussain – who I still think is the best Indian painter ever – made paintings of naked Hindu goddesses.
However, the people who agree with this article but feel nothing wrong with and say nothing against the acts of terrorism in and outside Pakistan are as big bigots as the people they are condemning in this case.
Very well said Raki!
The hypocrisy of western media (including facebook et. al.) doesn’t amaze me. Truly, it doesn’t. All these incitements, conspiracies and political games against us, they doesn’t amaze me, its just natural, we all know its a war against Islam and such things are tend to happen to make Islam look like Evil, rather what amazes me is the impotence of our influential people, who knowingly keep quiet, rather call it “our own war” and make every effort to show us criminals than those who purports the crime from behind the curtains.
The greatest example is that if the Prophet Muhammad, Sallalahi-Alaihi wa Salam. He and the sahaba were beaten and kicked out of Mecca. Several authentic accounts show that many sahaba were tortured to death, burnt alive – or were made to watch their very own mothers being tortured, raped and slaughtered.
The Holy Prophet remained calm and collected. Instead of asking Allah to send angels to level At-Taif, he asked for mercy for the people there. After years of harassment, embarrassment and strife, the truth shone through. Within a decade, nearly all of the Arabian peninsula had accepted Islam as the way of Allah, and Muhammad (sas) as the last prophet and messenger of Allah. During the bloodless conquest of Mecca, the same people who lead the slaughter and torture of the Muslims were pardoned. Not a soul was harmed, at the command of Rasoolullah (sas).
Before an individual admits they he or she are wrong, they go through the stage of denial. I clearly see these cartoons as a simple stage of denial. When a child feels unimportant, he will act out in any way possible to get attention. As Muslims, we must not give any undeserved attention – this is negative reinforcement. Instead, we must follow the examples that I have written about.
Muslims, act with dignity, honor and true Islamic moral values of the Prophet Muhammad (sas). Only then will it be clear to all enemies of Islam that the true path is the one that they have been fighting against.
There are better ways to protest than just marching down the streets burning tires.. I like your take on this matter.
Western free speech, what a joke! In certain European countries if you speak against holocaust, you will end up in jail.Now thats free speech!!!!
It is a well rounded and wholesome take. I do wonder as to how many of fellow muslims living under toxic atmosphere of hatred fueled by lunatic fringe will see eye to eye with her.
I agree to some extent with some of this. But wouldn’t anyone of us slap someone who abuses or makes fun of our parents, or would we just stand there, ignoring that person. Its all about strong. But our dilemma is that we are not strong. And there’s not much we can do about it. Its like our cyber war. People are playing mind games with us. There’s not much that we can do. I agree. But atleast take a stand against it. If you cannot stop something with your hand, at least condemn it from your tongue, with your words. That doesn’t mean talking it out just between us. We should say what we have to, directly to them. We can use our ‘freedom of speech’ to warn them.
Be like Jesus and say “Forgive then O God(——fill in the blank with Budhaa, Krishna, Jesus or whoever is your GOD) for they know not what they do”. Also see the controversial but thought provoking religious movies like “Last Temptation of Christ” or “Stigmata” etc. and evolve.
There is a need to redefine the term “freedom of speech” and all the Muslims should campaign together for such a definition that should ensure that no one is allowed to hurt the collective feelings of a group of people.
There’s no need for sophistry. Either you believe in free speech or you don’t. If you want something that offends you to be removed from facebook as the self-righteous Dr. Alvi does, then you don’t believe in free speech and you shouldn’t whine about your page being pulled from the internet.
I agree.
Although I don’t know many details and I don’t have the time to go verify whatever has been written here but I do know that, in today’s age of communication and media, whatever certain extremist and violent Muslims do in the name of Allah or the Prophet goes against all Muslims. Its just some non-Muslims and some Muslims. The non-Muslims go unnoticed because they don’t fly airplanes and crash into buildings but the Muslims really have to think what image they are presenting to the whole world.
Another attempt to hurt Muslims and label them terrorists. The only way forward is to peacefully and firmly voice our dissent at such offensive campaigns. For some reason, it’s always Muslims that are targeted.
Have you seen the south park episode in which Muhammad (PBUH) was depicted ?? I have seen the episode and if you watch it and understand it, you won’t be making arguments against South Park’s creator. To put in a nut shell the creators where trying to make fun of people who get incited by any one who draws a picture of anyone or anything and labels it with Prophet’s name. Don’t get lured and tricked into this cycle, my friend Sana. Isn’t it what the extremists use as a tactic to incite common people when they allege blasphemy on?? Start developing tolerance and find peace within yourself, god will be there.
A lot of fury is being expressed by Sana and others – offcourse without seeing the show – no withholding judgement here. Same thing happened during the Rushdie episode – how many really read it. or even opened a page? Protest all you want after you have seen it. Or is that asking for too much?
As much you present us with the facts. At least you should provide clear stance on what you think the right thing to do is. Clearly..
True. They are waiting for us to react. But, if we don’t react, that would be like a slap on their face. They will be humiliated – no doubt.
Also boycott of facebook and those advertizing their products and services on facebook website is recommended. Most of the westerners only have one religion and that is MONEY. This way we will hit them where it hurts them the most – PROFITS.
Why is that Muslims have a history of being incited by relatively small issues – some random comment, book, TV show? Is there something not right here?
It`s not a “plan” for incitement. Westerns are perplexed by this influx of threats that arrive whenever they remotely delve upon this topic. For years they have been making fun of other religious personalities, including Jesus, even when America was largely conservative in its Christianity. Yet they didn`t have to deal with this. For them, it is hard to understand why should they stop themselves for just one group of people if they have been, and are legally allowed to, use satire and poke fun at whoever. This certain group is not the result of their mass plan to incite, but their coming together to defend their rights. Because that`s how it`s been going on in the Western world for decades now – just because a certain group respects one personality, others need not, and they can also say whatever they want against that personality without being threatened with violence.
Sweetie, my comment is that if according to your religion Mohammad should not be drawn…DONT DRAW HIM. How can you force the whole world to follow your religion. Its like saying that it is not allowed to eat beef in Hinduism, so noone in this world should be allowed to eat it. It is absolutely ridiculous how you Muslims try to force the whole world to follow your religion. You follow yours and let the others follow theirs.
Just in the name of Freedom of speech, they are making of mockery of it..they are a set of spoilt brats who dont understand respecting ones religion..they are brought up in a fashion where they consider freedom is ultimate..facebook should immediately take cognizance and ban the page run against prophet Mohammed..
first thing you do is BAN it – have you considered other ways, such as ignore it? Those who are happy to ban others are the first to complain when they are banned.
Don’t walk into this trap. They want people to go to streets and scream so they have more images to broadcast over TVs across west to show all Muslims are extremists. They will not stop doing these things and increase if we show reaction. Just boycott peacefully their products, films and our leaders who support them and work to make our country better. God has honored the prophet and none of these pathetic human beings can change that.
Bravo Sana, you never disappoint!
How come Saudi Arabia the home of the religion is not protesting? Come to think of it – is our religion so small, weak and threatening with this cartoon depiction of the prophet? Why are we so paranoid about it as if we are the protectors of Islam. Islam on his own is strong- A true Muslim will pray for those who are lost to find the correct path. Not through murder threats. Blasphemy has so widely being misused here in Pakistan. Are we so insecure, inferior and threatened with some cartoons?
Couldn’t agree more. Insecurity and inferiority-complexes are the names of the game.
Rightly said.
A small example would be of Prophet Muhammed’s (PBUH) visit to Taif, where he was stoned by the locals. Yet in-spite of his sufferings he wished them well. A simple yet resounding example.
Muslims don’t respect feelings of other religions as well – Remember the paintings of nude Hindu goddesses by M.F. Hussain.
I do not understand. I realize that the violent ones who want to control us all are a small fringe element but I’m puzzled as to why we don’t see large, no huge, numbers of Muslims demonstrating against what these extremist do. In a huge crowd, they can’t kill you.
After South Park became intimidated by the Muslim fringe, one lady started a group to fight back against the oppression and violence. She was not Muslim, but she invited all. I don’t know who many came, but I do know the lady panicked and withdrew. I remember what she said.
She said “I’m afraid of Muslims because we never see them out opposing the actions of those who do violent things.” That’s a paraphrase, but the meaning of her statement is clear – and correct.
“To kill one innocent man is to kill all humanity?” But who is to decide who is innocent and who is not?
That’s where I think they seem confuse peaceful Muslims. Who are the innocent ones?
In my opinion, too many of them don’t seem to know.
I have deactivated my Facebook account today, and I requested all my friends to deactivate their accounts on 19th May till 21st may to protest against this group. We demand the Facebook Team to remove the group “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” as soon as possible otherwise we will not use Facebook.