Disconnect

MOSCOW — The Pakistani journalist had a question for his Danish colleagues: Can you throw a rock at someone and then seek refuge behind freedom of expression?

Comparing rock-throwing with the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist seemed incomprehensible to the Danes, who believe freedom to blaspheme is part of the exercise of freedom of religion and expression.

Watching the Danes and Muslim journalists face off here over the Muhammad cartoons, the disconnect between two worlds was glaring, and a worrisome omen of more troubles ahead. This culture clash is going to get worse before the situation gets better.

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For security reasons, the World Association of Newspapers had to keep under wraps the identities of Joern Mikkelsen and Flemming Rose, editor-in-chief and culture editor, respectively, of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten until their appearance last week in a special session of the 13th World Editors Forum (WEF) near the Kremlin in this Russian capital.

The two, along with 12 Danish cartoonists whose caricatures of Muhammad were published by the newspaper in September last year, continue to receive death threats; the cartoonists remain under police protection.

"You will probably agree that such a situation is unacceptable," Mikkelsen told the WEF in a prepared speech that he read in a monotone.

As he spoke, the 12 cartoons were projected on a huge screen behind him and the other panelists, raising some concern that the stage might be blown up by extremists.

Fortunately, the only fireworks we saw that afternoon were in the emotional debate on whether freedom of expression should be limited by respect for religious and cultural sensitivities.

"Every religion has its taboos. Should we submit to all of them?" Rose asked. "Freedom of religion and respect for religion are in fact stronger in secular states than in theocracies."

The Danes and an editorial writer of the French newspaper Le Monde were seated on one side of the moderator, Abdul Waheed Khan, assistant director for communications and information of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). On the other side were the Pakistani and two fellow Muslims — one from Egypt, whose ambassador to Denmark set off the global Islamic protest, and Nigeria, which had the highest death toll from riots that erupted over the cartoons.

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There was clearly no meeting of the minds at the end of the debate; there weren’t even handshakes among the panelists. They simply gave separate interviews afterwards to TV and newspaper journalists, reiterating their clashing positions on the controversy.

Widely applauded by the audience, which was predominantly non-Muslim, was Rose’s observation that the concept of tolerance had become confused in the controversy. Tolerance, he said, should be exercised not only by the newspaper but also by those who see the cartoons.

Pakistan’s Imtiaz Alam, general secretary of the South Asian Free Media Association, reminded the audience that there is such a thing as hate speech. Alam and Nigerian newspaper editor Hakeem Bello also took to task those who reprinted the cartoons even after seeing how Muslims were reacting to the "provocation."

"Not a single newspaper in Nigeria published those cartoons, but we suffered the heaviest death toll of 160 civilians in the violence ignited by those caricatures," Bello said. "Why didn’t you ask yourself if you had to go that far to test self-censorship in your particular society?"

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The Danes had no direct answer to that. Earlier, however, another Danish editor told me they still could not fully comprehend what had hit them. He said that for the first time in his life he had to be careful which places he would visit. The Middle East is out of the question. Nigeria is iffy, and so is Indonesia.

"This is not supposed to happen to us," he told me. "This happens only to Americans and Israelis."

Danish exports continue to suffer from a Muslim boycott, he said. And it’s unlikely to change soon, as US President George W. Bush feted Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at Camp David in Maryland.

"Would we do it again? That’s hard to tell. We have said that we would not have done it, had we known the terrible consequences of the affair," Mikkelsen said. "No responsible editor would risk such consequences again with his or her eyes open."

Khaled Al Balshy, a deputy editor in Egypt, called for an end to finger pointing.

He traced the roots of the conflict to authoritarian Islamic regimes that exploit religious controversies to strengthen their grip on power. Politics in Egypt, where Al Balshy said 90 percent of the press is under state control, prompted the Egyptian ambassador to Copenhagen to gather 11 other Islamic envoys last February to belatedly protest the publication of the cartoons.

Later, amid protests in Egypt over corruption that led to the sinking of a ship, the government decided to revive the furor over the cartoons, with the same ambassador saying Rasmussen could have done more to mollify offended Muslims. Street protests, generally suppressed in Egypt, were allowed against the cartoons, Al Balshy observed.

Any perceived insult to Islam due to the publication of the cartoons, he said, still pales when compared with the insult inflicted by the Egyptian government on every victim of torture and other human rights violations.

Jyllands-Posten’s apology for any offense it might have committed (but not for publishing the cartoons) should have ended the furor, Al Balshy said, adding it is not good to punish an entire nation for the actions of one privately owned newspaper.

He blamed the violent reaction to Islamic ignorance of freedom of expression enjoyed by another culture, and the ignorance of the West about the Islamic world.

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We don’t know if Al Balshy’s viewpoint is shared by only a fringe of Muslims, or whether it reflects the position of a majority that no longer wants to remain silent.

For now the admonition of Unesco’s Khan for "peaceful coexistence of all religions" seems like a pipe dream.

Tempers were rising at the end of the session on cartoons, with the Europeans maintaining, "The laws of religion are not above the laws of nations."

"In the fight between religion and liberty, the journalist is always… with the liberty camp. I am sorry," Le Boucher snapped during the question and answer portion.

To which Pakistan’s Alam snapped back that the controversy should not be painted in plain black and white. He closed his riposte with a warning: Do not infuriate Muslims.