When Danish embassies began going up in flames last week, some in the European Union wanted a firm response. But nothing happened. The most the EU could agree on were a few wishy-washy statements. In the Brussels language school "English Academy," a cultural war has broken out. While Danes and Germans -- and even the often contentious Flemings and Walloons -- peacefully learn foreign languages together, Belgian Muslims are stirring up a bit of a ruckus. In language class, they don't want to be "discriminated against anymore," they say. What's their beef? Politics, religion, sex, love and other such topics with their roots in Western decadence are offensive and should no longer be allowed in the classroom. And women teachers? An impertinence. The group has already found a lawyer to represent its offended sensibilities, and the heads of the "English Academy" have no idea how they should respond. Understand and accept? Negotiate a compromise? Or just chuck the rebels out of class? Down the block, interestingly enough, the same debate is playing out on a slightly larger playing field -- namely in the glass palace of the European Union headquarters. And the debate is a much more explosive one. Golden opportunity wasted Ever since a Danish newspaper published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and triggered sometimes violent protests against Denmark and the West in the Muslim world, the European Union has been casting about for a common position. So far, though, without success -- and as the EU lack of action on the issue becomes more and more obvious, the realization grows that the 25-member European club has let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers. For years, Europe has repeated the mantra that real international relevance will only come with the development of a common foreign and security policy. The problem, though, has been that whenever difficult decisions need to be made, EU members can't agree. Like right now.
In the Brussels language school "English Academy," a cultural war has broken out. While Danes and Germans -- and even the often contentious Flemings and Walloons -- peacefully learn foreign languages together, Belgian Muslims are stirring up a bit of a ruckus. In language class, they don't want to be "discriminated against anymore," they say.
What's their beef? Politics, religion, sex, love and other such topics with their roots in Western decadence are offensive and should no longer be allowed in the classroom. And women teachers? An impertinence. The group has already found a lawyer to represent its offended sensibilities, and the heads of the "English Academy" have no idea how they should respond. Understand and accept? Negotiate a compromise? Or just chuck the rebels out of class?
Down the block, interestingly enough, the same debate is playing out on a slightly larger playing field -- namely in the glass palace of the European Union headquarters. And the debate is a much more explosive one.
Golden opportunity wasted
Ever since a Danish newspaper published 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and triggered sometimes violent protests against Denmark and the West in the Muslim world, the European Union has been casting about for a common position. So far, though, without success -- and as the EU lack of action on the issue becomes more and more obvious, the realization grows that the 25-member European club has let a golden opportunity slip through its fingers. For years, Europe has repeated the mantra that real international relevance will only come with the development of a common foreign and security policy. The problem, though, has been that whenever difficult decisions need to be made, EU members can't agree. Like right now.
COPENHAGEN: European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso defended Denmark on Tuesday in the cartoons row, telling the Danish media that freedom of expression was "not negotiable". "Freedom of expression is not something that we can negotiate, because it is an essential value in our open and democratic European society," Barroso was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of the Danish daily Berlingske Tidende. Barroso said he understood "that these drawings made a lot of Muslims in the world uncomfortable and angry. But I want to say at the same time that the principle of non-violence and freedom of expression is decisive for democracy". The 12 caricatures first appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on Sept 30 and have since been reprinted in numerous newspapers around the world. Muslims' reactions have in some places been violent, with three Danish embassy buildings set on fire, five official diplomatic missions closed, Danish products boycotted and a price put on Danes' heads in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barroso said the attacks on the Danish embassies in Damascus, Beirut and Teheran were "totally unacceptable". "That's why we are expressing our solidarity with Denmark. What has happened is unfair (because) Denmark has a long tradition of openness and tolerance, and also of helping others, of dialogue and of culture," he said.
"Freedom of expression is not something that we can negotiate, because it is an essential value in our open and democratic European society," Barroso was quoted as saying in Tuesday's edition of the Danish daily Berlingske Tidende.
Barroso said he understood "that these drawings made a lot of Muslims in the world uncomfortable and angry. But I want to say at the same time that the principle of non-violence and freedom of expression is decisive for democracy".
The 12 caricatures first appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten on Sept 30 and have since been reprinted in numerous newspapers around the world. Muslims' reactions have in some places been violent, with three Danish embassy buildings set on fire, five official diplomatic missions closed, Danish products boycotted and a price put on Danes' heads in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Barroso said the attacks on the Danish embassies in Damascus, Beirut and Teheran were "totally unacceptable". "That's why we are expressing our solidarity with Denmark. What has happened is unfair (because) Denmark has a long tradition of openness and tolerance, and also of helping others, of dialogue and of culture," he said.
The EU's foreign policy chief has begun a tour of the Middle East to defuse the row over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. Meanwhile, new cartoons in a German paper have sparked anger from Iran. The European Union's chief diplomat has said Europe and the Muslim world must maintain strong relations despite the clash over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday discussed mechanisms to protect religious symbols and beliefs. On the second leg of his Middle East tour, Solana said he had a "profound desire to recuperate relations between the EU and the Muslim world." On Monday, Solana met with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), in Jeddah. The OIC is a pan-Islamic body representing 57 nations. In a joint press conference, Solana said continued dialogue was crucial. "We must not allow the latest events to erode the solid relationship we have built up over so many years," Solana said after meeting with Ihsanoglu. "We need each other, we have to work together, and we have to respect each other." Solana said he and Ihsanoglu also agreed on "the importance of mutual tolerance and the inadmissibility of violence."
The European Union's chief diplomat has said Europe and the Muslim world must maintain strong relations despite the clash over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday discussed mechanisms to protect religious symbols and beliefs. On the second leg of his Middle East tour, Solana said he had a "profound desire to recuperate relations between the EU and the Muslim world."
On Monday, Solana met with Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), in Jeddah. The OIC is a pan-Islamic body representing 57 nations. In a joint press conference, Solana said continued dialogue was crucial.
"We must not allow the latest events to erode the solid relationship we have built up over so many years," Solana said after meeting with Ihsanoglu. "We need each other, we have to work together, and we have to respect each other."
Solana said he and Ihsanoglu also agreed on "the importance of mutual tolerance and the inadmissibility of violence."
And what do you then think of French requirements that girls practise sports at school? and what about demands that they be treated in hospitals not by whatever doctor is on duty, whether male or female, but only by female doctors? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Come off it, Jérôme, you don't expect us to take that crappy journalism seriously.
If this were a well-researched and well-written article about that language school, which established the facts and examined what was happening and listened to the different points of view, and if it then became clear that religious extremists were attempting to change the normal practice of the school in order to make it fit with their beliefs, then of course I would say they should be politely told they were free to leave if they didn't like the teaching.
But you are trying to conflate this with the cartoons (as Hans-Jürgen Schlamp does in his sneaky civilization-clash article in the Spiegel), and they are not the same thing.
I see a great difference between extremists (not only Muslim) challenging the way different institutions, like schools or hospitals, already work in our societies (in which case, if their demands appear to us unacceptable, we should tell them we refuse), and reactions to deliberate provocation by the xenophobic right.
What matters most to me is that we push back the extremes and promote the moderates. And that we stop feeding pernicious idiots like Philippe de Villiers whom I heard once again say this morning that French suburbs are "handed over to Islam".
The only way to fight off the scaremongerers like de Villiers is precisely to speak up as progressives on the topic and say that the Muslims stepped over a line (in calling for violence and in actually conducting violence) while fully acknowledging their right to say they are offended and their right to protest them peacefully. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
As for your point about cartoons, please. Cartoons are not about to disappear. We are not in danger.
To give just one example, there's a hard-hitting cartoonist named Finn Graff working for the liberal Norwegian daily Dagbladet. This guy has a serious problem with authority; allegedly his wife and sister are tasked with erasing as many erect penises as possible from his sketches of authority figures. I remember one of his offerings featuring an elephant screwing another (which had its head draped in the Stars and Stripes) with a crucifix. This prompted a furious letter to the editor from Republicans Abroad.
Graff freely admits that he wouldn't dare draw Muhammed. But apparently that is not enough. When interviewed on TV recently, he nervously displayed an old cartoon slamming the treatment of women under Islamic law. A minaret played the part of an erect male member. Now, al-Jazeera's man in Oslo deliberately refrained from reporting this back to his HQ, since the existence of this cartoon, as he put it, would be sure to "unleash hell." This despite there being no representation of Muhammed.
Morten Kristiansen, editorial cartoonist at the country's biggest newspaper Verdens Gang, says he has often received complaints from Christians when drawing Jesus and from Muslims when drawing their religious leaders, but that in recent years the feedback from the latter has increasingly included threats. I wager you will find the same phenomenon across Europe. The world's northernmost desert wind.
This kind of process may take a little time. It's already under way. But we must support the movement. I've seen (TV) moderate Muslims in Denmark complain that the cartoon controversy has set them back and they have lost influence. A young woman who is working and dressing in a European manner no doubt has a daily struggle to persuade the older, more conservative elements in her family that this is OK. Now she's not being listened to, because the Prophet has been insulted (fundamental symbol), and for her it's now go back to the beginning and start again.
The day will come when Muslims themselves will be doing the cartoons, and I'll be hugely happy to see that and to support the cartoonists. In the meantime, what purpose (other than those of the xenophobic right) do we serve if we seek to face down the extremists by insisting on our absolute right to caricature sacred aspects of Islam? We have won the freedom to do that as regards our own historical religion (and I support that freedom), but let's encourage those who will make Islam evolve so that they will one day have that freedom. For the moment, is it so huge a problem to lay aside the rather arrogant notion that our caustic wit is going to change a religion to which we don't have personal or historical links, and to exercise some understanding and restraint?
Is it surprising that the EU has difficulty finding a common position on this complex issue? In what way would "a common foreign and security policy" magically solve the problem? What was the "golden opportunity" that the EU is supposed to have let slip, exactly? What "action" does Schlamp expect the EU to take?
He doesn't say -- beyond claiming that the EU has done "little to satisfy the European public" (without saying what that public, according to him, is supposed to think), and should have reacted "responsibly but confidently -- and without kowtowing to Mecca".
As for the unsubstantiated, unexamined, undiscussed anecdote at the beginning of the article, it is exactly what it looks like: a shabby hook.
If the course fulfills a state requirement or the school is public, the issue is more complex. guaranteed to evoke a violent reaction from police is to challenge their right to "define the situation." --- David Graeber citing Marc Cooper
