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| Arabia |
| Cartoon riots planned at Mecca summit |
| 2006-02-13 |
| As leaders of the world's 57 Muslim nations gathered for a summit meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in December, issues like religious extremism dominated the official agenda. But much of the talk was of a wholly different issue: Danish cartoons satirizing the Prophet Muhammad. The closing communiqué took note of the issue when it expressed "concern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Muhammad in the media of certain countries" as well as concern over "using the freedom of expression as a pretext to defame religions." The meeting in Mecca, a Saudi city from which non-Muslims are barred, drew minimal international press coverage even though such leaders as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran were in attendance. But on the road from quiet outrage in a small Muslim community in northern Europe to a set of international brush fires, the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference — and the role its member governments played in the outrage — was something of a turning point. After that meeting, anger at the Danish caricatures, especially at an official government level, became more public. In some countries, like Syria and Iran, that meant heavy press coverage in official news media and virtual government approval of protests that ended with Danish embassies in flames. As early as October, Danish Islamists were lobbying Arab ambassadors, and Arab ambassadors lobbied Arab governments. "It was no big deal until the Islamic conference, when the OIC took a stance against it," said Muhammad el-Sayed Said, deputy director of the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Egypt. Sari Hanafi, an associate professor at the American University in Beirut, said for Arab governments resentful of the Western push for democracy, the protests presented an opportunity to undercut the appeal of the West to Arab citizens. The freedom pushed by the West, they seemed to say, brought with it disrespect for Islam. Hanafi said the demonstrations "started as a visceral reaction — of course they were offended — and then you had regimes taking advantage, saying, `Look, this is the democracy they're talking about.'" The protests also allowed governments to outflank a growing challenge from Islamic opposition movements by defending Islam. At the end of December, the pace picked up as talk of a boycott became more prominent. The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, comprising more than 50 states, published on its website a statement condemning "the aggressive campaign waged against Islam and its Prophet" by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Officials of the organization said member nations should impose a boycott on Denmark until an apology was offered for the drawings. "We encourage the organization's members to boycott Denmark both economically and politically until Denmark presents an official apology for the drawings that have offended the world's Muslims," said Abdulaziz Othman al-Twaijri, secretary general of the organization. Within a few weeks, the Jordanian parliament harshly condemned the cartoons, as had several other Arab governments. On Jan. 10, as anti-Danish pressure built, a Norwegian newspaper republished the caricatures in an act of solidarity with the Danes, leading many Muslims to believe a real campaign against them had begun. On Jan. 26, in a key move, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Denmark, and Libya followed suit. Saudi clerics began sounding the call for a boycott, and within a day, most Danish products were pulled off supermarket shelves. "The Saudis did this because they have to score against Islamic fundamentalists," said Said, the Cairo political scientist. The issue of the cartoons came at a critical time in the Muslim world because of Muslim anger over the occupation of Iraq and a sense that Muslims were under siege. Strong showings in elections by Islamists in Egypt and the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian territories had given new momentum to Islamic movements in the region, and many economies, especially those in the Persian Gulf, realized their economic power as it pertained to Denmark. "The cartoons were a fuse that lit a bigger fire," said Rami Khouri, editor at large at the English-language Daily Star of Beirut. "It is this deepening sense of vulnerability combined with a sense that the Islamists were on a roll that made it happen." The wave swept many in the region. Sheik Muhammed Abu Zaid, an imam from the Lebanese town of Saida, said he began hearing of the caricatures from several Palestinian friends visiting from Denmark in December but made little of it. "For me, honestly, this didn't seem so important," Abu Zaid said, comparing the drawings to those made of Jesus Christ in Christian countries. "I thought, I know that this is something typical in such countries," he recalled. Then, he started to hear that ambassadors of Arab countries had tried to meet with the prime minister of Denmark and had been snubbed, and he began to feel differently. "It started to seem that this way of thinking was an insult to us," he said. "It is fine to say, `This is our freedom, this is our way of thinking.' But we began to believe that their freedom was something that hurts us." Last week, Abu Zaid heard about a march planned on the Danish consulate in Beirut, and he decided to join. He and 600 others boarded buses bound for Beirut. Within an hour of arriving, some protestors — none of his people, he insists — became violent, and began attacking the building that housed the embassy. It was just two days after a similar attack occurred on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria. "In the demonstration, I believe 99 per cent of the people were good and peaceful, but I could hear people saying, `We don't want to demonstrate peacefully; we want to burn,'" the sheik said. He tried in vain to calm people down, he said. "I was calling to the people, `Please, please follow us and go back,'" he said. "We were hoping to calm people down, and we were hoping to help the peaceful people who were caught in the middle of the fight." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 The answer is quite simple: Let them throw their tantrums over "there" all they want. If they get out of line in the West, shoot them. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-02-13 11:36 |
| #5 Officials of the organization said member nations should impose a boycott on Denmark until an apology was offered for the drawings. Sure wish we could boycott these guys oil for the killings and retaliation from these cartoons. |
| Posted by: Jan 2006-02-13 11:30 |
| #4 "It started to seem that this way of thinking was an insult to us," he said. "It is fine to say, `This is our freedom, this is our way of thinking.' But we began to believe that their freedom was something that hurts us." And you can bet that he knows how to fix taht little problem |
| Posted by: Cheaderhead 2006-02-13 10:37 |
| #3 mmurray821: About a month too late. Talk about an opportunity squandered. |
| Posted by: BH 2006-02-13 10:04 |
| #2 Now if only we can get them all to perform their "stoning the devil" ritual at the same time.... TRAMPLE!! |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2006-02-13 09:22 |
| #1 So is it a dhimmi things, as we thought, or a democracy thing, which this article suggests? (Anti-democracy, actually). Two-for-one! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2006-02-13 07:03 |