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Categorized | Loon Politics, Loon-at-large

Free speech and the “clash of civilizations”

Posted on 02 October 2012 by Amago

Muslim demonstrators shout anti-U.S slogans during a protest against a film they consider blasphemous to Islam. (Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri)

Muslim demonstrators shout anti-U.S slogans during a protest against a film they consider blasphemous to Islam. (Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri)

Free speech and the “clash of civilizations”

(Via RightWingWatch.org)

We have no problem with sometimes limiting hateful speech — except, it seems, when Islam is the target

BY 

Three hurtful words, scrawled in black circles under the eyes of a ballplayer named Yunel Escobar: Tu ere[s] maricón.  The message, conveyed in the eyeblack of the Toronto Blue Jays shortstop during a recent game, means, You’re a faggot.  That’s hate language, and reaction was swift and stern.  Major league baseball launched an investigation, the Blue Jays suspended Escobar for three games and enrolled him in “sensitivity training,” and he gave the obligatory apology in front of the microphones. Few if anyone publicly complained that, hurtful or not, homophobic or not, Escobar’s free speech rights trumped the concerns of others wounded by his words.  No one said Escobar should be able to continue displaying the slur.

“Given the reaction of the offended community, Escobar’s punishment was absolutely justifiable and necessary to maintain order in society,” wrote Stacie Brown on policymic.  In other words, the community came together and shut Escobar up, due to a collective sense of mutual respect for the rights of others not to be hurt by hateful speech.  Society has forged standards of respect and unacceptability about racial, ethnic, anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs.  Rightly or wrongly, the message is:  use certain hateful words in public, and you’ll pay the price.  So why is there a different set of values at work when it comes to the hurt caused Muslims by hateful, Islamophobic characterizations of the Prophet Mohammed, or denigrations of Islam?

“The Innocence of Muslims” is only the latest attack on the prophet designed to provoke and therefore reinforce the image of Muslims as the Other, unworthy of the support and empathy of civilized peoples.  “The obvious, outward motive of such attempts is…to show Muslims as irrational, violent, intolerant and barbaric, all of which are attributes profoundly inscribed into the racist anti-Muslim discourse in the West,” writes the Egyptian journalist Hani Shukrallah, editor of Al Ahram Online.

  • Michael Elwood

    @Andrew Dawson

    “Anyone here read the Koran and Hadiths?”

    Are you serious? Have YOU read the Quran?

    “Plenty of hate speech in there and human rights abuses.”

    I’ve already given my two cents on the supposed hate speech in the Quran:

    http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/10/islamic-center-of-greater-toledo-targeted-by-arsonist/#comment-217410

    But I’d like to follow up. Critics of Islam are often full of hatred of Islam and Muslims. They even have their own Facebook page:

    http://www.facebook.com/hateislam

    But, as usual, the same things they consider a vice in Muslims (hate and human rights abuses) becomes a virtue in themselves. There’s plenty of love in the Quran, but no hate. In the Quran, love (wadud) is an attribute of God (see 11:90 and 85:14). God loves those who act ethically:

    Those who acknowledge and do good works, the Gracious will bestow them with love. [Quran 19:96].

    God promotes love between men and women:

    From His signs is that He created for you mates from yourselves that you may reside with them, and He placed between you love and compassion. In that are signs for a people who reflect [Quran 30:21]

    God promotes love between enemies:

    Perhaps God will place love between you and those you consider enemies; and God is Omnipotent. God is Forgiving, Compassionate. [Quran 60:7]

    God promotes love between all human beings:

    that [bounty] whereof God gives the glad tiding to such of His servants as attain to faith and do righteous deeds. Say [O Prophet]: “No reward do I ask of you for this [message] other than [that you should] love your fellow-men.” For, if anyone gains [the merit of] a good deed, We shall grant him through it an increase of good: and, verily, God is much-forgiving, ever responsive to gratitude. [Quran 42:23]

    But, thankfully, love isn’t unconditional in Islam. God doesn’t require us to pretend to love our enemies:

    O you who acknowledge, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, you extend love to them, even though they have rejected the truth that has come to you. They drive you and the messenger out, simply because you acknowledge God, your Lord. If you are mobilizing to strive in My cause, seeking My blessings, then how can you secretly love them? I am fully aware of everything you conceal and what you declare. Whosoever of you does this, then he has gone astray from the right path. [Quran 60:1]

    Along these lines, Malcolm X said:

    “It’s good to keep wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come to make a decision, you have to weigh all of what you’ve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; you’ll never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you’ll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies. This is one of the things that our people are beginning to learn today–that it is very important to think out a situation for yourself. If you don’t do it, you”ll always be maneuvered into a situation where you are never fighting your actual enemies, where you will find yourself fighting your own self.”

    [. . . .]

    “So don’t you run around here trying to make friends with somebody who’s depriving you of your rights. They’re not your friends, no, they’re your enemies. Treat them like that and fight them, and you’ll get your freedom; and after you get your freedom, your enemy will respect you. And we’ll respect you. And I say that with no hate. I don’t have hate in me. I have no hate at all. I don’t have any hate. I’ve got some sense. I’m not going to let anybody who hates me tell me to love him. I’m not that way-out. And you, young as you are, and because you start thinking, you’re not going to do it either. The only time you’re going to get in that bag is if somebody puts you there. Somebody else, who doesn’t have your welfare at heart. . . .”

    Andrew wrote: “Why should speech that points out faults or contradicts any religious belief be silenced?”

    It shouldn’t be silenced. But you might want to be sure that what you perceive to be faults are actually faults.

    “If I say something factual or logical and someone takes offence to that statement it doesn’t make that statement untrue.”

    No, it doesn’t make it untrue. But it doesn’t make it true either.

  • http://Aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    @andrew do you have anything better to add than your recycled propaganda?

  • Andrew Dawson

    Anyone here read the Koran and Hadiths? Plenty of hate speech in there and human rights abuses.
    Why should speech that points out faults or contradicts any reilgious belief be silenced?
    If I say something factual or logical and someone takes offence to that statement it doesn’t make that statement untrue.
    “I respect your right to practice your religion but I do not have to respect that said religion”

  • chowching

    Jews and Muslims need not be hostile to one another they both need loving care. Building of Synagogues in Iran and Egypt will go a long way on the golden road to trust and friendship. A Fatwa issued by the Grand Mufti demanding defensive borders for Israel will be sweet music to Jewish ears. Any view that Muslims are cruel will be gone, Islam will then be seen as a kind and loving religion. Millions of Infidels will accept Allah and his Prophet and join the call to prayer.

  • Hard Core Atheist

    I agree Nadia. The film is just an excuse to vent a mountain of frustrastion.

  • Nadia

    @FYI

    I totally agree with you that we Muslims should take the example of our Prophet more seriously and respond to insults as he would have done (he ignored them, and in the most famous case went to visit and check on the woman who insulted him when she fell ill). The Quran also tells us that we are certain to hear insults in the future, and that the best response is to continue acting honorably and be patient.

    Having said that, I don’t think it’s really in the hands of governments to control the response of the frustrated masses. You have to consider where the biggest violence took place. Countries barely liberated from their dictatorships, uncertain about the future, frustrated and angry about the past and for the first time feeling like they have the power to change things. And we are talking millions of people. It’s almost impossible, in such a large population in such a situation, to prevent groups of people from expressing their outrage with over-the-top and un-islamic violence.

    Still many Islamic scholars have made exactly this point and I am hoping their voices will spread. Much of it is down to education. : )

  • http://www.yellow-stars.com eslaporte

    This hypocrisy also extends to the reception of the Piss Christ photograph gets from Catholics…sometimes violence and threats too.

    I can’t seem to figure out what the purpose of Piss Christ is, or if it’s really in a glass or urine. It could be a glass of Mountain Dew soft drink?

    How about the reception of the Joop cartoon depicting Geert Wilders as a concentration camp guard showing people to showers. This cartoon WAS ACTUALLY REMOVED after the Joop newspaper actually got threats … When they bring up “Danish cartoons” – reply with the Geert Wilders cartoon, which as actually removed!

  • http://www.yellow-stars.com eslaporte

    The “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis” in the same hateful, crackpot is from the same garbage heap as “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” “Eurabia” Batty bat ye’or is a slanderous, pseudo-academic work on the EU’s relationships with Mediterranean countries that have NO rational and academic basis, and is well outside the mainstream of though on EU foreign policy…

    “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis” contributes about the same to mankind as “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” – which is to promote hate and division. That is the only purpose for these types of “works.”

  • Hard Core Atheist

    Of course you see stuff like this about Jews. Ever heard of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” or the program “Ash-Shatat” which shows Jews murdering Christian children for their blood. John Stewart highlighted this when he noted the hypocrisy of the Middle East when it comes to respecting religion and religious symbols.

  • rookie
  • http://www.yellow-stars.com eslaporte

    This is exactly the standard I often refer to… Do you think we will ever see an “Innocence of Jews” movie?

    What has to occur is for society to place Islamophobic hate speech in those other categories. To do that would require some kind of rebuke against the speaker, such as boycotts and other protests – which would put the speaker in rebuke.

  • Hard Core Atheist

    “We have no problem with sometimes limiting hateful speech — except, it seems, when Islam is the target” … the word Islam should be replaced by “religion”

    For many years the Western media (and Media in the Middle East) has had a field day moking Christianity (Judism in the ME). There are no shortage of examples and so the Western Media would be hypocrits if they didn’t allow “free Speech”. Although this movie was made by one person and has been swiftly condemned by almost the entire world (the movie, not free speach) so there are plenty of people doing what they can to limit hate speech.

    NurAlia,
    you must of missed the article on here on how well adjusted Muslims were in the US. What you write is no different than Spencer, it’s called fear mongering! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVqlZaERq1I

  • NurAlia

    Lets remember, that the ball player did is not the same as what the film maker did. The ball player, while representing his team (a private entity) did not mean to incite anger or violence, and did not recklessly indanger lives of others.

    It was not the ‘government’ that punished him, it was his team, and the society his team has to play in.

    I think we must understand that Muslims are not accepted in western society as human beings, and that we must endure our lot. I think it is time we (the Muslims) wake up to that fact, and stop pretending that it is just a fluke. Hatred of Islam and Muslims is deeply rooted in western discourse.

    However, there is no excuse for acting like savages because barbarians provoke us. We need to understand the hard truth, and understand too that it is only ourselves we destroy when we react to the bigotry.

    So…I do agree with FYI. Dont react, and let the fools play until they get tired.

  • Sarah Brown

    I think it’s important to consider the context though – someone should be able to say such things on a blog but it seems reasonable to rule them out of order on the sports field – or insulting remarks WRT Islam. In response to FYI – here is Mehdi Hasan.

    http://www.newstatesman.com/2012/09/muhammad-survived-dantes-inferno-survive-youtube-clip

  • mindy1

    Thought provoking…

  • FYI

    I think it is time Muslim countries question why they do not do as their Prophet did, when he was insulted. Muslims like these are their own worst enemies. They give food to the inciters. If they kept quiet and did as their Prophet did, this problem wouldn’t exist.

    Muslims need to speak out and take action, Action at senior level to cap this. Why are the rulers of the countries not explaining to them do so as their Prophet did?

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