Can we talk about it?
Hard as it may be to believe, the news reports on the worldwide cartoon-related unrest have already become routine. Images of mass demonstrations, burning Danish flags, incensed Muslims and even burning embassies are disturbingly becoming a day-to-day experience. By the end of the week, surely, only the most excessive behavior will make the headlines.
But if the beginning of the week provides any indication, then there will be no shortage of such events. On Saturday, the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria went up in smoke -- in a country, it should be noted, where the police keep the population on an extremely short leash. And on Sunday, radicals sieged and set fire to the Danish Embassy in Beirut. The attack led to the resignation of Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan Sabei, whose police, despite injuring dozens, were unable to prevent the embassy arson. Lebanese leaders on Monday apologized to Denmark. Demonstrations continued around the Muslim world on Monday, rioters clashed with police in Afghanistan, India and Indonesia. One demonstrator was reportedly killed in the central Afghan city of Mihtarlam when police fired on demonstrators who were throwing stones and knives. It is thought to be the first cartoon-related death.
And after last week's defenses of the freedom of speech -- which included expressions of solidarity with the Danish newspaper that first printed the 12 Muhammad caricatures and condemnations of Muslim radicalism -- commentators on Monday begin taking a slightly broader view.
In a front page editorial, the center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung points out that Christian Europe had its own debate over images of Christ and God. But then Europe and the west experienced the Enlightenment -- and the Muslim world was left behind. "Islam especially never joined the process of opening up to the world and enlightenment -- with its anti-fundamentalist confrontation with authority and the past -- which since the end of the Middle Ages influences western thinking in almost every area. Even today, Islam continues to blindly follow the thinking of their ancestors whereas in the west, critical thinking is the order of the day. And critique of religion was the starting point."
Tariq Ramadan, Islam expert and professor at St. Antony's College in Oxford, disagrees. In an essay appearing in the right-leaning Die Welt, Ramadan says what we are witnessing is very definitely not a "clash of civilizations" nor is it a "confrontation between enlightenment principles and religion." Rather, radicals on both sides are defining the debate, Ramadan argues. "The majority of the people around the globe are watching the excesses (on both sides) in disbelief, wondering what is wrong with this world?" In other words, politicians who want to prove their Muslim credentials and western intellectuals who want to prove their free speech credentials have led to an "unbelievable simplification" and to a "polarization." "The cleft … is not between the west and Islam," but between those who can logically and rationally define who they are and those who live in a black and white world characterized by prejudice and passion."
Polarization? That is exactly what the Financial Times Deutschland calls for on Monday. Christian Schütte, the paper's editorial page editor, argues that too much looking at the trees -- and by that he means looking at the cartoon controversy from both sides and from a differentiated standpoint -- will blind one to the forest. And the forest? "Liberal democracies do not protect the freedom of opinion for fun or out of decadence," he writes. "Rather because they hold the individual in high regard. And because they feel that a public debate is the surest path to knowledge and progress." As repugnant as it may be at times, even opinions which are abhorrent or disagreeable must be protected, he argues. His conclusion? "Small minded people of the world, radicalize yourselves please!"
Der Spiegel, our parent publication and Germany's leading weekly newsmagazine, dedicates its cover this week to "The Holy Hate," and offers its readers an extended piece looking at some of the historical causes of the current unrest. Islam, the piece points out, was not always the mercurial, intolerant religion it has become today. Indeed, in the realms of art, architecture, science and philosophy, it was much superior to 13th century Europe. But since then, the Muslim world has lost influence and pines for the old days. "Today, the Muslim world has a gigantic, insolvable problem: After centuries in a leading role, the religion is now intellectually moribund. ... Its strict rules stood in the way of rapid change and the west took over the leadership of civilization." Among many Muslims, this has led to resentment towards the west and a resulting chip on the shoulder. And there is nothing left of the tolerance preached in the Koran. "There is no religion at present that is as intolerant as Islam," the magazine writes.
Over at the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung, the editors seem to have tossed up their hands and are preparing for the end of the world. After the Cold War, the paper's Monday editorial points out, Europe and the United States lost their common enemy, and the trans-Atlantic relationship suffered. Now, a common enemy is back, "The … overarching feeling of safety and security is disappearing abruptly in the face of rampant Islamic outrage currently being unloaded. Whereas earlier, Samuel Huntington's thesis of a clash of civilizations merely caused a bit of fear and much more critique, he now stands to be crowned the leading prophet of the new age." And with the west joining together to confront the danger presented by radical Islam, the fronts are hardening. The paper urges calm, but doesn't seem to have much faith that such appeals will be heeded.
-- Charles Hawley
12:30 p.m. CET
With Iran's nuclear research program now having been referred to the United Nations Security Council, those interested in preventing the mullah regime from getting the bomb are admitting that straight dialogue with Iran has not achieved the results originally hoped for. Indeed, even if everyone is trying their hardest to cast the council referral as a sign of the world's displeasure -- is still far too early to say whether it will lead to sanctions or other consequences. Some in the German media, though, aren't buying it. Indeed, the referral is an escalation of the stare-down with Iran.
The referral of Iran to the Security Council, the financial daily Handelsblatt writes in its front-page editorial on Monday, "can very quickly result in an escalation." One way to avoid it would be for the world to present a united front in its dealings with Iran. But that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. "Whereas the Europeans continue to concentrate on getting Iran to make compromises in its nuclear program, the Americans have long since moved on." For the Americans, the editorial argues, Iran's nuclear program, Hamas's upset victory in recent parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Authority and the current unrest sparked by the Muhammad caricatures are all related. By extension -- and as articulated by US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at the security conference in Munich over the weekend -- the Iran issue belongs to the war on terror. And that, argues the paper, is dangerous. The two sides appear to be hardening quickly.
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung is likewise pessimistic when it comes to the conflict with Iran. Not only is the rhetoric heating up, but Washington appears ever more serious about pursuing a military solution. "The question now is whether new war in the Middle East with its awful consequences can be avoided," the commentator writes. One way to do that, the paper suggests, could be to embolden moderate powers within Iran to isolate Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "But with sanctions and hostility, the opposite will be achieved: solidarity of the masses and a consolidation of the Ahmadinejad regime."
--Charles Hawley
3:15 p.m. CET
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