By Augusto Zamora and - -
MADRID, Feb 16 2006 (IPS)

What is being attacked in the Muslim reaction to the publication of cartoons of Mohammed is not the freedom of expression but its abuse, writes Augusto Zamora, professor of International Public Law and International Relations at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. In this article, the author states that the vehemence of the reaction cannot be attributed solely to religious feeling. The cartoons seem to have been the last straw after decades of wrongs that have grown increasingly frequent in recent years. Though no one is admitting as much, this vast and populous Muslim region is undergoing a new and intense process of colonialist reoccupation which has turned it into the most fragile area in the world. Though the US and its allies justify the military occupation in the context of the war against terrorism and promoting democracy and human rights, the real motive is winning geopolitical control of the region and its energy resources. It is thus not surprising that terrorism has intensified and that so many Muslims loathe the West. The future course of the Near and Middle East will be determined by the policy the West decides to pursue in the coming months and years. If it persists in its current approach of unrelenting militarism, the number of wrongs will continue to mount and trigger more and more conflicts, which could build into a major war.

But reports on the crisis suggest that no one in the Islamic world has framed the conflict in terms of freedom of expression but rather respect for the central figure of the Islamic religion, the prophet Mohammed. In other words, what is being attacked is not this freedom but its abuse, in the form of the mocking and caricature of the founder of Islam.

All one needs to be able to grasp the Muslims’ position is a modicum of empathy. For the illustrator Baha Bujari of the Palestinian newspaper Al Ayyam, of Ramallah, ”Mohammed and religion are not subjects for the press” ; cartoons make it possible to ”touch on all subjects with a smile”, with the exception of religion, which is ”a matter between one’s self and God”.

In the opinion of Walid Wattrabi, also of Al Ayyam, a drawing of Mohammed with a bomb on his head, which was one of the cartoons published, is an insult to millions and millions of people and cannot be justified as an exercise in freedom of expression — a freedom that penal codes stipulate must respect truth, dignity,and honour. It is not a matter of freedom of expression but of the will –or lack of it –to respect the values and beliefs of other cultures, even if we do not like them or find them irritating.

There is another aspect that has received little attention: the cause of the massive protests, which have resulted in a dozen deaths and hundreds of detentions in about a dozen countries. The vehemence of this reaction cannot be attributed solely to religious feeling. The cartoons seem to have been the last straw after decades of wrongs that have grown increasingly frequent in recent years.

Today two Muslim countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, are occupied by –and at war with– western troops under command of the United States. Another Muslim country, Palestine, has suffered for sixty years an unrelenting campaign of oppression, assassinations, and the plundering of its land by Israel, backed by the West. Somalia was occupied by the US and then abandoned after a peace operation became a war of conquest. Lebanon is the site of a powergrab by Syria, France, and the US, the goal of which is to unseat the Syrian president Bashar al Assad and liquidate the last Arab government hostile to Israel.

The Arabian peninsula is full of American military bases. And Iran finds itself in the crosshairs of the major Christian powers. The days preceding the cartoon crisis saw a head-on collision between Iran and the European Union over the nuclear question. To foil what the West considers a plan to create an atomic weapon, there has been an unrestrained campaign of threats and pressure on Teheran. This zeal is in striking contrast to the absolute tolerance shown over the same issue to Israel, which has more than 200 atomic weapons, thanks to the support of the US, France, Great Britain, and Germany, the same countries taking such a hard line against Iran.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, after comparing the situation in Iran to the beginnings of Nazism, stated that Teheran had crossed ”a red line” of tolerance. Shortly after, she asserted in Tel Aviv that there was ”not the slightest difference between the points of view of Germany and Israel” regarding Iran. The ”red line” statement raises suspicions that Europe and the EU are preparing an armed intervention against Teheran as well as fears that Washington is merely waiting for the right occasion to attack Iran unless it gives in to US demands. This would open the door to a new major conflict that could be characterised as a clash of civilisations.

Though no one is admitting as much, this vast and populous Muslim region is undergoing a new and intense process of colonialist reoccupation. Though the US and its allies justify the military occupation in the context of the war against terrorism and promoting democracy and human rights, the real motive is winning geopolitical control of the region and its energy resources. It is ths not surprising that terrorism has intensified and that so many Muslims loathe the West.

It is not a coincidence that the most violent protests have been in countries occupied or threatened by the US or where elections were won by organisations of political parties hostile to the West. Religion acts as a force of combustion in societies that feel victimised by the military, cultural, and economic imperialism of a group of Christian powers that in their arrogance have no compunction about offending the most sacred symbol of the Islamic faith. Were there not this broad and deep well of discontent, the publication of the cartoons would have been a passing episode. But it wasn’t, and the fundamental causes must not be overlooked, unless the West chooses the path of wilful blindness.

The future course of the Near and Middle East will be determined by the policy the West decides to pursue in the coming months and years. If it persists in its current approach of unrelenting militarism, the number of wrongs will continue to mount and trigger more and more conflicts, which could build into a major war.

But there is another path, though few place it on their agenda: the renunciation of threats and force and the true and committed embrace of the judicial system of the United Nations.

But the cartoon crisis could yet produce something of use. It could show the self-satisfied and arrogant West that allowing the massive build-up of discontent and rancour among vast sectors of the Muslim people creates a powderkeg that could blow up at the slightest pretext. The crisis of the cartoons is a clear warning. The future depends on the manner in which the disagreements with Syria and above all Iran are resolved, and the promptness with which justice is brought to the Palestinians. It is up to the West to make the first move. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

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