Don't yield to extremists

source: Middle East Transparent 

Mona Eltahawy  

CAIRO Lost amid the ashes of torched embassies and the senseless deaths of Muslim protestors is the fact that the cartoon controversy is as much about freedom of expression in the Muslim world as it is about freedom of expression in Europe.

The violence and the bitter words exchanged over the past few days have little to do with Islam but everything to do with those who want to be its sole guardians and spokespeople.

Two Jordanian editors and a Yemeni editor who dared to publish some of the cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad are under arrest, accused of insulting religion under their countries' press and publication laws. For them, it was not so much an issue of joining the chorus of European and then international newspapers that sang in defense of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the cartoons in September. Rather, it was a chance to challenge state-sanctioned religious rules.

The dictators who rule most of the Muslim world ensure that there is little or no freedom of expression in their countries when it comes to political issues. When it comes to religion, particularly Islam, they have at their disposal cadres of compliant clerics - state-appointed, of course - who make it hard for citizens to stray from the official line.

This has been most obvious in the escalation of Muslim anger directed at Denmark over the past few days. Much of that anger has been buoyed not so much by the cartoons themselves but by political and religious leaders for whom this whole sorry episode has been, well, a godsend.

The alliance between our dictators and clerics went into overdrive as they cynically sought to manipulate this issue to score points against domestic as well as international opponents.

For the government of my country, Egypt, which spearheaded much of the diplomatic furor that preceded the violence, the benefits of anger over the cartoons were obvious, as were the double standards at play. By leaping to defend the prophet, the state and its clerics flaunt their religious credentials.

It was also the perfect opportunity to settle scores with the Danish government, which has funded groups in Egypt that criticize President Hosni Mubarak's dismal human rights record.

Egypt's government demanded that Denmark intervene in the cartoon controversy - but Egypt has brushed aside similar calls from the international community over anti-Semitism in the Egyptian news media, citing, of all things, freedom of expression.

Most of the Muslim countries whose leaders have let the world know their outrage have been competing to see who can outdo the others in "Muslimness."

For Saudi Arabia, home to the two holiest sites in Islam, it was a chance to assert that it was the leader of the Muslim world in anger, too.

The Syrian regime, one of the most secular and most omniscient in its powers, must have known that a mob would burn down the Danish and Norwegian embassies. And that has been the pattern in much of the Muslim world - direct anger abroad rather than have it fester and blow up at home.

It is ironic that President George W. Bush is asking these same leaders to help calm Muslim anger when they were so instrumental in inflaming it in the first place. It is particularly telling that he made this call as he stood with King Abdullah of Jordan, while making no mention of the jailed editors.

Perhaps the ultimate double standard, though, is the repeated calls from Muslim dictators that the freedom of expression must be exercised with responsibility. Why isn't anyone telling them that an equally healthy dose of responsibility must accompany the enormous power they wield?

I am a Muslim who fully supports Jyllands-Posten's right to publish the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, as I defend the rights of Muslims to be offended. But I find the daily human rights violations by our dictators to be more offensive to the memory of the prophet's life than a few cartoons ever could be.

And let's be really honest here, haven't some Muslims been all too willing to confirm the stereotype of violent Islam with their calls to behead the cartoonists and to sever their hands? Much more than the cartoons, they malign the message of tolerance and patience under hardship that the prophet preached and that I and millions of Muslims revere.

This is not a clash of civilizations but a battle between the extremists - Muslims and non-Muslims alike - and the rest of us who refuse to allow them to speak for us.

This is about control. So of course it is about freedom of expression - in Denmark and in the Muslim world.

Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian commentator.

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