At the crossroad of Islam, the West

Tariq Ramadan

Posted Feb 9, 2006      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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At the crossroad of Islam, the West

BY TARIQ RAMADAN FEBRUARY 9, 2006

9 February 2006


IN COPENHAGEN last October, as demonstrations provoked by the Danish cartoons were starting, a reporter from the newspaper that published them told me during an interview how intensely the editorial staff had debated the issue and how many of the journalists were uncomfortable with the publication of the cartoons and surprised by the strong reaction from Muslims and the Arab embassies. At the time, the tension seemed to remain within Danish borders.



To the Danish Muslims denouncing a racist behavior, a provocation that was to be capitalized on by the expanding far-right political wing, my advice was to avoid reacting emotionally, to try to explain quietly why these cartoons were offensive and to neither demonstrate nor risk activating mass movements impossible to master. At the time, a resolution seemed to be at hand.



One might ask then, why is it that three months later, some are pouring fuel on the fire of a controversy with tragic and potentially out-of-control consequences?



A few Danish Muslims recently visited some Middle Eastern countries and fanned the flames of resentment. Governments, only too happy to prove their attachment to Islam, took advantage of this and presented themselves as champions of the great cause. On the other side, this was just what some politicians, intellectuals, and journalists needed to paint themselves as champions of the great struggle for freedom of expression and resistance fighters against religious obscurantism in the name of Western values.



Here we are, facing an incredible simplification, a simplistic polarization: It would be a matter of a clash of civilizations, with the inalienable freedom of speech in one corner and the inviolable sacred sphere in the other.



Presented in such terms the debate has, unfortunately, become a battle of wills. Who is going to win? Muslims want apologies, threaten to attack European interests, even to attack people; Western governments, intellectuals, and journalists refuse to bend under the threats and certain media outlets added to the controversy by republishing the cartoons. The majority of people around the world are perplexed about these excesses: What madness has gripped the world?



It is critical to find a way out of this infernal circle and to demand from those fueling this fire to stop their polemics and to create a space for a serious, open, and in-depth debate and peaceful dialogue.



No, this is not a predicted clash of civilizations. This affair does not symbolize the confrontation between the principles of Enlightenment and those of religion. What is at stake at the heart of this story is a measure of whether or not the parties have the capacity to be free, rational (believer or atheist), and, at the same time, reasonable.



The fracture is not between the West and Islam but between those who, in both universes, are able to assert who they are and what they stand for with measure in the name of a faith and/or a rational reason and those driven by exclusive certainties, blind passions, reductive perceptions of the other, and hasty conclusions. These character traits are shared by some intellectuals, religious scholars, journalists, and the ordinary people on both sides. Facing the dangerous drifts these attitudes entail, it is urgent to launch a call for wisdom.



In Islam, representations of all prophets are strictly forbidden. It is both a matter of fundamental respect and a principle of faith requiring that God and the prophets never be represented to avoid any idolatrous temptations. In that sense, to represent a prophet is a grave transgression. If, moreover, one adds clumsy confusions, insults, and denigration as it was perceived by the Muslims in the Danish cartoons, one can understand the nature of the shock and rejection expressed by large segments of Muslim communities around the world. To them this was too much: It was good and important for them to express their indignation and to be heard.



At the same time, it was necessary for Muslims to bear in mind that for the past three centuries Western societies — unlike Muslim majority countries — have grown accustomed to derision, irony, and criticism of religious symbols, the Pope, Jesus Christ, and even God. Even though Muslims do not share this attitude, it is imperative that they learn to keep an intellectual critical distance when faced with such provocations and not to let themselves be driven by passionate zeal and fervor, which can only lead to undesirable ends. On these cartoons, as much clumsy as they are idiotically malicious, it would have been preferable for Muslims to express their values and grievances to the public without row and to pause until a calm debate is possible.



What is welling up today within some Muslim communities is as unproductive as it is insane: Obsessing about getting apologies, boycotting European products, threatening violent reprisals are excesses that must be rejected and condemned.



Also excessive and irresponsible is the invoking of the ’’right of freedom of expression” — to give oneself the right to say anything, in any way, against anybody. Freedom of expression is not absolute. Countries have laws that define the framework for exercising this right, and that, for instance, condemn racist language. There are also specific rules pertaining to the cultures, traditions, and collective psychologies in the respective societies that regulate the relationship between individuals and the diversity of cultures and religions.



Racial or religious insults are not addressed in the same way in Western societies. Within a generally similar legal framework each country has its own memory and sensitivity, and wisdom requires acknowledgment of and respect for this reality. Western societies have changed and the Muslim presence has naturally changed this collective sensitivity. Instead of being obsessed with laws and rights, would it not be more prudent to call upon citizens to exercise their right to freedom of expression responsibly and take into account the diverse sensitivities that compose our pluralistic contemporary societies? It is not a matter of additional laws to restrain the scope of free speech, it is simply one of calling upon every conscience to exercise one’s right with an eye on the rights of others. It is more about nurturing a sense of civic responsibility than about imposing legislation: The Muslim citizens are not asking for more censorship but for more respect. One cannot impose mutual respect by enforcing legislation; rather one teaches it in the name of a free, responsible, and reasonable common citizenship.



We are at the crossroad. The time has come for women and men who reject the dangerous divisions into two worlds to start building bridges between two universes that share common values. They must assert the inalienable right to freedom of expression and, at the same time, demand measured exercise of it. We need them to promote a necessary, open, and self-critical approach, and to refuse the exclusive truths and narrow-minded binary visions of the world. We are in dire need of mutual trust. The crises provoked by these cartoons show us how, out of ’’seemingly nothing,” the worst can be possible between two universes of reference when they become deaf to each other and are seduced by defining themselves against the other — a potential disaster the extremists of both sides will not fail to use for their own agenda. If people who cherish freedom — who know the importance of mutual respect and are aware of the imperative necessity to set a constructive and critical debate — are not ready to speak out, to be more committed and visible on the ground, and to resist the dangerous drifts of our times, then one can expect only sad and painful tomorrows. It is up to us to choose.


From http://www.tariqramadan.com/article.php3?id_article=572&lang=en  Originally published in the Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/09/at_the_crossroad_of_islam_the_west/

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