New NY op-ed on the cartoon controversy

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

It is called The Silent Treatment by Robert Wright and can be found here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/17/opinion/17Wright.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Paragraphs to discuss:

THE American left and right don't agree on much, but weeks of demonstrations and embassy burnings have pushed them toward convergence on one point: there is, if not a clash of civilizations, at least a very big gap between the "Western world" and the "Muslim world." When you get beyond this consensus — the cultural chasm consensus — and ask what to do about the problem, there is less agreement. After all, chasms are hard to bridge.

Fortunately, this chasm's size is being exaggerated. The Muslim uproar over those Danish cartoons isn't as alien to American culture as we like to think. Once you see this, a benign and quintessentially American response comes into view.

Even many Americans who condemn the cartoon's publication accept the premise that the now-famous Danish newspaper editor set out to demonstrate: in the West we don't generally let interest groups intimidate us into what he called "self-censorship."

What nonsense. Editors at mainstream American media outlets delete lots of words, sentences and images to avoid offending interest groups, especially ethnic and religious ones. It's hard to cite examples since, by definition, they don't appear. But use your imagination.


Be sure to read the rest of the article. It makes some very good points about the use of violence in history and at looking at the real reasons behind this whole controversy.

[tjwmason]

1. Is it self-censorship, or is it basic respect for others?

I have yet to see any reasonable defence for the publishing of the cartoons. Freedom to print things like that (which I do defend) comes alongside a responsibility to use that freedom wisely, and not to cause offence without reason.

Obviously, I don't personally find the cartoons offensive (not being Muslim) - but I can see how a Muslim would do so, and so would (if I were being given the print/don't print option) refrain from using them unless there was a strong compelling case to do so.