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A Page from Whose Book?

Monday 6 February 2006

Several times it’s been pointed out that journalists in Muslim countries who offend the wrong person can find themselves in jail.

But why be so hard on them about that? They’re just taking a page from Poland’s book:

New York, January 17, 2006 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called the jailing of a Polish journalist for criminal libel an affront to Polish democracy and called on the Polish president to pardon him.

“Poland is now part of democratic Europe and democracies do not jail journalists for criticizing officials,” CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. “We condemn the jailing of Andrzej Marek and call on President Kaczynski to pardon him immediately. We also call on the Polish authorities to decriminalize libel and leave redress for defamation to the civil courts as in established democracies.”

Marek, editor-in-chief of the weekly _Wiesci Polickie_ in the northwestern town of Police, began a three-month jail term Monday in Szczecin for libeling a Police city official in 2001.

An aide to Kazcynski said the president, who is a lawyer, would examine Marek’s case, The Associated Press said.

Marek said on entering prison that he was innocent “because I told the truth,” and added that he would “wait for clemency until my last day in this prison,” AP and Agence France- Presse reported. (Source)

And it’s not just an isolated incident, if the current administration has its way. Recently, President Kaczynski’s administration stated that journalists who walked out on a multi-party press conference should be punished for showing disrespect.

The whole story makes it even more ridiculous. Recent elections in Poland have left no clear majority, and so there’s still not a coalition government formed. Recently, three of the right wing parties (League of Polish Families, Law and Justice, and Self-Defense — if I hadn’t told you they’re right wing, you’d know it from their names, wouldn’t you?) put their squabbling behind them and decided to work together to create a strong, fascist Poland. (One report in English)

They told no one of their talks, and when they signed their little pact, invited journalists only from one television station: TV Trwam. This is the television version of Radio Maria, an ultra-right-wing, nationalistic, anti-Semitic radio station owned by Jan Rydzyk, a millionaire priest (yes, there’s more than one of those in Poland, if you can believe it). They then invited other, secular journalists in to disclose the information to the public.

Angered that they were left out of the loop, all non-Trwam journalists walked out.

Kaczynski and the others were furious, and threatened to punish the journalists, though they were not clear how they wanted to do that.

Perhaps beheading?

Malkin Reconsidered

Sunday 5 February 2006

Thud pointed out an interesting piece via email by August Pollak regarding Malkin’s “selective memory.” Several points taken.

But…there’s always one of those…

Pollak writes,

Are the cartoons freedom of speech? Well, yeah. Of course you have the right to print shitty, racist cartoons that serve no purpose but to inflame Arab sentiment and make racist right-wingers feel good about themselves.

“Inflame Arab sentiment?” It’s done a great deal more than that.

Yet I can be extremely angry and yet keep my urge for violence in check.

If I piss someone off and get hit, even if I deliberately tried to piss the person off, he’s still responsible for his actions. No matter what I said.

Self-control.

Same applies here.

Pollak accuses Malkin of being a racist. I don’t really follow Malkin’s commentary — scratch that. I don’t follow it at all. Maybe she is a racist. Maybe she isn’t. The “right-wing” part of the epithet is true enough.

Still, does that somehow disqualify what the pictures (which she’s simply assembled from various web sites) tell us about the reaction of a fairly significant portion of Muslims? Sure, the tag, “No, you go to hell,” is a little silly — but I do think the pictures speak for themselves. Am I saying all Muslims are reacting irrationally violently? No — I am only privy to what the media presents to me.

Still, while purposely insulting someone is immoral, wanting to behead someone because of it is on quite another level.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

A First?

Sunday 5 February 2006

I’m not one who usually quotes Michelle Malkin, but there is something worth seeing on her site: “In Their Own Words.”

Conversion

Sunday 5 February 2006

From “Capitalism Magazine“:

Implied in the claim that images of Mohammed constitute blasphemy, is that anyone who creates such an image is guilty of blasphemy. What the Muslims are demanding is that non-Muslims accept that religious tenet. Thus, “respect” by non-Muslims of the tenet, at the price of surrendering the right to criticize Islam, means virtual conversion to Islam, a major step in the direction of actual conversion.

No emphasis added.

Any surprise

Sunday 5 February 2006

why such a large percentage of Americans are overweight?

Here are the facts: 11.2 million pounds of potato chips; 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips; 4.3 million pounds of pretzels; 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, and 2.5 million pounds of nuts.

That adds up to 30 million pounds of snacks that Americans will wolf down Super Bowl Sunday, according to research by the Calorie Control Council and the Snack Food Association.

That means the average armchair quarterback will consume 1,200 calories and 50 grams of fat just from snacking — not counting any meals. (Source)

Recommendation

Saturday 4 February 2006

Perhaps the best album I’ve heard in a long, long time is Gillian Welch’s Revival. Simple arrangements, a stunningly beautiful voice, turn-of-the-century lyrics, all add up to one thing:

After looking at the cover of Gillian Welch’s debut album, Revival, and listening to the first two cuts, “Orphan Girl” and “Annabelle,” you’d be tempted to imagine that Welch somehow stumbled into a time machine after cutting some tunes at the 1927 Bristol, TN, sessions and was transported to a recording studio in Los Angeles in 1996, where T-Bone Burnett was on hand and had the presence of mind to roll tape. (All Music)

Welch is probably more widely know for her work on the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. If you liked that film and the music — and the film was primarily about the music — then this will be a welcome addition to your collection.

Stereotyping in Stereo

Friday 3 February 2006

Something has been nagging at the back of my mind since this whole debacle began, but it was only this morning that I teased it all out.

The publication of the cartoons was provocative, to be sure. But they were cartoons drawn by an European artist, for an European-language newspaper, serving an European readership. These were not Arabic-language cartoons airdropped in some Islamic nation. Most of the non-European Muslims would have never heard about the cartoons had they not been so heavily publicized. Not only that, but they wouldn’t have understood them, because they’re in Danish. So why should they really care what is being published about them in a foreign country?

Ah — that’s the rub if it all. That’s where the double standard comes in, because Muslim publications routinely defame and insult Jews and Judaism. Where is the stink about that? If the freedom of press does not give license to insult people’s beliefs, as many Muslims are saying, why aren’t the imams condemning the anti-Semitism that’s so rampant in the Muslim world? Indeed, they are often promoting it.

Of course there are a significant number of European Muslims, and they — especially Danish Muslims — have every right to be upset. And to voice a complaint. And to justly point out that such cartoons unfairly stereotype Muslims as being terrorists. For not all Muslims are terrorists. In fact, the vast majority hate violence. So why should we judge all Muslims by the examples of the extremists who make the nightly news? Why judge so many Muslims by the actions of so few? Why judge so many Danes by the actions of so few?

They can’t have it both ways. Either there is such a thing as collective guilt and all Danes are responsible for the behavior of all other Danes and all Muslims are responsible for the behavior of all other Muslims, or…

And so that’s what gets me most about this — the double standards at every level.

It would be appropriate

Friday 3 February 2006

if the end of our civilization were brought about by blasphemous cartoons. I’m a struggling idealist most of the time, thinking education and knowledge can save the world. But everyone’s misanthropic skepticism would be justified if this silliness spiraled out of control and ended in war – the kind of war we’ve been able to wage now for fifty years.

No, Chicken Little. The sky is not falling. It’s just a pessimistic morning.

Deadly Doodling II

Thursday 2 February 2006

So the Arab world is upset at “offensive” cartoons published in a Danish daily. They’ve been boycotting Danish products, burning Danish flags, and threatening to kill Danes abroad as well as bomb the offices of the newspaper in Denmark. It seems that instead of typing “PBUH — Peace Be Upon Him” every time after mentioning Muhammad, the newspaper made fun of the guy. In September.

Now other newspapers have come out in support of the Danish paper’s right to print anything, no matter how blasphemous, by reprinting the cartoons themselves. Provocative, to be sure, but not without reason, and making an excellent point. I’d like to see more newspapers do the same.

I understand the offense. Mixing sacred and profane, obliterating taboo — that’s nasty business for believers. Officially registering offense is an appropriate measure; boycotting is an appropriate measure — but threatening violence?

Most strikingly this shows that there is a real disconnect in the Muslim world about what democracy and freedom of speech is. This is highlighted by the calls from Islamic nations for the Danish president to punish the newspaper.

Government ministers from 17 Arab nations have asked the Danish government to punish the Jyllands-Posten newspaper for what they called an “offense to Islam.” (Washington Post)

It’s what they would do, and so it’s a logical request. But it’s not a request — it’s a demand, backed up with threats of death and mayhem.

What is really pathetically ironic about the situation is that the protests that “Islam is not a violent religion and this cartoon presents stereotypes that it is” are shown to be so empty by the behavior of so many Muslims around the world: bounties placed on the head of the cartoonists, calls for targeting Danish soldiers in Iraq. We are painting the Muslim world with broad strokes, they say, then express their desire to kill Danes who had nothing to do with the cartoons themselves, for clearly all Danes hate Islam.