Miss Information
Here's a fairly important story, especially to anyone who's been paying attention to Plamegate. On February 1, only a handful of media organizations reported special investigator Patrick Fitzgerald's allegation that certain emails from the White House may have been destroyed. Check it out here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602020012
Here, the story cites a report from Fitzgerald, which reads, "we have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system."
The most shocking thing about this story is not that the Bushies may have deliberately destroyed evidence. I don't know many people who'd put that past him. No, the shocking and alarming part of this story is that it was only covered by CNN, the Associated Press, and the New York Sun. That's it. Not the New York Times, not the Wall Street Journal, not the Tribune Organization, not the Washington Post, not MSNBC, and of course not Fox News.
The disturbing question here is why? Why would almost every major media organization in the United States choose to not carry such a seemingly explosive story? This is HUGE! This is the independent investigator for the Justice Department acknowledging that the Bush administration might have DESTROYED EVIDENCE IN A FEDERAL CASE, a la Nixon's missing tapes during the Watergate scandal. So why in the hell would the media ignore it?
Far be it from me to speculate wildly, but this is one question which certainly bears answering, sooner rather than later. If we can't trust the media to look out for us, then we're screwed.
***
As for the current Muslim outrage over a handful of Danish political cartoons, I can generally be counted on to swing to the Left in almost every case. But here's one instance in which I find myself almost aligning with the Right, but for my own reasons, the most fundamental of which has to do with the freedom of the press and open debate. Here's an essay by Time's Andrew Sullivan that articulates exactly what the West's reaction to such indignation should be:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1156609,00.html
While there's definitely something to be said for respect of religion, there must be another, more fundamental principle to any society which dedicates itself to the freedom and betterment of mankind: freedom of speech. And this wasn't even a case of a newspaper adventing violence or supporting a particular political party. It was a batch of CARTOONS. Yet by now at least five people have died as a result of Muslim outrage.
As Sullivan points out, Muslim governments and societies commonly permit anti-semitic cartoons and parodies of the Holocaust, so it's obvious they can dish it out, but now we know many of them can't take it. This entire scene is just one big pockmark on the Muslim world. It's a shame, a disgrace, and a childish reaction to a mature topic that merits serious discussion, not petulant tantrums for perceived insults.
I need something neutral for lunch today. Can anyone recommend a good Swiss sandwich? I was going to order a reuben with extra 1000 island, but the German overtones are too dangerous for such a topic. I might be accused of being a Neo-Nazi.
posted by jack @ 9:28 AM
4 Comments:
There are, my friend, certain subtleties of both the Muslim religion and this story in general that many commentators on this story miss ouit on including.
I want to be very clear: there is no way to justify the violent fringe of the protests in any way. Violence is a failure of soul and of reason.
That said, there are some very good reasons for the scope of the unrest caused by the charicatures. I see three main ideas often overlooked.
First, while Muslim papers DO caricature Jews and Christians, they do not defame God. To create an image of God is absolutely blasphemous, the same is true for the Seal of the Prophet. To create an image equating the Prophet with violence itself is to directly attack the Prophet. In this belief system, there is no difference between attacking God and creating a defamous image of God. This is not the same in Judaism or Christianity. These other two cultures take a very different perspective on images.
Second, as a Muslim it is your duty to speak out against injustices. It is not suggested. It is not condoned. It is your duty. This speaks to the scope of the unrest, especially when coupled with:
THRIRD. THIS CARTOON WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN SEPTEMBER! The first time this was published, it caused anger and outrage. The mass mobilization of protest occurred months later when SEVERAL papers in SEVERAL western countries REPRINTED IT! Take, for a moment, a break from thinking like a rich Westerner. The Muslim world is literally afire with American bombs, depleted uranium, and (had this administration their way) nukes. Two puppet regimes set up by the West have been violently toppled and left to ruin. Afghanistan is now a bona-fide Narco-State with poppies and heroin taking up about eighty percent of the nation's economy. Iraq is a failed state and the West has not only lost the war, but will most likely abandon helping to pay for the needed reconstruction as soon as possibly (as evidenced by seventypercent of the money originally intended for reconstruction having been "lost," "misspent," or "squandered" according to a recent Government study). The West is now on war footing with Iran. We have waged war on the Muslims, but have upheld close ties with trecherous dictatorial regimes (read: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc. -who need only feign half-hearted facades of low-level "elections" at the West's behest to keep an image of looooong term reform). We will spend 2 Trillion dollars--for real--on the Iraq war but not a dollar on helping Middle Eastern infrastructure. We have been trampling over this region of the world and their religion for centuries. Now, we allow for the widespread defamation of God's most sacred Prophet. The Seal of all Prophets. Not once. But again and again and again. In Europe, nonetheless, home of not only rampant Anti-Semitism, but also of even more rampant and virulent Anti-Islamism. Racism and intolerance of God and religion is pervasive in a lot of Western European culture, and this has proved to be the last straw on an over-burdoned back.
Again, there is no excuse for violence. There is no excuse. There are reasons, though, why so many people are so frightened and hurt and angry that repeated direct attacks on what is most sacred to them causes them to mibilize in response. Condemn the violence. But understand the pain that has been caused to millions of people because of decades of callous and devistating policies and an equally callous attitude toward their deeply felt religious life. We owe them at least that.
If only for Chap-Stick and Road Trips.
Might I suggest a day of fasting? No?
Then perhaps the gentleman would delight in the Hummus Plate, maybe Baba Ganoush?
Much Love.
Oh, and that White House stuff is bullshit! I agree, this is a huge story.
Doc,
Yeah, I was aware of how the pieces were first published in September, and NPR even mentioned this morning that a number of upset Muslim clerics in Europe actually began circulating the cartoons in bigger and bigger circles, to what end I'm not exactly sure. And I of course grant you that the Muslim world has been widely and largely oppressed by the West, and that it's a state of affairs that needs to change asap, especially if there's going to be any real hope for peace in the coming century.
All the same, though, I criticize what's been going on in Iran, Pakistan, and (forgive me) I'm not even sure how many other countries in the same way I would have criticized the Watts riots or LA's self-implosion after the Rodney King trials. Pointless violence begets pointless violence. Carefully focused violence can have an important effect, but it must be aimed correctly. This is akin to a postal worker opening up with a submachine gun at coworkers who had almost nothing to do with employment conditions.
Also, I think it is worth noting that while I have every respect for Islam, I reserve the right to verbally attack their God and their religion at will, just as I respect each Muslim's right to do the same to Western culture. Quid pro quo. And I think it IS within the right of a Western paper to critique Islam for its widespread mistreatment of women, homosexuals, and Jews, just as it is within the right of the same paper to criticize Western governments for invading Middle Eastern countries and supporting illegal occupations (a la Israel and Palestine).
This is indeed a high standard, but if we didn't set high standards for ourselves and for others, then we would always remain the lowest common denominator.
Lastly, what you call the "widespread defamation of God's most sacred prophet" is not very widespread at all. Most major news organizations refused to reprint the cartoons out of "respect for Islam," and resorted to mere descriptions. And even granted that statement, it is a FACT that many factions of Islam have used Muhammad as a justification for the worst sort of crimes imaginable, the same type of crimes that were committed in the name of Christ during the Crusades and the Inquisition. Religion IS political. There is no escaping that. And politics, all of politics, must be open to the basest kind of critique and commentary in order for there to be any forward movement. Once we begin to censor ourselves, where do we stop? What is respectful and what is not? Are you and I not anti-American, according to the current administration, for not supporting illegal wiretaps, the PATRIOT Act, and the invasion of Iraq? I think the parallel is appropriate.
Also, I would love to talk to you more about Islam sometime. It's a subject that I'm sorely lacking knowledge in. For example, I didn't know that (I'm guessing this is according to the Quran) it's a Muslim's duty to speak out against injustices. I would think that this should be an inherent principle in all major religions, but I guess it isn't.
Hope you enjoyed the novel. Hardy har har. It was a meatball sammich today. Extra peppers.
I'm afraid I agree more with the "Good Doctor" than the "Food Adict" here!
Your comments about the Muslim reactions to the "CARTOONS" misses, I think, the pattern of abuse that Islam has been experiencing from the West for some time now. The attacks by the US, first on Afganistan and then on Iraq, with huge indiscriminate murder of innocent Muslim civilians and the destruction of entire cities, & infrastructure in both of these countries is horrendous. These attacks were also originally referred to as a Crusade. Then the physical, mental & religious torturing in US military prisons, was publisized widely in the Muslim world. The continued military occupations of these two countries & the ongoing saber rattling towards Iran add to arrogant attitude of the US in the Muslim world.
I can't rationally justify the violence of the mobs who are reacting to this kind of "final straw", this seemingly minor assault on their religion & culture, any more than I could justify the rioting in the US cities upon the murder of MLK, or the trial of Rodney King. It is not a rational "focused" action for strategic advantage. It is an emotional, irrational scream of defiance, aimed at anyone, everyone who can hear. It is a scream of pain and desparation from the oppressed that is usually never understood by the oppressors. They can't undersatand all the fuss over such a minor thing, like a "CARTOON".
I don't know the answer here,(if there is one) but I don't think the issues are a black & white as you would like to portray them.
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