MARGARET WENTE
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
July 29, 2008 at 10:41 AM EDT
Should cartoonists get danger pay? Maybe it's time. Canada's own Barry Blitt has gone to ground after his infamous, satirical New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as gun-toting Islamic militants. Obama fans hated it. Other cartoonists hated it. But Muslim groups hated it even more. The Council on American-Islamic Relations declared it "inflammatory." A commentator for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram called it "racist" and Islamophobic.
Fortunately Mr. Blitt works in the United States, where the worst they can do is denounce you. Here in Canada, they can take you to a human rights commission. That's what happened in April when Halifax's Chronicle-Herald ran a political cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon. It shows a burka-clad figure identified as Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a woman who demanded a large amount of compensation after her husband was arrested in an anti-terrorism raid and later released. She holds a sign that says, "I want millions," and her speech bubble says, " I can put it towards my husband's next training camp." Outraged, a local Muslim group complained to the human rights commission, and, for good measure, called the police.
"Cartooning itself has become a bit of a dangerous area," says Dan Leger, the paper's news director. He invited the group in for a meeting and explained that a cartoonist's job is to make fun of everybody. The meeting ended on a friendly note, and with luck that will be the end of it. "Cartoons are meant to piss you off," says Mr. Leger. "Otherwise they're no good."
But it's Europe where cartooning and Islam really don't mix. In the Netherlands, eight police officers showed up recently to arrest an obscure cartoonist for sketching offensive drawings of Muslims that appeared mainly on his own website. He spent two nights in jail, and Dutch authorities are deciding whether to charge him with inciting racist hatred.
The young cartoonist, who goes by the pen name Gregorius Nekschot, admits that his cartoons are "tasteless." Even so, he says, quoting a Monty Python sketch, "I never expected the Spanish Inquisition." Dutch champions of free speech are up in arms, and even some Muslim groups are dismayed that the government seems to have gone overboard to placate its growing Muslim minority. Meantime, Mr. Nekschot is rightly concerned about his safety. "Ever since [filmmaker] Theo van Gogh got slaughtered there's this sense of fear," he says.
"Most of the professional humorists in Europe apply self-censorship now," says one commentator. You can hardly blame them. They have not only violent extremists to fear, but also - in the Netherlands, at least - their own government.
Three years after the Danish cartoon controversy, it's more evident than ever that satire and Islam are an explosive mix. In the West, blasphemy has a long and robust history. But in the Muslim world it's regarded as intolerable. As one Pakistani diplomat put it recently, "There are certain things that should not be said."
In fact, if the Muslim nations were to have their way, any criticism of Islam would be forbidden. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group of 57 Muslim nations, has declared that Islamophobia is a menace and that any such defamation of religion should be criminalized and prosecuted vigorously. The OIC, which has growing clout at the United Nations, wants the UN to enact international "anti-defamation" rules that would forbid blasphemy. Islamic members of the UN's Human Rights Council have succeeded in changing the mandate of the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of expression. In addition to investigating cases of censorship and violations of free speech, this person will now "report on instances where the abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination."
Cartoonists, beware. Feel free to offend anyone you want - so long as they're not Muslims.
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
July 29, 2008 at 10:41 AM EDT
Should cartoonists get danger pay? Maybe it's time. Canada's own Barry Blitt has gone to ground after his infamous, satirical New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas as gun-toting Islamic militants. Obama fans hated it. Other cartoonists hated it. But Muslim groups hated it even more. The Council on American-Islamic Relations declared it "inflammatory." A commentator for the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram called it "racist" and Islamophobic.
Fortunately Mr. Blitt works in the United States, where the worst they can do is denounce you. Here in Canada, they can take you to a human rights commission. That's what happened in April when Halifax's Chronicle-Herald ran a political cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon. It shows a burka-clad figure identified as Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal, a woman who demanded a large amount of compensation after her husband was arrested in an anti-terrorism raid and later released. She holds a sign that says, "I want millions," and her speech bubble says, " I can put it towards my husband's next training camp." Outraged, a local Muslim group complained to the human rights commission, and, for good measure, called the police.
"Cartooning itself has become a bit of a dangerous area," says Dan Leger, the paper's news director. He invited the group in for a meeting and explained that a cartoonist's job is to make fun of everybody. The meeting ended on a friendly note, and with luck that will be the end of it. "Cartoons are meant to piss you off," says Mr. Leger. "Otherwise they're no good."
But it's Europe where cartooning and Islam really don't mix. In the Netherlands, eight police officers showed up recently to arrest an obscure cartoonist for sketching offensive drawings of Muslims that appeared mainly on his own website. He spent two nights in jail, and Dutch authorities are deciding whether to charge him with inciting racist hatred.
The young cartoonist, who goes by the pen name Gregorius Nekschot, admits that his cartoons are "tasteless." Even so, he says, quoting a Monty Python sketch, "I never expected the Spanish Inquisition." Dutch champions of free speech are up in arms, and even some Muslim groups are dismayed that the government seems to have gone overboard to placate its growing Muslim minority. Meantime, Mr. Nekschot is rightly concerned about his safety. "Ever since [filmmaker] Theo van Gogh got slaughtered there's this sense of fear," he says.
"Most of the professional humorists in Europe apply self-censorship now," says one commentator. You can hardly blame them. They have not only violent extremists to fear, but also - in the Netherlands, at least - their own government.
Three years after the Danish cartoon controversy, it's more evident than ever that satire and Islam are an explosive mix. In the West, blasphemy has a long and robust history. But in the Muslim world it's regarded as intolerable. As one Pakistani diplomat put it recently, "There are certain things that should not be said."
In fact, if the Muslim nations were to have their way, any criticism of Islam would be forbidden. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group of 57 Muslim nations, has declared that Islamophobia is a menace and that any such defamation of religion should be criminalized and prosecuted vigorously. The OIC, which has growing clout at the United Nations, wants the UN to enact international "anti-defamation" rules that would forbid blasphemy. Islamic members of the UN's Human Rights Council have succeeded in changing the mandate of the UN's special rapporteur on freedom of expression. In addition to investigating cases of censorship and violations of free speech, this person will now "report on instances where the abuse of the right of freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination."
Cartoonists, beware. Feel free to offend anyone you want - so long as they're not Muslims.
