Gary Trudeau, eat your heart out. Political cartoonists may spend much of their lives in relative obscurity, but this week has vaulted them squarely into the middle of Mr. Huntington’s sometimes elusive, sometimes imminent clash of civilizations. Now a cartoonist lives under the kind of threat that Islamists once reserved for Nobel Laureate Authors.
The last time the Grillmaster commented on riotous Islamists, the issue was alleged police repression in the suburban ghettos of Paris. This time, it is a series of seriously offensive political cartoons that appeared in Danish papers. Doesn’t take much to see that some of the same issues may be involved.
As with the riots in France, these have been sparked by a relatively minor incident. Altogether now class, can we say, ‘redirected anger?’ The same general resentment, lack of opportunity and isolation that fuels Al Quaeda membership and Islamist electoral victories is at play in these riots. Yet another European country has failed to integrate its Islamic population, and in the process has helped to create the hostile environment that has now left its embassies in ashes.
A few preliminary matters that are seemingly self-evident. First, the paper had every right to publish the cartoons. Second, given Denmark’s internal tensions with its Islamic community, such publishing was less than prudential. In fact, it was stupid and intentionally provocative. Third, this doesn’t make it OK to burn down embassies. As appealing as it is to imagine roasting duck over a diplomatic fire, it’s just poor form. Fourth, it is ludicrous for Muslim countries that regularly allow virulently anti-Semitic cartoons to appear in their pages to condemn the European press for this.
Except that in certain situations responsible citizens limit the exercise of their rights in the interest of the common good. And if they don't do so voluntarily, they ought to be strongly encouraged to do so by their government. In Northern Ireland, the situation has been so dire that it took tanks to make that encouragement strong enough in early July. This must be a last resort in free societies, but given the current state of Islamic-European relations a milder form of such restraint is essential. There's no need to shut down papers, but governments should make it clear to national journalists that now is not the time for provocation. Incidentally, yeah, I know this puts me more or less in line with Bush Administration policy. Strage times around the Grill.
