February 09, 2006
Mohammed, Cartoons, and "the Brutal Enlightenment"
I put my blogtrolling for the ROS post on hold for a few hours to go to class on Tuesday. The class is Gordon Wood's senior historiography seminar, The Practice of History. Great class.
At one point in the discussion, we're talking narrative is the only way to write history well because it's analogue to our own experience of time, we're talking sociologists look at human behavior to try to track predictable, applicable events, historians look at events as unique, not extrapolations of rules we're asking is history an autonomous discipline?
As a kid who likes her historiographical theory wrapped around her history like prosciutto on sausage, I eat this stuff up.
Then at one point, Prof. Wood offers an opinion: The reason there's been so much outrage among Muslim populations over the Danish cartoons is that Muslim populations never experienced the Enlightenment.
Sounds like a huge value judgment, I know. Furtive glances over the seminar table said I wasn't the only one unsettled. But I bit my tongue and heard him out, under the banner of "productive discomfort."
The religious wars of the 17th century-- WWII lasted four years. The Thirty Years' War was thirty years of the most brutal combat any of them could imagine at that time. The Catholics and the Protestants slugging it out with every weapon they had, killing each other with the greatest ferocity they could muster. But they learned from it. There was a softening of the passions. Religion lost its bite. The West is full of secular humanists now.I don't think these Muslims have gone through that. They didn't experience the brutal Enlightement.
My first objections: But clearly there are still religious battles being fought in "the West." Homophobia and abortion debates in the U.S. are always shadowed by religious doctrine.
GWood's response:
Well, the original U.S. colonists never went through the Enlightenment either. The Puritans escaped it, and when religious dissenters cropped up in the colonies they were just sent off to Rhode Island.
We went back and forth for a while, he says religious toleration came from the Enlightenment, i say that's what the protestors were demanding from the Euro newspapers, that's what it said on the signs they carried; he says: they just know what will strike a chord with Western audiences, I say Well, it worked.
Posted by Greta Pemberton at 01:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Islam, Cartoons ...and New Zealand?
Muslims all around the world are pissed. Pissed at those people who are publishing irrelevent pictures of our prophet, Muhammad (peace be upon him). These people, who are ignorant and pathetic include Kiwis here as well....NZ is the latest country who will publish these pictures after many weeks of silence, pathetic losers. I'm going to loathe Kiwis even more and would pick a fight with anyone who calls me a terrorist or mocks my religion. Anyway, I was PROUD to be amongst the many muslims protesting down Queen Street here in Auckland City today.Asad, Protest X-Rated
I hope you understand that I am not the type of person who accepts violence in order to get a message across, such as the burning buildings etc. This is why I joined the Auckland protests as they were peaceful.Asad Khalid Naseem, from an email to Open Source on 2/7/06
Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, the U.S., Iceland, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Poland.
Oh, and now New Zealand.
War-on-Terror hawks might say New Zealand dropped us as soon as things got rough (they officially opposed military action in Iraq); then again, New Zealanders might say they supported us when they thought our actions fair (i.e. in Afghanistan).
Regardless, it may seem out of character that three NZ newspapers, The Dominion Post, The Nelson Mail, and The Press printed the Danish cartoons as a free-speech protest. In separate statements, editors of all three newspapers defended New Zealand's right to know "what all the fuss was about," and defended their duty to "keep readers fully informed". Only the editor of The Dominion Post has claimed solidarity with the European newspapers that ran the cartoons last week.
Not all of New Zealand agreed.
The simple fact here is that, freedom of speech is not absolute in Europe, there is precedence where it is restricted. So in that sense, these European countries do not have the same values as New Zealand (as far as I know denying Holocaust or any other type of speech does not get you prison time in NZ). Publishing cartoons that insult members of a major religion does more harm to the precious freedom of speech than good.Berkay Mollamustafaoglu, "Your say: Mohammed cartoons," The Dominion Post, February 7, 2006
As an expat Kiwi, I was proud of our small country's ideals and sensible culture that embraced diversity, and which was so highly thought of overseas. I question the wisdom of a NZ newspaper which follows the lead of a Europe that is often filled with racism, led by greater powers, and breeds division. Respect, and tolerance for one another's differences is the essence of peace. Publishing the cartoons was not a lesson in freedom of the press, but a tactic for selling more newspapers to the detriment of our wonderful country's reputation and the backlash it will most likely cause to our exports. My head hangs in shame.Yvonne Xygalas, "Your say: Mohammed cartoons," The Dominion Post, February 7, 2006
Though local Islamic leaders are preaching peace, NZ student blogger Asad Khalid Naseem -- quoted above -- was one of at least 700 protestors in Auckland who marched on Sunday. Asad is a member of a small but growing population of Pakistani and Indian expats who have been settling in New Zealand since the 1970s. Recent numbers estimate the Muslim population in New Zealand at close to 6,000. One in eight marched in Auckland.
Posted by Greta Pemberton at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack