An image of Muhammad on sale in an Iranian souk. Clearly not all Muslims are offended by images of Muhammad.
Today was Draw Muhammad Day. A day organized in response to the censoring of a South Park episode that included Muhammad along with several other religious figures and of course Santa Claus. Comedy Central censored the episode because a Muslim radical living in the US made vague threats against the creators of South Park should the episode air.
While the Seattle cartoonist who first suggested the idea of a “draw Muhammad day” protest eventually withdrew support for it after receiving “negative” feedback from the Muslim community, free speech advocates, including the Center for Inquiry decided to push forward with the idea anyway. The idea behind Draw Muhammad Day was simple. Free Speech activists weren’t going to let the threat of violence silence them anymore.
It is well known that a segment of the Muslim world has been resorting to violence and threats of violence for several years now to silence critics of Islam. And this history of violence has frightened companies, governments and individuals into self-censorship. Even free speech advocates in America rarely speak out plainly against this particularly insidious form of mob rule. It would seem that a day to collectively say “we will censor ourselves no more” would be a good way to push back against the horrid idea that it is ok to resort to violence anytime you are offended by something.
Unfortunately, this was a bit of a non-event. Most of the planned protest took place on the Internet and if you weren’t specifically looking for it, you would have missed it. The local chapter of the Atheists of Florida did not participate though one of their members did post a cartoon of Muhammad as her profile picture on Facebook. She took it down early because she was “sick of looking at this cartoon!”
Members of the Humanist community expressed mixed feelings over the event. Most notably Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard posted at article at CNN about the event, basically saying that while he agrees with the free speech issue, he felt that there were better, less offensive ways to get that point across. Members of the local Humanist community that I spoke to agreed.
C____ of Tampa (name withheld) said that her boyfriend participated online by posting a cartoon and while on the one hand she agreed with him on the other she didn’t. What she does agree with is the motivation to protest what happened with South Park. She said, “A small part of that [Muslim] community was demanding we cater to their beliefs and censor the episode, and in so censoring our free speech. I've seen the episode it's hilarious. But I think they missed its point of making fun of the ridiculousness of what we censor and what we don't.” Her boyfriend V____ (name also withheld) said the reason he participated was “to show extremists of all creeds that people will not sit down while they use threats and violence to rob us of our liberties.”
While free speech advocates on college campuses across the country participated by drawing chalk stick figures of Muhammad on the sidewalks, this did not occur at USF in Tampa. Rodrick Colbert who is a Humanist, human rights advocate and an educational consultant at USF said, “It is no something that we encouraged here. We try to keep an open dialogue with the Muslim students.”
So there it is. Free speech advocates agree completely with the need to fight back against the violence that is silencing free speech, but very few were willing to say or do anything that might actually offend the people who are resorting to violence.
The fact that so many free speech advocates around the country feel the need to qualify and hedge their concerns about this issue is worrisome. If you have any doubt that this really is about free speech, consider the following. Pakistan literally banned Facebook today to prevent Pakistanis from being exposed to images of the Prophet while online as a result of “draw Muhammad day” protest. This ban affected not only individuals who didn’t want to see the images, but also those that did. There are over 45 million Facebook users in Pakistan affected by this blanket ban. They also temporarily banned YouTube because of some unspecified “blasphemous” footage. YouTube has apparently taken the footage down but the site is still unavailable in Pakistan.
While almost everyone is sympathetic to Muslims who find images of Muhammad offensive, it is important to remember that many Pakistani have rightly voiced concerns over placing blanket bans on the Internet as a response to such imagery. Most Pakistani’s, even though they are offended, realize that the correct response is to just ignore it if you don’t want to look at it. Yet, the angry mobs rioting in Pakistan over Draw Muhammad Day literally caused the government of Pakistan to bar everyone in the country from viewing not just images of Muhammad, but other less controversial information as well. And that is the problem.
Comments
"While almost everyone is sympathetic to Muslims who find images of Muhammad offensive"
I seriously doubt that. I, for one, am not sympathetic in the least, of course I have a long history of being unsympathetic to violent religions that attempt to enforce their versions of blasphemy on all humanity.
I imagine people are scared, that is a logical reaction. but sympathetic to what amounts to a brazen demand that free speech be abbrogated for the demands of one religion under threat of hatred, terror and violence? somehow I don't see that eliciting much in the way of sympathy.
I think that is Ali, not Muhammad!
I totally agree with you, Jacko. What do you in private is your buisness and whilst people should repsect that (meaning, obviously, htat Muslims are free to avoid hanging pictures of the prophet in their houses and no one has a right to force them to do so), there should be absolutely no respect for the curtailment of free speech, just because certain people take it upon themselves to be offended. Free speech is a corner stone of western society and any Muslim who can't repsect (see what I did there?) that should, frankly, shove off...
I'm not religious but I would like to share my comment regarding this issue.
I'm from Iran, the picture in the article is not Mohammad's. That is either Imam Hussein or Imam Ali.
I have never seen any picture of Mohammad in my life being sold, drawn or printed.
Honestly, I just don't get why some westerns like to mess up with these delicate matters. They are free to talk about anything, why do they choose Mohammad every now and then?
If they (comedians, artists or freedom speakers) don't have anything to protect as their faith, that's not Muslims fault.
I strongly believe this is just a struggle to destroy what others believe in.
I think all of you are bigots and your mom's a whore.
Doesn't this fall under freedom of speech?
@Jennifer Hancock: Your week arguments in the article are apparent when you indicated depiction of Muhammed S.A.W in Iran.
I live in Pakistan and I with whole Pakistan's nation support the ban against blasphemy.
Your so-called Freedom of speech is really Freedom to annoy us.
I am not sympathetic at all to Muslims that want me to follow their belief system. I know the Muslim president of the United States is though. And I watched the democrats give a standing ovation to the president of Mexico as he put down one of the United States. America is in big trouble, and we had better vote all the progressive bastards out in November or we are going down.
{[:-O> <-Muhammad
Muhammad's real name is Cassius Clay and he is the greatest!
IT's a sham to what we have come to in this day, and age. What would happen if you disrespected the Jewish faith, would you have the same passion to keep this up after being told by the Jewish community to stop? Just think where this is going before you assume things.
There were over 11,000 pictures of mohammed posted on one of the Facebook pages last night. It looks like the page got taken down now.
Muslims might want to ask themselves "why" people have so much hostility to their religion. Maybe it has to do with the fact that moderate muslims don't really speak out against the extremists who try to intimidate people and cut off cartoonist's heads. It makes them all seem like blood-thirsty savages.
I'm tired of this desert cult pushing its religious views through violence. Comedy Central censored an episode of South Park because of implied death threats. No one's forcing them to watch this stuff so why don't they leave everyone else alone.
I couldn't care less about how religious people feel about their faith. Worship how and what you want to worship just leave me out of it. If I want to talk about how ridiculous Catholicism is or how the white-skinned-dirty-blond-haired-Jesus picture that hung on a wall of the church I used to go to is ridiculous beyond words or if I say that every time someone praises Allah before blowing up innocent women and children I want to burn a Koran then... well... that’s my right to. I won’t stop you from doing your thing so don’t try to stop me. Why would a Muslim care what a non-Muslim thinks of their religion anyway? I don’t know anything about it… I don’t even know if Muhammad was a man or a bearded woman and if Muhammad was a bearded woman than Muslims have no right to expect people to take them seriously. Lighten up, it's 2010... time to evolve
Interesting perspective. I, too, have written about this issue from a Muslim perspective in my Portland Muslim Examienr column. I respect your opinion and agree that everyone has the right to freedom of speech, and I also agree that all calls to violence or banning Facebook are unwarranted. But I do question the merit of abusing this freedom of speech. I welcome your thoughts about my article.
Portland Muslim Examiner
Jennifer,
I'm Iranian. That picture is not the Prophet. It's either Imam Ali or Imam Hussein, both men are revered in Shia Islam like saints in Catholicism. I have never seen any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad in Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East. I suggest you do your research next time.
I believe that we, as Americans, are obligated to uphold free speech. That is why I welcome intelligent and relevant criticism of Islam. I even think the whole South Park debacle was nonsense - that television show should have every right to broadcast what it wants so long as it would not be classified as hate speech by American legal standards.
But Draw Mohammad Day is not free speech, it's hate speech because its sole purpose is to anger and offend.
@ Elham I am glad you are among the rational non-violent Muslims. But there are three things you need to know. 1) This wasn't hate speech. In order for it to be hate speech it would have had to said something bad about Muslims as a group, not just insult them by doing something they consider blasphemous. 2) hate speech is free speech. You can't get one without the other. Might be distasteful, but there you go. Hate speech isn't illegal unless it incites people to violence - which this didn't. No one wh drew Muhammad said that Muslims should be killed. Muslims on the other hand did respond with incitements to violence. Not all, but some. If anyone said anything illegal as a result of this day it was violent muslims not the people who offended them. 3) Finally, unfortunately, yes, this did have to anger and offend, otherwise it wouldn't be effective. See my commentary at sumogirl dot com for more details - and yes - I would like your input on that.
I'm so confused. How does anyone know what he looks like? I mean, that was like over a thousand years ago. Just like the Buddha, I'm sure Muhammad managed to avoid sitting down for a painting or standing still for a statue. So it doesn't matter what image you put it up and slap the appellation "Muhammad" under, it ain't the prophet.
I used to work with a man named Muhammad. Everyone called him Mo. On his driver's license, however, it had his picture on it and the name "Muhammad". Was that blasphemy to the Islamic faith? Mo was pretty proud of his name and his faith, so he certainly didn't think so.
The people who are getting really worked up about this issue are not thinking this through. All the Islamics had to do was keep anyone from making images and statues for a hundred years until everyone who know what the prophet looked like died. Easily done, and so I'm puzzled about the issue.
Maybe someone can explain this.
There should be no question or debate on the issue of free speech here in the US. Its the law. Its more of an issue of letting the terror groups instill fear in American citizens. That is illegal, and a national security threat. What then, shall we not face them off, as we have in the past, those that have tried to tarnish what we hold dear, freedom? Stop being silent and meet them with courage, and valor. Also, the term terrorist should not be heard of anymore as it implies that America is afraid.The term "enemy of the USA" is a much better label. They have not instilled fear in our country but rather anger and resolve. Like waking up a sleeping giant the agressors are blind to what they are doing. Where are you "moderate muslim?" Now is the time for you to rise to the occasion of freedom and pride in the country that allows you the freedom to practice your religion. Stand up to the radical muslims and show Americans how thankful you are.
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