Malice or free speech in Danish cartoon debate?

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat ,  Cambridge, Massachussets   |  Sat, 02/16/2008 12:42 PM  |  Headlines

In the opening lines of her book Islam and Democracy, Moroccan writer Fatema Mernissi writes "only if civility has no border would terrorism vanish".

In the present context of global civilizations this requires an understanding of liberal traditions, coupled with an appreciation of the conservative Muslim mind.

The lines of civility are crossed when the extremes of liberal freedoms are abused to propagate vile stereotypes in reprisal of criminal acts by overzealous conservatives.

The Jyllands-Posten newspaper and other Danish publications on Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad which two years stirred ire among Muslims.

They did so as a "demonstration of free speech" a day after Danish security forces uncovered an alleged plot to kill the cartoonist.

Without reserve, condemnation and harsh punishment should be handed to the perpetrators of the plot. Nothing warrants attempted murder.

But the decision to reprint images that are clearly inflammatory in response to the plot does not represent an act of free speech, but malicious retribution born out of anger.

Knowing full well the insult those images -- one of Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a lit fuse -- represent to many Muslims, Danish editors acted not in defense of a deficiency of freedom, but an excess of the wrong kind of free speech.

Self-crucifixion, at somebody else's expense, as they bask in the warmth of the hostile blaze these cartoons have created.

In the strictest sense, the Danish papers were acting within their right of free speech. But press freedom does not liberate common sense against being insensitive or derogatory.

The famous hadith narrator Abu Hurayrah quoted Prophet Muhammad's warning to "be wary of malice, for malice consumes virtues, just as fire consumes fuel".

Profound insight for the pious and agnostic alike.

This absence of malice is the essential core of press freedom, where criticism is a devotion toward public betterment; editorial decisions not a perpetuation of fear, but an attempt to provide the disoriented mass with a course to foster cooperation; satire a social critique, not vilification.

When lampooning the state of Israel, for example, a writer or cartoonist will usually avoid hateful projections of anti-Semitism.

Journalism motivated by malice consumes the idealized virtues of a free press.

Danish editors may have no regard for Muhammad's trepidation toward malice, but they are surely aware of Danish existentialist Soren Kierkegaard who warned that "at the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference".

When Tempo magazine apologized to the Christian community in Indonesia for using Da Vinci's Last Supper to lampoon former president Soeharto and his family, it did so in recognition of an editorial mistake.

Its error was not in the message, but the "canvas" it used to convey that message. Tempo must have no inhibition to reassert that message using a different analogy.

To apologize and then reprint the same "canvas" is a dishonorable act unworthy of the magazine's reputation.

The editor of The Jakarta Post, in a 2006 article during the original outcry over the cartoons, defended Jyllands-Posten's right of free speech, but lamented its editor's bad judgment.

Apparently it was not bad judgment, they were just ignoble. The apologies expressed by the newspaper two years ago were insincere given the reckless decision to republish the cartoon.

Words (in this case a caricature) are powerful weapons. The greatest products of humanity are born of them. But words can also inspire hatred and violence.

That is why even in great democracies like the United States, free speech does not protect statements which incite hatred, illegal actions or provoke violence.

And how should Indonesians react?

This latest episode should not affect relations with the land of Tuborg and Carlsberg. Many Indonesians love Danish beer and Hans Christian Andersen as much as they respect free speech.

Muslims who do feel aggrieved should not, as the Prophet said, let their virtues be consumed by malice.

Express objection in a orderly and intelligent manner. Demonstrate how freedom of speech is exercised in a sober fashion.

But some insults are just not worth responding to, especially when it projects the ignorance of its xenophobic authors. Like hearing a drunk bigot shouting on the curbside, there is no use being provoked by someone so deafening in their stupidity.

The author, a staff writer with The Jakarta Post, is studying at Harvard University as a research fellow with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.

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