| Controversy
continues: |
| Mohammad
cartoons row resembles dialogue of deaf |
agencies
The
row over caricatures of Islam's Prophet Mohammad
resembles a dialogue of the deaf, with many European
spokesmen defending the right to free speech
and many Muslims insisting Islam must be treated
with respect.
Calls for moderation, both from Muslim leaders
and European politicians, risk getting lost in
a public debate dominated by Europeans afraid
of losing a core right of their culture and Muslims
struggling to win more recognition for theirs.
Centuries of tradition stand behind both viewpoints,
which may account for the virulence of the reactions
aroused by the publication -- first in Denmark,
then across Europe -- of cartoons depicting Mohammad
as a terrorist.
The Europeans can date their long struggle for
free speech to the 18th century Enlightenment
and consider the liberty to criticize all authority
a cornerstone of modern democracy.
Muslims look back on centuries of Western hostility
toward, and misunderstanding of, their religion
and say the time is ripe -- with the higher profile
for Muslims in the Middle East and Europe --
for Western countries to treat them as equals.
Egypt's ambassador in Copenhagen, Mona Omar Attia,
highlighted the stalemate in comments after she
heard Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen
say his government could not apologize for anything
that Danish newspapers had printed.
"
This means that the whole story will continue
and that we are back to square one again. The
government of Denmark has to do something to
appease the Muslim world," she said.
In separate statements, the French and German
interior ministers defended their traditions
against Muslim taboos.
"
Why should the government apologize for something
that happened in the exercise of press freedom?" Germany's
Wolfgang Schaueble asked. "If the state
intervenes, that is the first step toward limiting
press freedom."
In Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy said: "Given the
choice, I prefer too many caricatures to too
much censorship."
RESPECT
The word "respect" repeatedly pops
up in Muslim comments, revealing how much the
cartoons linking Mohammad and terrorism hurt
the feelings of people who feel humiliated by
the West.
Mohamed Mestiri, head of the International
Institute of Islamic Thought in Paris, said
respect was
the main issue for Muslims outraged by the
images they consider blasphemous.
"
It's all about creating a culture of respect,
of wanting to live together under the roof of
a plural citizenry," he said.
The head of France's Muslim Council saw the
cartoons as the latest in a history of Western
affronts
to Muslims who only in recent years have
mustered enough political clout to fight
back.
"
Yesterday, the world's Muslims were unable to
react to critics who for centuries constantly
dumped truckloads of slander on their religion,
sacred books and Prophet," said Dalil Boubakeur,
rector of the Paris Grand Mosque.
While insisting European Muslims accept
the separation of church and state, Mestiri
warned
against assuming
Islam would ever tolerate criticism of
what it held most sacred. "One must not judge Islam
by the standards of Christian culture," he
said.
EXCEPTION FOR JEWS?
Muslim spokesmen resent the way non-Muslims
argue they cannot dilute press freedoms
just for one
religion but make an exception for Jews.
"
Why do they say that Muslims have no right to
condemn the publishing of those cartoons, when
they fight tooth and nail against those who even
talk negatively about the Holocaust?" asked
Sheikh Hussain Halawa, secretary general of the
European Council for Fatwa and Research.
These arguments seemed to have little
influence at Liberation, the Paris daily
that joined
the European media's solidarity wave
on Friday and
reprinted two Danish cartoons.
It called the Danish caricatures "The Satanic
Drawings," referring to "The Satanic
Verses" whose criticism of Islam earned
British author Salman Rushdie death threats in
1989.
"
Rushdie's novel would be almost impossible to
publish today," it wrote.
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| A
move against President Hugo Chavez: |
| US expels
Venezuelan diplomat in tit-for-tat move |
agencies
The
United States expelled a senior Venezuelan diplomat
on Friday in a swift tit-for-tat move against
President Hugo Chavez, who has an increasingly
antagonistic relationship with the superpower.
The United States targeted for expulsion Jeny
Figueredo, describing her as the ambassador's
chief-of-staff, after Caracas did the same to
a U.S. Embassy naval attache the day before.
"
We don't like to do tit-for-tat but the Venezuelans
initiated it," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack told reporters.
While Figueredo, whose title is minister-counselor,
had little contact with U.S. government officials,
she was key to the running of the embassy
in Washington, overseeing most personnel
issues
and providing constant advice to the ambassador.
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