Cartoons Revisited

Well, since I wrote a rather lengthy post about the Danish cartoons a week or so ago, I thought i'd follow up a bit with an article I just read on BBC News. This piece first piqued my interest because of Salman Rushdie, a man I've long been interested in for his progressive, although often violently received views on Islam. While he is best known more for the Fatwa declared against him and the ensuing violence than his books, he is also known today for his reformist stance on Islam.

I read about him on BBC back in August as he endorsed the Islamic Reformation (there's also a decent little overview of the precepts of it at wikipedia), and then again in September when he spoke out against the London Bombings. What makes this matter difficult to talk about is that Western culture finds its roots in dialectics, in questioning. I was always taught in school it's ok to ask questions. From Socrates and Plato to Abelard, it's been a common way (I even have an Abelard quote on my facebook) of looking at things. If one doesn't constantly question and re-evaluate, one ceases their search for any sort of tangible truth. I feel it's made western society much more open to that type of process today. While the Reformation in Europe wasn't exactly a bloodless affair (understatement of the week) it functioned, and it gained support because of a human desire for change and discontent with a system of worship, and a way of viewing God regarded by many (including me) as incredibly corrupted. If one were to nail some sort of reform manifesto on a mosque in Iran, they'd be hanged.

What's difficult then for me, is acknowledging my frame of mind and academic background when viewing all that is going on with Islam today. Being at best an Agnostic, I'm skeptical of religion in general, and I grow increasingly skeptical the more conservative and fanatical it gets (this applies to anything from Southern Baptistis to radical Islam). Ultimately, I think that Salman Rushdie's, and others' ideas on reformation hold sway with me because I can connect with them on an intellectual level, these are familiar, western concepts.. Equal rights for women? Of course. I witnessed so much gender discrimination in Morocco it made me sick. The men were in charge, and that was how it worked - it wasn't exactly easy for my mother, a child of the feminist movement, to visit me there.

I was unlucky enough to be browsing through a French magazine in the car to Bruges this weekend when I came across a picture of two men being prepared to be hanged, nooses around their necks. The caption noted that these two men were homosexual, and were being hanged in Iran, as 4000 fellow homosexuals had been since 1979 (the year of the Iranian revolution). The picture was absolutely heartbreaking. In addition to being upset for those poor men, I found myself outraged at the state in general of intolerance, not at all limited to Islam in any way, shape or form. Ultimately, any image I see that negatively impacts me is not representative of Islam, or of Muslims. One can't judge Christianity based on David Koresh or people who picketed the funeral of Matthew Shephard.

What one can look at is some sort of minimum standard of acceptable decency, and that's where I think the Islamic reformation has it right. While I'm not suggesting changing a religion, that's not my place, what I am suggesting is a look inwards. There's so much to look outwards to in the Muslim world these days, everything from Israel to Bush to Denmark (!). There are so many negative unifying forces out there that are blurring the awful problems present in these countries, from rampant unemployment, poor healthcare and sanitation, corrupt governments, and a lack of real suffrage. I talked to so many guys in Morocco that had women that they wanted to marry, but they couldn't even though they were 30 years old because they couldn't find a job. Not because they're lazy, but because there aren't any jobs to have with honestly around 50% unemployment! These are the real problems, not these inflammatory issues. Trust me, getting a Palestinian state isn't going to help unemployment in Libya. Burning a Danish consulate isn't going to allow for free elections in Saudi Arabia, and bombing the US isn't going to remove the rampant and overbloated bureaucratic government patronage systems in any country. I'm not trying to make light of these other issues, I'm only trying to say there needs to be perspective. Get upset, get mad, that's ok. Just get mad about what really matters in your everyday life, not what you've been told to make matter by some newspaper.