Posted by
Jochen Fromm-3 on
Feb 23, 2006; 5:06pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Washington-Post-Why-I-Published-Those-Cartoons-tp521421.html
Perhaps we underestimate the strong influence of the media sometimes?
Consider for example the case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, I recently
spoke with someone from Russia who was very sure that Khodorkovsky
was a severe criminal and definitely deserves being in jail. I am not
so sure. Here in Western Europe it is a widespread opinion that
Khodorkovsky's prosecution is related to his political ambitions. In
Russia, the public opinion is a bit different, because the coverage
of the media is different. The corresponding Wikipedia article is
disputed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_KhodorkovskyThe war in Chechnya is a similar topic, the Russian government blamed
Chechen terrorists for it, and many Russians indeed believe that
Chechnya is full of terrorists, and that the wars against Chechnya
are completely justified. The public opinion is very strongly
influenced by the media. I wonder if they have ever shown pictures
of the holocaust or films like Schindler's List in the Arab media?
The problems with religions is that they are all nearly 2000 years
old. They distort your point of view just as good as the modern
mass media. No religion allows the criticism of sacred symbols,
because it would endanger the integrity of the group, and religions
are like gods fundamentally related to social groups (in ancient
Egypt for example every city was the city of a certain god, the
temple was the house of the god and at the same time the center
of the city). An additional problem in many muslim states is that
there is no clear distinction between state, politics and religion,
the Sharia for example covers both secular and religious life.
A "religious" cartoon is therefore automatically a political issue.
It is thought-provoking that the protests now are much stronger
than the protests against the ongoing war (against what?) of America's
Rancher-In-Chief who obviously lied about the true causes. I also
wonder why there are nearly no protests against the camp in
Guantanamo Bay, which is much worse than any cartoon.
-J.
-----Original Message-----
From:
[hidden email] [mailto:
[hidden email]] On Behalf
Of Mohammed El-Beltagy
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006 3:38 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Washington Post: Why I Published Those Cartoons
Here is my perspective from Egypt. There are a couple of crucial points
that I noticed that have been missing in news reporting that you are getting
in the US that might shed some light on the what the fuss is all about and
why the Muslims are reacting the way they do (the protesting, boycott and
the anger.) :
1. The nature of religious life in the Muslim world
2. The distinction between satirizing Muslims and revered symbols of their
faith
[...]