Stallman’s position on Danish cartoons
I was reading the Stallman’s 2006 political notes, and I noticed that Danish cartoons took a good part of his articles, certainly subjective, as he is a defender of Freedom of Speech. Here are the most important articles that deal with the event.
04 February 2006 (Power to censor criticism)
After a Danish newspaper printed a cartoons making fun of Islam and Mohammed, Muslims around the world began making threats, demanding the power to censor criticism of their religion world-wide. They also began boycotting Danish companies, and the newspaper shamefully apologized. But other papers around the world have reprinted the cartoons in defense of freedom of the press.
I have not seen the cartoons; I don’t know what I would think of them as statements, but I doubt they are much harsher than my cartoons about Bush. In any case, whether I agree with these cartoons is a side issue. Muslims persistently demand to bully into silence anyone who would criticize them. (Remember the assassination orders against Salman Rushdie?) The rest of the world should resolutely show that they have no such power.
I am an ACLU member, and I defend the right of even Nazis and neo-cons to express their pernicious views. Believers in Islam, and critics of Islam, also have right to express their views. Nobody, not Mohammed, not even Bush, has the right not to be mocked.
09 February 2006 (Punish whoever mocks their religion)
Crazed Islamist protestors took over parts of Beirut. They seem to believe that it is legitimate to punish not only whoever would mock their religion, but any handy substitute.
It is ironic to see Muslims rioting and killing people because someone had the impudence to accuse Islam of being a violent religion. Of course, not all Muslims are doing this; Islam does not automatically make all its believers violent. But it can’t be denied that an attitude that encourages violence is one aspect of Islam. This attitude can manifest itself in situations where it is justified, as in the Iraqi resistance, and in situations where it is unjustified, as in the attacks on Danes and French.
Some suggest that newspaper editors should “learn how to live in a multicultural world” by not publishing anything that might offend some group of touchy people that might fly off the handle. I respond that it is Muslims that need to learn how to live in a multicultural world, by learning to respond to words with words, not with fists or guns. Some wiser Muslims understand that violence in response to words does “more damage to the name of the Prophet…than the cartoons.” The rest must listen to them.
During my career of fighting for free software, my work has been called “Communist” and a “cancer”; once I was called a “mad imam”. Despite all these insults, I never once threatened to kill or injure the people who insulted me–nor even to sue them. People have a right to insult me and my views–or you, or your views–or Muhammad and his views–or anyone and any views.
An Iranian newspaper has started a Holocaust cartoon contest as a response to the cartoons about Islam.
There is something not quite appropriate about this response; in effect they are saying, “Since you said something nasty about us, we will say something nasty about someone else.” It would be more appropriate as a response to run a contest for cartoons to insult a certain newspaper editor.
It is also redundant: antisemitic books are already prominently displayed in the bookstores of some Muslim countries, and I’d guess that includes Iran.
However, this is a big step up from violence. At least this newspaper has recognize that the proper response to insulting words is verbal.
11 February 2006 (Cartoons)
The same Danish newspaper that published cartoons about Muhammad rejected cartoons about Jesus.
It could be true that the paper has double standards for Islam and Christianity. If so, that is to their discredit. However, newspapers should be free to publish both kinds of cartoons.
Perhaps some newspaper in Iran would like to publish the previously rejected cartoons about Jesus. If any Christians are offended, it would teach the world a good lesson that freedom of speech cuts all ways.
14 February 2006 (Not to be so independent after all)
An “editorially independent” student newspaper in the UK turns out not to be so independent after all. Its editor and other staff were “suspended from the paper” after they included one of the notorious cartoons criticizing Islam in an article discussing the resulting controversy.
14 February 2006 (Leaders of Muslim countries planned and organized the protests)
A meeting of leaders of Muslim countries planned and organized the protests against the anti-Islamic cartoons.
There is nothing wrong with defaming a religion–it is just a belief that some people believe. No belief is beyond possible criticism or attack.
16 February 2006 (Muslims Angry at War on Terror, Not Cartoons)
Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi says, more or less, ‘Muslims Angry at War on Terror, Not Cartoons’.
I think a more precise statement is that they are venting at the cartoons (and anyone even remotely and unintentionally associated with them) the anger that was aroused by torture, mass murder, and cruel military occupation. It is good to point this out to angry Muslims, because anger at those acts of violence is perfectly justified. The only mistake they are making is in displacing the anger into the wrong target.
It is not always easy to find a way to channel the anger aroused by the Bush regime’s violence into effective and appropriate action. Many Muslim countries are ruled by dictators backed by the US; those few which are democracies are mostly hogtied by the US and the WTO, and disregard their own people on most issues. But that difficult task is essential to ending Bush’s violence. Picking on a weak cartoonist or his countrymen will not do any good for anyone.
Although these statements by the prime minister are fairly wise, Malaysia needs to improve in regard to religious toleration. Muslims in Malaysia are legally forbidden to stop being Muslims.
28 February 2006 (Violence over cartoons)
Mobs of Muslims in Nigeria demonstrated how peaceful their religion is by killing Nigerian Christians, venting their anger over the cartoons that suggested their religion was violent. That was in the Muslim-dominated north. Christians in the south retaliated by killing other Muslims, thus demonstrating how their religion teaches them to “love your enemies”.
