Where East Meets West
American Prospect co-editor Robert Kuttner is a voice of reason in a sea of spin. His column in today's Boston Globe, which he writes for frequently, is a perfect example.
Kuttner breaks down the emotional and polarizing controversy over the Danish cartoons to its essential truth:
Did Europe's newspapers have the right to print cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed? Certainly. That's free speech. Was it a wise thing to do? Probably not.
Kuttner reminds us what many in the indignant West appear to have overlooked:
After Hitler, the mainstream press was shamed into dropping anti-Semitic stereotypes. It took another generation, until the civil rights revolution, before Amos 'n' Andy, blackface, and crude racial jokes dissipated. Gays got ridiculed for yet another generation...
Let's face it — Muslims have not been admitted to the community of people whom it's not OK to ridicule.
And for those superior folks on the right who agree with the condescending assessment by New York Times columnist David Brooks — "Our mindset is progressive and rational. Your mindset is pre-Enlightenment and mythological." — Kuttner makes this uncomfortable comparison:
He could have been describing George W. Bush. With his pandering to Biblical literalists and his support for a war on science when science clashes with professed religious faith, Bush is the first pre-Enlightenment US president. Radical Islam may be more crude in its tactics, but one form of religious fundamentalism only foments another.
Maybe we're not so different from our Muslim brothers after all.
Comments
Pre-enlightenment? Hell, George is pre-stone age.
Posted by: Neil Shakespeare | February 11, 2006 12:37 PM
Maybe we're not so different from our Muslim brothers after all.
A scary observation really, but true nonetheless.
Posted by: Kvatch | February 11, 2006 09:12 PM
I reaaly like your approach as well as your way with words. This is exactly the problem with the West. The major problem with Muslim societies is clearly that fundamentamentalism has such legitimacy in large sections of the populace. We shouldn't ever paint religious people with the same brush as we paint the wackos among them.
It's so crazy that fat and sassy pseudo-Christians like so quickly to dismiss such "primitive" behavior, forgetting that the overwhelming historical character of Christianity was violent and exclusionary. Perhaps the example of MLK has convinced people that religious folk in this country were always doing the right thing. But we know the truth. We know that he was almost completely rejected by mainstream religion, particularly on the issue of the unnecessary war in Vietnam.
I feel really sorry for Muslims having to live in Denmark and having to face this sort of dismissive underhanded racism. Of course, Muslims everywhere are forced tofeel like the enemy, thanks to the example set by our fearless leader. It makes me ashamed to be of Danish heritage, although at least I know that the paper that printed these offensive caricatures was a conservative paper.
Posted by: Jeff Richardson | February 12, 2006 11:05 AM
Jeff, 'pseudo-Christian' is an apt term. What impresses me is how people who call themselves Christian don't seem to have a problem bombing women and kids to pieces, or cutting back on services to the poor while cutting taxes for the wealthy. With that kind of hypocrisy, being condescending to Muslims for not being more like us takes no effort whatsoever.
Thanks for the kind words, btw.
Posted by: abi | February 12, 2006 04:46 PM