If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I suppose a cartoon is worth, well, some violent demonstrations, multilateral trade blockades and a burned embassy. Or maybe it's worth a condemnation, signed by the Joint Chiefs.
For southwest Asia, a region plagued by high illiteracy rates, and for the United States, a nation whose citizens elect a president who admits he doesn't read the newspaper, I suppose it makes sense that the most controversial items in recent periodicals have come in cartoon form. Talk about parallel universes.
The latest riots in the Middle East and Asia were not over those regions' plutocratic dictators, religious zealots, or the terrorists who embarrassingly kill in the name of Allah. Those problems take second place to Danish cartoons. And for the first time in a long time, the Pentagon spoke up indignantly about the poor treatment of US troops - though not to Secretary Rumsfeld, but to Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles.
Let me explain.
Since September of last year, the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten has been running a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in various satirical poses. Most famously, Muhammad was shown with a turban in the shape of a bomb, complete with fuse. But according to Islam, you should never draw or paint a picture of the holy prophet, because it could lead to idolatry. And God forbid someone distort Islam in such a way.
Back here in the much more stoic and reasonable United States, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Tom Toles ran a political cartoon depicting "Dr. Rumsfeld" examining a severely wounded US soldier, classifying the soldier's condition as simply "battle hardened," a term used by Mr. Rumsfeld in a speech earlier this year.
The nation's top military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed an affidavit condemning the cartoon, calling it "a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defend this nation and as a result have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds." But the Joint Chiefs were quick to add that the Post is "free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of today's armed forces."
Then came the riots. FOX News, CNN, MSNBC and their ilk all weighed in on the insult to our troops. The commentators had their new rallying cry to galvanize the nation; ratings won't spike like this until they find Natalee Holloway. Of course, among all the chatter, the news organizations were somehow unable to address the charges that were actually made in the cartoon: that US troops were being absurdly neglected in the Iraq conflict and that the Mr. Rumsfeld was the chief culprit.
There was little mention of the additional armored humvees that Mr. Rumsfeld failed to order, despite the manufacturer's ability to build them. There was little mention of the forced retirement of Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki after he argued for a larger initial troop presence in Iraq. As is becoming a theme in Washington, more attention is given to the image than the content. Mission Accomplished!
Thousands of miles away, Muslims were so enraged that Danish media had depicted them as religious crazies who like to blow stuff up that they decided to take it to the streets, praise Allah and blow stuff up. In Iran, protestors attacked both the Danish and Norwegian embassies, throwing stones and petrol bombs at the buildings. In the Faryab province of Afghanistan, three protesters were killed and 22 injured as rioters attacked NATO reconstruction forces. Afghanistan's Council of Clerics was insightful enough to request that the Danish government investigate the cartoons and see that they do not reappear. It's always nice to get a lesson or two in civil governance from Afghanistan.
An Iranian newspaper called Hamshahri responded to the Danish caricatures by starting a contest for the best cartoon depicting the Holocaust. This comes after recent remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Holocaust was a "myth" and that Israel should be "wiped off the map." Iran is also seeking to potentially ban Danish imports as punishment for the cartoons, breaking its trade agreements with the European Union.
In even dichotomous societies, vitriolic ideas - as cartoons, columns, paintings, or anything - can result in protest and anger. But in the United States, no one is throwing petrol bombs at the Washington Post building; there is no massive boycott of the paper. When Andres Serrano's piece "Piss Christ," in which a crucifix is pictured in a jar of urine, appeared in an exhibit in the 1980's, it was certainly met with harsh controversy, but Senator Jesse Helms didn't call for the artist's head. When Salman Rushdie wrote his "Satanic Verses," Ayatollah Khomeini did.
I think every major paper in the US and Europe should print the Danish cartoons, everyday. Let Europe wake up to the reality of the situation in the Muslim world, and let Islam hit rock bottom, so it can finally start to look at itself for what it has commonly become.
