J201 Intro to mass communication Lecture Cartoon riots Protest in Afghanistan Malaysia Lebanon Indonesia These protests images of protests and the cartoons which spawned them are meaningless outside of social context Danish and European Union society Wider Muslim Arab and Middle Eastern society these three are not all the same US society and US influence over the globe Some terms to start with pluralist society secular state religious fundamentalism freedom of speech self censorship the Prophet Mohammed 1 Danish and EU society How the cartoons came to be commissioned and printed Started with a Danish children s book Right wing Jyllands Posten Jutland s Post and Flemming Rose commission Danish cartoonists September 2005 W e are on our way to a slippery slope where no one can tell how the selfcensorship will end NB Two years before cartoons lampooning Christianity were denied publication in the paper The message Descriptions of the cartoons One central cartoon surrounded by 11 smaller ones on a full page Two don t show Mohammed at all Several feature cartoonists as characters Most notorious in estimation of Western media a very angry looking Mohammed his turban in the shape of a bomb with a lit fuse No I am not showing the cartoons here more on that later The context in which this message was received Denmark Danish backlash against Arab and Muslim immigrants racially motivated crime in Denmark doubled right wing Danish People s Party holds 13 of seats yet are most Danish Muslims even organized members of political or religious groups The context in which this message was received the European Union French restriction on Arab immigration 1 6 million Muslims in Great Britain voters EU question over admitting Muslim Turkey EU freedom of speech laws date to the Holocaust First protest was moderate and legal and within Danish society demonstrators picketed 11 Arab and Muslim ambassadors were withdrawn Danish Prime Minister refused to intervene a peaceful boycott of Danish exports to Middle East lawsuit brought under Danish free speech law What was the source of the protest No one denies that Islamic teachings forbid visual depictions of Mohammed and Moses Jesus Conservatives responded to fact of image itself Moderates responded to stereotypical and racist portrayal of Arabs Muslims and Middle Easterners Cartoons were understood in context as intentionally inflammatory 2 Wider Muslim Arab and MiddleEastern society A strategic communication campaign to use the cartoons to incite protest When published in Egypt in October the cartoons received condemnation but did not incite violence Certain Islamic religious leaders compiled cartoons into a dossier and promoted it on the road Dossier contained three cartoons not printed Deflected attention away from failings of Arab states The context from the point of view of Arabs Muslims and the Middle East US led somewhat EU supported invasion of Iraq with tens of thousands of civilian deaths seen as an oil grab Torture and illegal detention apparently condoned by US Israeli construction of a separation wall in Palestine When Islamic parties win democratic elections they are denounced by the West US rhetoric fight them over there they hate freedom Their own states control media so they assume media in other states are tools of those states as well Campaign context Violent protest across the globe Danish and Norwegian embassies burned Flag burning protests in Afghanistan Bahrain Bosnia Gaza Iraq Kashmir Lebanon Nigeria Syria no single state or region Iranian call for cartoons ridiculing Holocaust Latest Pakistan a US ally where Pizza Huts are targeted clearly about more than cartoons 3 US media context US narrative is a much simpler story of clash of civilizations 1979 Iranian hostage crisis Reagan seen as tough early 1990s Gulf War and first WTC bombing September 11 2001 and Osama bin Laden Military operations in Afghanistan Iraq Global War on Terror Madrid London bombings Democracy capitalism free speech and cultural pluralism vs evil and hate Official US government response public diplomacy Mild assertion that we value freedom of the press But Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable Both Bush and Blair Argued that the violent protest was state backed such as in Syria Private US media response Extensive reports on the violence and images Most broadcast and print outlets decided not to publish the actual cartoons unlike EU press Some large dailies published only one cartoon including Philadelphia Inquirer The college press Illinois first then Wisconsin But can still easily find them on the Internet So what do we make of all this Doesn t the West have limits on supportable speech as well praising Hitler or denying the Holocaust praising slavery or advocating White Supremacy pornography the question of whether we support the right for some to speak is separate from the question of whether we reproduce that speech ourselves Why might a private media organization publish such cartoons to open and contextualize a debate on freedom of speech religious tolerance or the fear of terrorism to attack and degrade Islam Muslims or Arabs to provoke a protest and showcase the results to gain noteriety as an edgy and risky media product to give the audience what it wants what is the Free Marketplace of Ideas here How have Islam Muslims Arabs and Middle Easterners been portrayed in the media as a result of the protests as hostile to free speech as religious fundamentalists as hypocritical anti Semites and anti Westerns as violent mobs and murderers as easily duped by propaganda and charisma as victimized and proud minorities How have Europe US and the West been portrayed in the media as liberal and tolerant of speech as secular or pluralist with respect to religion as predominantly or even overtly Judeo Christian as fearful prejudiced or racist as hypocritical themselves Some voices to illustrate the debate You re wimping out Professor Downey Show us the cartoons already you can find them on the Internet I did the cartoons are meaningless outside of the social political military and economic context in which they are produced circulated and consumed Muslim and Arab students in our class our university and our state are a distinct minority in both numbers and power and deserve our respect I would support another professor s decision to show the cartoons to a class provided that professor could articulate a reason for doing so
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