The continued re-publication of oftensive cartoons depicl ing the Muslim propnel Mohammed during February provoked protests that left up
The reverberations have thus varied widely. In some countries deep pre-existing sectarian tensions were Inllamed, In olners populal anger at the cartoons has been hijacked by authoritarian states and fundamentalist groups.
Many have praised the relative "restraint" of US and British politicians and media as evidence of a "maturing of attitudes".
But tew states show more
for the global COLLCHIOL Muslim community, having unleashed the mass slaughter on civil liberties.
If humiliation is the game, why play with cartoons when you have tanks and torture?
The true dynamic behind the furore is best understood in mainland Europe where it
It was originated bv a notoriously right wing Danish paper, claiming to "test the limits of free speech", in fact blatantly attempting to provoke already-battered Muslim community.
The widely peddled claim that the ruling elites in these countries have no responsibility for the situation that then developed. given the right to free expression, doesn't hold
There are links with leading politicians (for example the Italian Prime Minister). And it has emerged out of a xenophobic and authoritarian discourse that is common to nearlv all mainstream parties
It is also in mainland Europe that the ruling classes have been least enthusiastic
falling aDOUL Washington's arelessive assertion of global military supremacy.
Germany and France refuse anv direct engagement in Irag or Afghanistan, Spain pulled out, Italy and Poland are following sull inis year and Dutch volvenment Afghanistan Was LICalLY threatened by popular opposition.
This is in an international context of a bitterly contested series of issues linked to the "war on terror", including: a drive to crush the democratically elected Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority; UN condemnation of US torture camps Guantanamo; European outCIA "rendition" lace Cal flights; and never-ending scandals about abuses against Iraqis by the occupation forces.
inen there the Pentagon's ouaorennial Defence Review plan for a "long war" involving multiple-sited, flexible, rapid military interventions across the
against "Islamist extremism.
Bush and his European allies will not easily resolve unese Issues or launco suco a "long war" without a repetition of the failure to create a popular base for the "war on terror" to date.
Whipping up a real "clash of civilisations" (more commonly referred to as "sectarian strife") might be one way to avoid such dangers.
Many Iraqis, for instance, have commented that the spiralling of sectarian violence in their country only benefits the occupiers.
The Islamophobic dynamic of the cartoons has provided timely fuel to drive through such an ideological campaign. The burgeoning racist right behind their dissemination acts as an outrider for the new
It seeks to exploit the liberal-left intelligensia's weak record on Islamophobia, marginalise the Muslim commupul the radicalisation on the defensive and re-organise politics -particularly in the recalcitrant European states.
Many liberal intellectuals have found this a difficult issue. They are terrified of being painted into a corner with "Muslim fanatics", because of the fundamentalist character of many protests and mistakenly adhere to an abstract principle of "free speech" formed during their correct opposition to the campaign agalls! Salman Rushdie's 1989 book The Satanic Verses.
But there are key differences between that case and this one. Rushdie's book was not racist, he was making a critique from within Muslim culture, and his book was not published in the wake of a global war drive in which Muslims are being scapegoated
The anti-war movement and the lett do not have the luxury of consigning this issue to a separate abstract debate while they get on with the important business of opposing war and occupation
The two are inextricably linked. The Muslim community must be defended against this racist attack.
But solidarity will only be possible if mobilisations are based on slogans that unite all communides on ne oroadest basis: against Islamophobia and racism.
A retreat into religious acmanas, or worse sectarlan
Charges concern the violation of laws prohibiting the publication of anything that insults religious feelings.
However reprehensible printing the cartoons may be, unlike the Danish paper, there is no suggestion that these journalists were pursuing Islamophobic goals. Some may have misguidedly sought to "inform", others to test the will of authoritarian regimes generally aligned to the USBritish "war on terror".
Human Rights Watch have called for the dropping of charges, the release of journalists and the unbanning of the papers.
Director Kenneth Roth has rightly stated "we reject the disrespectful and prejudiced attitudes telectea in une cartoons, but gov. ernments are not entitled to imprison journalists simply because their publications are seen as offensive or disrespectful of religion".
A proposed UN resolution by the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference that would ban attacks on religious beliefs should similarly be opposed.
Those in Britain who have backed the (more narrowly defined) proposed criminalisation of the incitement to religious hatred would do well to consider these developments.
Once you accept the state's right to control debate on religion, politics and morality -you risk ine door being opened to the incarceration of innocent journalists and make such actions more difficult to oppose.
This is not the terrain on which to defend the Muslim community - we need mass movements, like that against the war, that fight the government's Islamophobia, isolate the racist right and defend
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socialist www.socialistresistance.net Whilst British and US troops are becoming Special PULL-OUT March 2006
Stop the War Coalition T END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ Organise to get the troops out of Iraq Anti-war protests are being organised across the four corners of the globe in protest at the Neo-Cons game of 'endless war.'
March 18-19 will see the biggest global mobilisation of forces since February 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq. The anti-war movement