Yet There Is Method In It

Liberalism [...] c: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.
Merriam-Webster dictionary

Today has been proclaimed “Draw Mohammed Day”. This is an issue I have followed for a few years. The claim of some Muslims is depictions of humans, and particularly their prophet Mohammed, should be prohibited. This is a particularly reactionary use of “the thin end of the wedge argument”, because apparently depicting humans could lead to idolatry. This attitude highlights an apparent contradiction in liberalism: we try to accommodate cultural differences and yet value free expression. The latter should have priority but there is something to be said about not going out of ones way to insult people. Unfortunately, people who have interpreted Mohammad in art, criticism, education or humour have been criticised, threatened and harassed (by various factions respectively). Remember the infamous protests that followed the cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper? Also, the cartoon show South Park was recently censored because of its “depiction” of Mohammad – the postmodern twist is the character depicted was definitely not Mohammad (but the programme was censored anyway).

When I need some amusement, I look at a certain discussion page on wikipedia for the Mohammad article. The main article includes a few historical artistic depictions. Wikipedia has a strict policy of rejecting censorship (nice work, keep it up!) (at least on good days). There is a seemly endless stream of complaints about the images in the article. After the editors state wikipedia does not censor material, the argument moves to “avoiding insult to millions of Muslims”. The editors point out this is not a valid editorial justification. Their stand is a shining example of free expression. The “draw Mohammed day” is also an example of free expression but one that is going to be more controversial. Pakistan has apparently censored the entire facebook site for hosting information about the event. Because of the vocal protests of some Muslims against depictions, this issue has become about free speech as well as about artistic expression. Because the Muslim protesters chose to politicise this issue, they should not be surprised about a counter protest affirming free expression.

Depictions of Mohammed for artistic, humorous or educational use are very different in style compared to depicting Mohammad as a political statement. In a less emotionally charged situation, people might have been content with relatively tame depictions. But the draw Mohammad day will often use depictions that are deliberately insulting to the Muslim protesters. This is justified because it makes the statement, loud and clear, that depictions on Mohammad, “insulting” or not, are permitted in liberal societies. The point of protests, of course, is to send a message. A tame depiction would not be a protest and probably would have little impact. So the Muslim protests have ironically brought this counter protest upon themselves. Some depictions are made that I would not normally support as part of art or education, but I do support them as a protest for free speech. This includes deliberately insulting people if the point of the protest is “we support free speech, even when it may be insult to some people”, which is the case in today’s protest. The major disadvantage might be to alienate both sides in the dispute. Without mutual understanding, there can be no agreement. But some times we do not want “agreement” when an acceptable alternative is to “agree to disagree”, which is a principle of liberalism. We don’t want to agree that censorship is good. We can agree they can abide by their believes and we to ours. Our beliefs include they don’t have the right to impose restrictions on other people and they don’t have the right not to be offended.

I am offended at people claiming the right not the be offended. To claim “people ought not to be offended” thus results in a logical paradox, therefore it is absurd and is therefore false.

Anti Citizen One

PS. I incidentally include a photo of part of the North Frieze in the US supreme court. I hope you like it. It’s a depiction of Mohammed (and yes, this is technically not a drawing, but it will do). Photo by abde on Flickr.

Update 21st May: The protest received media coverage and a counter protest. Pakistan has indefinitely banned Youtube and Facebook (although it is accessible to tech savvy users), with some protesters calling for the sites to close completely. Having a counter protest against a pro-free speech protest I find repugnant (obviously they have their right to make such a protest). But their disappearance from youtube and facebook (resulting in an Internet traffic reduction of 25% in Pakistan) is, for the majority, no great shame; a culture who can’t handle free speech should stay off the Internet (I am assuming popular support for anti-free speech here). Actually, if I am more constructive, it would be better for them to protest against government censorship, but I don’t expect that any time soon. Fox News provided a characteristically shallow analysis.