Chronicles of a Wandering Mind

I’m about to head out to the train station to go to Basel to watch the Turkey - Germany semi final match. Having had the fortune to watch the Czech game in Geneva, I’m excited that I’ll be in the match regardless of the outcome.  I’ll also be meeting with two friends from University which adds to the fun!

Football is dominating the agenda in Turkey these days, which would be fine, if only really important issues were not overshadowed. Never mind judicial coup attempt that threatens the country’s future, never mind military abandoning its principle to meddle into politics and risk damaging its credibility irreversibly.

I hope we win tonight, but there are other areas where we should compete.

(refers to the deaths in Tuzla dockyards)

The power of the web never ceases to amaze me, both from positive and negative perspectives. Positive due to the incredible amount of concrete information on any subject, if you care to look for it, and negative due to the fact that this wealth of information does not seem to make people look into the facts before making judgements. The urge to blog/write a comment is too strong, and much easier than attempting to substantiate the thoughts with research (including the author of this blog).
There has been massive amount of activity in the blogosphere about the Danish cartoon controvery. I found that it consumed my thoughts as well. Many people take offense to the fact that muslims take offense to the cartoons and state the “freedom of speech” flag. Yet from my research so far, neither laws nor the application of the laws and social culture are uniform in Europe on restrictions on the freedom of speech. First I found out the blasphemy is a crime in Denmark by law, yet these laws have not been applied since 1938.
“In Denmark, while a law prohibiting blasphemy exists under Section 140 of the Danish Penal Code, it has not been used since 1938. The Danish Penal Code also contains a provision (Section 266b) against expressions that threaten, deride or degrade on the grounds of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, belief or sexual orientation. That provision, however, has never been used against statements offensive to religion. Indeed, in 1992, a film made by an artist, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, was shown in cinemas all over Denmark. The film portrayed Jesus as sexually active and the clergy as corrupt. Though the film caused debate, no legal measures were taken and no charges were laid. Similarly, in 1984 a local art club asked the same artist to create a “happening” on the wall of the local railway station. The work displayed a naked Jesus with an erect penis. The work caused considerable controversy, and was eventually removed, but no legal charges were ever brought. ”

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Against:
Publishing material that knowingly insult other people

For:
The right to protest, organize boycotts, etc. peacefully
Against:
Threaten anyone, use or insite violence

For:
Showing solidarity to ensure freedom of speech

Against:
Not condoning abuse of freedom of speech by supporting people who abuse it

For:
Analyzing dynamics of an event to understand the causes of problems such as terrorism, racism, etc.

Reading the discussions about the Danish cartoon controversy, I find it difficult not to get depressed. If the bloggers that are listed in memeorandum is any reflection of the state of the society, we may be facing a tipping point.

From the tone and the content of the discussions (and the news), it is hard not to get the sense that the discussion has moved beyond the what may be a healthy discussion about the limits of freedom of speech. The discussion (if you can even call it that) is highly polarized and hijacked by the extremists.

Despite the fact that there are some thoughtful, constructive articles,  most of the stuff is not really about the particular event (cartoons) but more reflection of the underlying tensions at both ends. It is not difficult to see that the anger against the muslims has been growing steadily in Western countries last couple of years, as well as the anger against the West in the muslim countries. It may just be that the cartoon incident may be a trigger that unearthed this somewhat dormant anger, at least provide a medium where it is acceptable (as it’s shared by many) to express such anger publicly.

In such an environment, I am not sure that it does any good to discuss the actual event anymore. It was just a symptom, and it is almost irrelevant now. We are back at the depressing analysis by Samuel Huntington: Class of Civilizations. It is not clear yet whether the Danish Cartoon controversy will be the trigger that escalate the conflict from something that happens somewhere else in the world to our daily lives, but it certainly seems to have the potential.

One can only hope that sanity will prevail and people will understand the potential consequences of escalation.

The recent controversy over caricatures of Prophet Muhammad boils my blood. I despise the people who have published the caricatures that depicted the Prophet as a terrorist. They have desigrated more than the religious symbols by abusing the freedom that is provided to them by the society.
I firmly believe in freedom of speech. I believe there are VERY rare situations where speech should be restricted, and I am not even sure this is one of those situations. Whether or not it should be illegal by law to publish such caricatures that desigrates sacred religious symbols and provoke members of a major religion, (especially in an era where the relationship among religions are already strained) needs to be discussed by each society.

Freedom comes with responsibility. Just because one can publish or say his/her heart desires, does not mean that one should.

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