Violence has broken out in Lebanon and Syria as rioters destroy property, throw stones and assault people in response to the Danish government’s refusal to apologize for caricatures of Mohammed published in a Danish paper.
The protesters were further incited by Syria’s state-run newspaper Al-Thawra, which stated, “It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims.” The protestors attacked and burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, the Danish Embassy in Lebanon and the surrounding neighborhood in Beirut.
While their outrage is understandable-many Muslims view any image of Mohammed as idolatry-these violent demonstrations in Syria and Lebanon can only be described as terrorism. While not the murderous type we associate with the World Trade Center attacks, they have all of the hallmarks of terrorism. The so-called demonstrators have a set of demands and a willingness to use violence against innocent people to scare governments into bending to their will-unequivocally terrorism.
Of course, these terror riots have precedents throughout history and across the globe. The medieval Inquisitions, lynch mobs, abortion clinic bombings and the Ku Klux Klan and its cross-burning terror campaigns all fall into the same category. They all claimed offense. The Inquisitions involved being offended by heretics, including Protestants, Jews, Muslims and atheists. Lynch mobs have been offended by everything ranging from witchcraft to the suggestion of interracial relationships. Abortion clinic bombers find abortion offensive, and the Ku Klux Klan seems to find everyone offensive. Clearly, offense is no excuse for violence.
Offense is not an excuse for censorship. Al-Thawra’s statement is itself offensive to the millions of people who believe in freedom of expression and by its own standard is “unjustifiable.” No person has the right or justification to force his or her beliefs on another-including beliefs about what is offensive.
The Danish government is acting properly in refusing to grant even lip service to the suggestion of censorship to avoid offense. Importantly, respecting others’ freedom of speech guarantees the right of the offended to express themselves peacefully-allowing a dialogue where offenses and apologies are discussed and given.
Universal freedom of speech is necessary for peaceful resolution of culture conflicts. Offense, outrage and even oppression can be effectively countered through peaceful means in society’s attempts to respect freedom of speech. The rioters’ interests would be served if they demonstrated peacefully in the manner of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Fortunately, Lebanon’s political and religious leaders have objected to the violence.
Not all governments have been as accepting of freedom of expression. South Africa banned the cartoons from publication, and several governments-including Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia-have threatened to cut diplomatic and economic ties. Denmark and Jordan arrested two editors of a paper that published the cartoon for blasphemy.
Syria may have actually been responsible for much of the violence-for a police state, the police were very slow to respond to the riots in Damascus. Also, Syria has a history of inciting violence in Lebanon, and the incendiary Al-Thawra is a state-run paper. Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani suspects infiltrators attempting to “destabilize Lebanon.”
Ironically, the paper that originally published the cartoon has apologized for offending anyone, yet the rioters-violently demanding respect for their religion and culture-fail to understand that in the Western democracies they are attempting to terrorize, freedom of expression is practically sacred.
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel best addressed the issue: “I can understand that religious feelings of Muslims have been injured and violated, but I also have to make it clear that I feel it is unacceptable to see this as legitimizing the use of violence.”
There are 7 billion different viewpoints in our world, and one of them will always be offended. To live together and still remain free, true to our beliefs and principles, we may not be able to peacefully resolve our differences, but we must peacefully live with them.