Lazarus Austin is a junior majoring in history. He can be contacted at [email protected].One of the greatest movies of all time was released on DVD recently. For those of you who have been living on a deserted island somewhere incommunicado, the movie was “300,” a fantastic fictional account of the battle of Thermopylae, based on the comic book by the same name.
Unsurprisingly, the government of Iran complained that the movie was offensive, demonized Persia and misrepresented their ancestors. Many critics also viewed the movie as an attack on the East by the West and on Islam by Christianity.
Consequently, critics in the Islamic world are calling for more censorship and retribution on those who “abuse” artistic license.
In 2005, there was a similar, but much bigger (and more violent) reaction when the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper published 12 editorial cartoons satirizing Muhammad and Islam.
After the cartoons were published around the world, some Islamic countries exploded into violence. Many Muslims, some encouraged by their governments, rioted. Embassies were burned down, many people received death threats and at least 139 people were killed in protests and many Muslims called for a Jihad against the West.
In response, several Western governments, including ours, capitulated. Decrying the cartoons and apologizing for them, they claimed the media had “overstepped its bounds.”
Many people wanted the Danish government to punish the newspaper. Many said it never should have been allowed to publish those cartoons in the first place.
These two cases are just more examples, such as the “Unfair Doctrine,” of people attempting to take away the West’s pride and glory: the freedom of expression. It is also another attempt by many governments to mold their populations into the ideal “politically correct” citizens.
To put it simply, the Muslim critics and the governments in bed with them are blatantly employing a double standard.
It makes me sick, especially a little more than a week after the anniversary of Sept. 11. Far more Muslims now routinely desecrate Christianity and burn the American flag. After Sept. 11, 2001, many riots broke in Islamic countries in celebration of the attacks. Where was the censorship then?
People in Islamic countries are free to insult the West all they want, yet many of them desire all criticism aimed in their direction to be censored. This is the epitome of hypocrisy.
However, many Western governments have jumped on the bandwagon with them. They claim that, in the words of State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus, “inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable.”
Unfortunately, this is not the only time that our own
government has taken this stand. In one instance, the Iranians issued a death edict against the author of “The Satanic Verses,” a graphic novel satirizing Muhammad. The United States did not stand up for freedom of expression but instead degraded him.
In another case, a woman was distributing posters of Muhammad as a pig, and the State Department claimed that the woman was “either sick … or evil” and said she “deserves to be put on trial for these outrageous attacks against Islam.”
On the other hand, our government allows insults on Christianity all the time.
It shouldn’t matter anyway, because even censoring attacks on Christianity is a violation of free speech.
By no means do I actually condone the things these people have said or done to Islam. It is highly disrespectful of their beliefs and way of life. However, that leaves me no right to tell them they can’t say it. As soon as you start telling people what they can and cannot say or do, next in line is telling them what to think and not to think.
Democracy and free speech are the foundations of the West. Without free speech, the system would all fall apart. Unfortunately, that includes insults. They are a necessary evil, but in the words of the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, “I prefer an excess of caricature to an excess of censorship.