When the left claims that civil libertarianism is their greatest cause and struggle, it is funny to see them crack when free speech is expressed in its freest form. The Danish cartoon controversy could not be a greater example, as many liberals who supposedly followed free-speech views now cower when the speech has something to do with radical Islam.
Controversy has erupted in the Muslim community about cartoon portrayals of Mohammed that were recently solicited and printed by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Most of these cartoons are pretty innocuous, while admittedly others have a darker satirical twist.
The uproar over the cartoons in the Muslim world has been tremendous. On Sunday, a Pakistani cleric issued a $1 million bounty on the cartoonists involved in this controversy. Some other clerics from Saudi Arabia produced fake cartoons of a pedophilic Mohammed and other incendiary depictions to elicit more Islamic ire. Muslims have called for Danish boycotts as well as censorship of the cartoons.
Unfortunately, the response from the media in Europe and in the U.S. has been utterly pathetic. For instance, CNN defended their decision not to print the cartoons, claiming its role is to cover the controversy but not to add fuel to the fire. Of course, CNN gleefully posted new Abu Ghraib photos in "the spirit of not adding fuel to the fire except when it portrays Uncle Sam in a bad light." Likewise, when CNN decided to post Arab caricatures of a curly-haired man with a Star of David tattoo holding a parrot with the face of George Bush, this example of the "Jew-run U.S. government" was not at all offensive.
The French response to the cartoons was as expected: particularly feckless and pathetic. Chirac stated that he "condemned any overt provocation" of religion and that "freedom of expression must be exercised with a spirit of responsibility." For a president who proudly lauds much of the philosophy of his beloved Frenchmen, it would be great if he demonstrated an ability to understand it or at least show the fortitude and gumption to back up the claim.
When liberals complain about fundamentalism, they discuss the towering presence of Pat Robertson as if he were the greatest threat to civil liberties in the world today. Their refusal to see the threat that radical Islam poses to the very idea of free speech is a remarkable commentary on how little they truly care about it. Granted, even as a Christian myself the man irritates me plenty, but unless I see Christians load up their church vans and shotguns headed off to Venezuela, he doesn't hold quite hold the dramatic sway of an imam telling his minions to crash planes into New York skyscrapers.
Unfortunately, that's the problem with liberals today: It is difficult to find any shred of true liberalism in their ideology. While I understand the ACLU to be an American organization, the fact that they are not as up in arms over this free speech controversy tells me civil liberties might not always be their fondest interest. The word "liberal" has become a misnomer. The left has always utilized free speech laws whenever they needed to portray Christ as a homosexual, or when they needed to soliloquize about their vaginas, so one would think something like this would just be another day at the park.
My Muslim friend made the interesting point that there really should be no uproar about this issue. He noted that it would be a much more significant issue had a Muslim created these cartoons. Voltaire was not made famous for saying, "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to death your right to say it, unless people get angry and start rioting."
In the same sense, the right to free speech is not manifest by distilling statements into the unobjectionable and agreeable. Thus the strength of this right predicates itself on the protection of even the most offensive or unpopular of statements. While criticism of the cartoons themselves is indeed acceptable, and I cannot condone all of the cartoons, we as a liberal society must not acquiesce and forfeit this right lest we desire to deem all speech meaningless and vapid.
--Kane Kim is a junior economics major from Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
