The anguish of European Muslims.

Mohammed cartoons

European Christians don’t have any idea what their Muslim neighbors have been going through, said Katajun Amirpur in Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau. They seem to believe that our disgust at the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed is a hysterical overreaction to a few harmless doodles. Muslims, they conclude, simply “can’t take a joke about religion.” They’re wrong. Several Muslim societies, including those of Turkey and Iran, have a folk hero called Mullah Nasreddin, a bumbling, uneducated imam whose antics are fodder for funny children’s stories. And there are many Muslim jokes about Allah. The Danish cartoons, though, are of a different order. They don’t poke fun at Mohammed, they simply equate him with a terrorist. Maybe it comes down to this: “Anyone has a right to caricature his own religion. But when a majority population mocks the religion of a persecuted minority, it is at the very least tasteless.”

As a journalist, I understand the importance of freedom of expression, said Randa Achmawi in Spain’s El Pais. But as a Muslim, I agree that these “deeply Islamophobic” cartoons are indefensible. While of course I condemn the violence of some of the protests, journalists have a responsibility to use their public platform for the good of the community. Danish journalists chose instead to stir up more hate against a minority in a country that already suffers from widespread racism. That is not free expression, it is rabble-rousing. And it has only aided in “the creation of an authentic anti-Western front.”

It’s the double standard that has enraged many of us, said Ali Eddaoudi in the Netherlands’ NRC Handelsblad. Muslims are second-class citizens across this continent. Remember the Dutchman who threatened to attack the Amsterdam maritime festival last year? He got a mere few months in prison, and he wasn’t charged under anti-terrorism laws. “Apparently you have to be called Samir or Achmed to qualify as a terrorist.” The Danish cartoons are just one more example of the general disrespect for Islam in Europe. “If a Muslim drew a cartoon mocking the 9/11 attacks, wouldn’t he be treated as a pariah?” Wouldn’t people protest? I am sorry to have my worst fear confirmed: Christianity really is still at war with Islam.

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Tariq Ramadan