Cartoons as Culture War?

"February 13, 2006
Muslims and the West: A Culture War?

Guest Commentary by John L. Esposito, Gallup Senior Scientist

Opinion and analysis by John L. Esposito, University Professor at Georgetown University and author of What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam and Unholy
War: Terror in the Name of Islam. Esposito is a Gallup Senior Scientist and co-author of the forthcoming Can You Hear Me Now: What a Billion Muslims Are Trying to Tell Us.

Newspaper cartoons of the prophet Mohammad have set off an international row with dangerous consequences, both short and long term. The controversial caricatures first published in Denmark and then in other European newspapers, target Muhammad and Islam and equate them with extremism and terrorism. In response ! to outcries and demonstrations across the Muslim world, the media have justified these cartoons as freedom of _expression; France Soir and Germany's Die Welt asserted a 'right to caricature God' and a 'right to blasphemy,' respectively.

One of the first questions I have been asked about this conflict by media from Europe, the United States, and Latin America has been, 'Is Islam incompatible with Western values?' Are we seeing a culture war? Before jumping to that conclusion, we should ask, whose Western democratic and secular values are we talking about? Is it a Western secularism that privileges no religion in order to provide space for all religions and to protect belief and unbelief alike? Or is it a Western 'secular fundamentalism' that is anti-religious and increasingly, post 9/11, anti-Islam?"

For the full article, see:

http://www.global-college.com/cartoonwar.htm