The Media Market

In Beyond Good and Evil, the German philosopher (and one of my personal favorites in late 19th century philosophy) Friedrich Nietzsche makes the claim that all civilizations are based on brutal force and violence. True as it may be - all civilizations are not always very civil, as we have seen seen in some posts here on The Mediamarket the past days (also found below):

Did anyone see Mohammed in the paper?

Ethnocentrism and the Muslim world

The Peaceful Religion of Islam

Now, one Danish embassy (together with the Swedish and Norwegian embassies) (in Damaskus, Syria) and one Danish consulat (in Beirut, Lebanon) have been burned down by angry protesters who feel that this is the right way to act out their feelings over the published cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Some European media and some governments are clearly trapped in a situation they do not like to be in. As in the case of BBC - not showing the pictures can be seen as a case of double standard since BBC has not had any previous problems about screening art and publications that might offend Christians. By showing the pictures some publications and media outlets can bring down anger from the Muslim world. This made Ted Turner's CNN to go the easy way and blur the images in their broadcast not to "offend" Muslims... Nice to see that CNN shows this kind of attitude towards people of faith - especially Ted Turner who has called American Christians "freaks".

In the midst of this, some Muslims seem to act in the same way as some of the "offensive" cartoons predicted. This is hilarious! A group of people are offended by their prophet being depicted as a source of violence—so they threaten violence! The world has officially become a big, fat cartoon. By threatening to throw to bombs and "massacre" those who insult Islam. Muslims on the streets of London portray a despicable approach by displaying signs that read: "Slay those who insult Islam", "Butcher all who insult our prophet" and things to that effect.

The hate speeches and warmongers in the Muslim world is the most apparent on Al-Jazeera (where else) where one Shia imam, Hassan Nasrallah, announced that the real problem with the drawings would never have appeared if a faithful Muslim had killed Salman Rushdie back in 1989: ""If there had been a Muslim to carry out Imam Khomeini's fatwa against the renegade Salman Rushdie, this rabble who insult our Prophet Muhammad in Denmark, Norway and France would not have dared to do so," he said.

I'm sure Samuel P. Huntington's never thought that a few cartoons could spur this kind of opposition even when he wrote The Clash of Civilizations.

UPDATE: Thought you could count on the good ol' U.S. to defend the freedom of the press? Think again. According to various press reports during yesterday the U.S. State Department announced the following statement: “Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable. We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices.” Sensitivity training seems to be high up on the Bush agenda at times like this. This statement is outlandish in many respects, especially because it implies that the U.S. State Department is siding with Muslims who threaten to behead those who insult the prophet Mohammed. However, it not seems as if this statement might be a hoax... (more on this story here, and at Little Green Footballs.