JUST SAYIN’-Has the world lost its mind or is it simply reverting to its ancient, primordial, paternalistic, misogynistic, bigoted, repressive, narrow-minded, and parochial traditions?!
Only days ago, the world gathered in support of Paris, honoring its tradition of liberty, equality, and fraternity, in empathy with its suffering over the recent tragedy there. Millions were united (there and elsewhere) in mourning those who had risked and lost their lives to uphold the ideal of freedom of expression (over all other considerations). Millions gathered to condemn those who would destroy the Natural Right of Man (think of the Enlightenment). For a time, they were all “nous sommes Charlie.”
In Paris, they gathered from around the world and marched down the streets arm-in-arm. The rally was led by many prominent leaders, some of whom, ironically, were and are guilty of repressing their own people, robbing them of their birthright, taking from their people the very right of expression over which these leaders were there to mourn.
Georgetown University Professor Marc Lynch aptly stated (with an obvious tone of sarcasm), “Glad so many world leaders could take time off jailing and torturing journalists and dissidents to march for free expression in France.” Perhaps that is why President Obama or Vice President Biden did not join in that farce of a scene (our Ambassador to France, however, was among the leaders in the march).
Surely for many of the viewing world, the presence of certain leaders was unseemly and out of place. They were regressive anachronisms in a modern world. They were representative of many of the contradictions that manifested themselves before, during, and after the march.
One of our closest Arab “friends” in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia. Its Ambassador to France, Dr. Mohammed Ismail Al-Sheikh, joined other leaders in the march, but he did so right after his country had sentenced a blogger to 1000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “insulting Islam.” Says USA Today, “It’s dangerous enough when radical clerics call for death for blasphemy based on highly dubious and selective interpretations of the Quran; it’s even more destructive when a nation makes that official policy.”
Powerfully and profoundly, the paper added that “religion is stronger when it doesn’t require laws or death threats to safeguard it.” Certainly other faiths have survived centuries of oppression and repression. Islam can and will ultimately do the same. If people are sure of and confident in their religion, they don’t need to go to such lengths to defend it.
How do countries rationalize such duplicity and not be embarrassed in front of the world for the hypocrisy? Perhaps it is because other nations may be equally guilty or choose to look the other way because doing business with the Saudis supersedes all other considerations?
Participants in the procession included not only political sovereigns but religious leaders and activists of many stripes. Photos were captured of this rare “unity” and were splashed on the front pages of newspapers, in magazines, and on the Internet. Many outlets found themselves condemning not just the perpetrators of these dreadful crimes (to which the vast majority of the billion-plus Muslim believers do not subscribe) but also the religion to which they belong, Islam, a faith so maligned and misunderstood by the uninformed, that it is painful to watch. Islam, a religion that embraces both Jewish and Christian history and values—facts that are often forgotten or dismissed outright.
Ironically, two thousand miles away in Israel, ultra-Orthodox Jewry was exercising a repression of its own: In reporting the rally, an Orthodox newspaper photo-shopped all the women at the march out of the original photo (including Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, and Queen Rania, the wife of Jordanian leader, Prince Abdullah II).
Are we still living in the Medieval past to go along with such arrested development?! Such orthodoxy is undoubtedly backward yet is able to wield power disproportionate to its numbers—so much so that many Israelis, including political leaders, are afraid to challenge these dinosaurs for fear of a backlash. Why did their periodical remove these prominent women from the photo in the first place? Was it because for these women to be seen in public in this way was believed to be so irreverent, immodest, and inappropriate—so abhorrent that their images could not possibly be shown?
We seem to pick and choose the rules we follow. Why is it acceptable for people, not only in Israel but worldwide, to wear a kipah (yarmulke) but not a hijab? Why is it okay for the Israeli Orthodox to rant and rave as it does but make others serve in the army in their stead? Surely there is something rotten in Denmark!
It is gratifying to know that divergent views have been expressed—outside the extremes. The Pope says that freedom of expression must be protected but must also have limitations, the way calling “Fire!” in a crowded theater is unlawful. In the same way, he continues, that one ought not to ridicule and gratuitously insult a faith and its followers without expecting some kind of deplorable reaction. I think most of us would recognize the wisdom in such thinking.
And yet, soon after the tragic events that led to the unity march, the City of Light found it consistent with its values and justifiable to arrest the comedian whose long-running anti-Semitic act had the audacity to embrace the recent murders at a kosher market. Perhaps his words were too much of a reminder of France’s own ugly Vichy past. Despite all this, nary an outcry from the world over such hypocrisy!
How does France justify this act of censorship when it clearly condemns what the terrorist perpetrators tried to accomplish--to suppress the acts of free expression? We seem to forget how satire and jest have served an important role in our lives practically since the beginning of the emergence of humankind. The court jester could advise the monarch through a satire whose advice would almost never be acceptable by official advisors. No one can question that people like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Lewis Black, and Bill Mayer (like them or not) serve a valuable purpose by challenging our way of thinking—to bring to our consciousness those ideas we might otherwise repress in ourselves.
Will all those acts that recently transpired (or are still going on or are in the planning stages) galvanize us to be more open-minded and progressive in our thoughts and actions or will they polarize us as we cling to our predisposition for narrow-mindedness and parochial thinking?
At length, it is time for us to return to the beginning—when a few outrageous and deranged extremists killed and maimed in reaction to the images of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet, images which have been depicted on and between the covers of the satiric magazine, Charlie Hebdo. But just one week after this horrendous incident, a new cover appeared: It depicted a tearful, sorrowful Muhammad saying “Je suis Charlie” under a banner stating, “All is forgiven” (a concept that all genuine religions teach and preach, including Islam). Such a depiction is surely one for which the real Muhammad would be proud (there is no prohibition within the Qu’ran that proscribes the making of images of the prophet—this only comes from later misinterpretations to which no thoughtful, informed Muslim adherent would subscribe).
This was a march that in many ways reminded me of the one in Selma some 50 years ago(so well-depicted in the newly released film by the same name)--leaders in front, crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, walking arm-in-arm. That display of strength and purpose led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (sadly being challenged today by the U. S. Supreme Court and many, particularly Southern, states). Where will this 21st century march lead us—to real change? Or will its purpose be lost in the dust of tramping feet?
Just sayin’.
(Rosemary Jenkins is a Democratic activist and chair of the Northeast Valley Green Alliance. Jenkins has written A Quick-and=Easy Reference to Correct Grammar and Composition, Leticia in Her Wedding Dress and Other Poems, and Vignettes for Understanding Literary and Related Concepts. She also writes for CityWatch.)
-cw
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CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 6
Pub: Jan 20, 2015
