Muhammad cartoons draw mixed reactions
Depictions of prophet spur controversy worldwide
By Alex McIntire, Staff Writer
 |
| A group of men pray at the Islamic Society in Vermont on North Campus. Society spokesman Fareed Smith said he is upset with not only the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, but the violence with which some Muslims have responded to the cartoons. Photo by Jonah Kessel. |
“There is no excuse for the violence,” Berube said. “However, there is an excuse for the indignation.”
Berube said his class has looked at the religious objections these cartoons have caused.
Muslim stereotypes get in the way of understanding how this affects the Islamic people. According to Berube, most Muslims are not Arab. Fewer than 25 percent are of Arab nationality.
Junior Ruhin Yuridullah, originally from Afghanistan, lived in Pakistan for 10 years and moved to the U.S. in 2001. He said there are no images of Muhammad or Allah allowed in mosques because “as soon as you have images, people would try to worship that instead of praying to God.”
Islam is against iconoclasm, which is the religious use of images.
“Maybe the paper didn’t have that much knowledge of Islam and weren’t aware it could cause chaos,” Yuridullah said. “Maybe if they had known they wouldn’t have printed it.”
Fareed Smith, spokesman for the Executive Commission of the Islamic Society of Vermont, said the society, which has been in Vermont for 15 years, was struck hard by the cartoons.
“We have had mixed reactions,” Smith said. “We are extremely upset with the printing of these cartoons, however, we are equally upset with the violent reactions that have taken place.”
Smith said the society has refrained from being reactionary, and said the society wants to do something about the cartoons in a “pro-active” way. Discussing the religion with co-workers and friends is more positive than reacting violently, Smith said.
Reza Ramazani, professor and department chairman of economics, reflected on Muslim stereotypes.
“People have this perception that if you are from the Middle East that, number one, you’re Muslim, and number two, that you’re a terrorist or against Western values,” Ramazani said.
Ramazani, originally from Iran, said there is a developing perception that people from the Middle East are evil and are trying to harm people in the U.S.
In October, junior Tyler Adkins, who was studying in Copenhagen, Denmark, found himself in the midst of a non-violent protest. The protest was small and one of the first, as the cartoons had not yet circulated around the world.
“Just a lot of yelling and fist- shaking,” Adkins said.
There has been tension between the Danes and (its Muslim population) since about 1970, Adkins said. Around this time, Danes began importing Turks for cheap, unskilled labor, creating an influx of Muslims in the country.
In 1973, immigration into Denmark slowed and the country remains extremely difficult to move into. Tension between the Danes and Muslims has been high ever since, Adkins said.
Adkins said he was not greatly affected by the event, but he has come to see the difference in global media.
“They are more free in Denmark and are more straightforward,” Adkins said in explaining the Danish media. “This just doesn’t seem as much of a big deal to them.”
While Denmark might or might not care, Berube was disheartened by the extent to which the U.S. is being blamed for this.
“We are seen as the leader of the West, and that makes us a natural target,” he said.
Ramazani expressed concern about a double standard that seems to exist in Europe. David Irving, a far-right British historian from Austria, was recently sentenced to jail for three years for publicly denying the Holocaust. However, no one is being punished for the demeaning cartoons in Denmark that were printed in many European newspapers.
“I don’t really think it was a very good idea for them to publish the cartoons,” Ramazani said. “I know that it is a freedom of expression, but at the same time, with that freedom comes some responsibility.”