Racist depictions

By Raouf Mosaad

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The Danish drawings of Prophet Mohamed have sent shockwaves across the globe. Coming from a continent that prohibits any critical discussion of the Holocaust, the insult is quite injurious. Those who defend the drawings claim to have nothing but respect for Islam and Muslims. This is hypocritical. You cannot respect a religion and insult its prophet. People who live in the Middle East have strong religious feelings, and this goes for Muslims as well as Christians. The Coptic Church, to give one example, sees its own history as the history of martyrs. I am a Christian from the Middle East, and I am insulted.

The drawings of Prophet Mohamed were racist. They were racist because they took no account of other people's feelings. You may call this free speech, but I beg to differ. The West is impinging on our civil rights everyday on the pretext of fighting terror. In the Netherlands, some have suggested laws to ban people from speaking in any language other than Dutch in public places. Do you call this free speech? The West is passing laws that sanction phone tapping without court orders. Do you call this free speech? In some countries, mosque imams are being prevented from preaching in non-European languages. Is this called free speech?

The West was in a fit when Hamas won in free and fair elections. What happened to free expression? There is a difference between free speech and hypocrisy. Western Christians have every right to accept slurs or fictional depiction of their religious figures. But they have no right to impose their views on others. Oriental Christians and Muslims have every right to be offended. In the Middle East, no one -- Muslims included -- wants to see Mohamed, Christ, or the Virgin Mary depicted in an offending manner. Perhaps the West should listen more, learn more, and preach less.

This week's Soapbox speaker is an Egyptian writer residing in the Netherlands.