My opinion piece in Metro today:
It should have been my finest hour. After weeks of defending Denmark over the cartoon row in words I was going to take action at an hour-long solidarity protest in front of the Danish consulate in New York.
But what started out as a laudable expression of support soon took on overtones of such vehement anti-extremism that it bordered on an extremism of its own. I left after half an hour and vowed never to protest again.
I say this not because the pro-Denmark protest was so bad but because it was the latest in a string of protests over the past few years at which I have found myself standing among people I do not and cannot support.
I had my first inkling of this disillusionment during an anti-war demonstration in New York just before the invasion of Iraq when I found myself walking among people who equated Israel with Nazi Germany. It was the same during the Republican National Convention in New York.
You protest to send one message yet by your very presence you lend your support to causes that make your stomach churn. Outside the Danish consulate it was no different.
I was there to show Danes that despite the embassy burnings and the product boycotts, despite the endless column inches of criticism and the tepid support of world leaders, I appreciated their commitment to freedom of religion and expression. Although the people around me doubtless agreed our views diverged from there.
They implied that Muslims who demonstrated around the world against the cartoons were either extremists or following orders, as if free will was the preserve of the United States. They made cynical remarks about the media not covering their protest when in reality their movement was so small it warranted little attention. And they attacked Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai for criticizing the cartoons when no leader of a Muslim country could do otherwise.
Freedom of speech carries the responsibility to admit when you are wrong. While most of the Danish drawings were probably inoffensive to the majority of Muslims some, particularly the one of Muhammed with a bomb-shaped turban, were clearly provocative.
In 2002, the British left-wing magazine the New Statesman ran a front cover with a Star of David standing on a British flag over the headline “A Kosher Conspiracy?” The cover was lambasted as anti-Semitic. An apology was demanded and given. But what if no apology had been forthcoming? What if magazines around the world reprinted that cover in defense of freedom of speech?
I cannot help but feel that some of those who rushed to republish the cartoons did so out of spite rather than a desire for freedom of expression—the equivalent of sticking two fingers up at Muslims around the world.
On the street in front of the Danish consulate there was an air of the same. I wanted to show solidarity with the Danes but I saw mainly anger at Muslims. I wanted to hear a nuanced view that would counteract the certainty of extremism but I heard only jingoism and rhetoric.
“You are either with us or against us,” an unwise man once said. I cannot agree. But for those of us with views in between the protest rally will rarely if ever represent our opinion. I realized that after half an hour that day at the Danish consulate. And I walked away.
Cartoon, Denmark, Protest
