This is, until further
notice, a free, Western country. Different “faith”
and “unfaith” communities may harbour radically conflicting
views. They may validly pray for each other’s conversion,
proselytize and even satirize to that end. Decency may require
us to avoid gratuitous provocation. It also requires refusal to
be provoked.
It could be said of
so many Muslims in Canada, who really do feel great pain at what
they have been told about those “Danish cartoons”
(whether or not what they’ve been told is true), that they
are new here, and genuinely unused to our ways. Which is why it
is crucially important that they be culturally assimilated, not
ghettoized as has happened in Europe, especially France.
In the best Canadian
tradition, we depend upon Muslim leaders to explain to their people
the facts of life. The message must be, “You are living
in Canada, which is not a Muslim country. There is no Shariah
in Canada. If you want that, you will have to live somewhere else.
Here, you must abide by unIslamic rules, in which Muslims enjoy
no special status."
Unfortunately, when
men who blither, like our new foreign minister, Peter MacKay,
refuse to defend our freedom of speech and press robustly -- and
instead, equally condemn its exercise and Muslim rioting against
it -- we are swimming toward the Falls. Public order requires
our governments to defend free speech against physical intimidation.
Verily, more than our liberty is at stake in this -- our public
order is founded upon our liberty. Our prosperity, too.
Drawing a disrespectful
cartoon of Mohammad is a grave offence under Shariah law. But
it is not, and must never be made, an offence under Canadian law.
Alas, two generations of “counselling” from our post-rational
elites about the importance of “sensitivity” has undermined
the clarity we once held in our brains. “Freedom”,
and this kind of “sensitivity”, are mortal enemies.
That said, I have
no objection to trying to understand the Other -- for that is
also part of our Western heritage.
And in this respect,
I dismiss all the (chiefly rightwing) commentators who accuse
Muslims of hypocrisy, for making such a scene about a few cartoons
that may hurt Muslims’ feelings, when far more savage insults
have been directed towards Christians and Jews in the Muslim world.
Yes, they are hypocrites
by Western standards. But no, they are not hypocrites by Muslim
standards. This is important to grasp, if we are to avoid sliding
into the bottomless trap of moral relativism.
Islam does not accept
the Western and Christian distinction between what is "objectively
a sin", and what is “actually” one. For them,
"ignorance of the law is no excuse", ever. Whereas we
hold that in the eye of God, or even of a court, it might well
be an excuse. Likewise, we recognize compulsion as an excuse;
whereas, in the Islamic tradition, this is a non-starter.
That is why, to use
an extreme case, a strict Shariah court might sentence a woman
to death for adultery, who has been raped. For she is, objectively,
an adulteress. The sentence might not seem fair, but that very
“fairness” is a Western notion. A good Shariah judge
is a "strict constructionist", like a good American
Supreme Court judge. He cannot rewrite his Constitution. He can
be merciful, however.
The Danish editors
and cartoonists may have had no idea what they were doing, but
any fatwa against them would still stand. For objectively, they
have committed blasphemy. Case closed.
Now, the objective
crime in those Danish cartoons was not some abstract "blasphemy".
There is no such thing, and a good Muslim may cuss all he wants
against Christians and Jews and bicyclists on sidewalks. (We also
allow him to do this in the West.) The criminal form of blasphemy
is specifically against Allah, or his Prophet Mohammad. Or against
Allah's previous prophet, Jesus.
Britney Spears, for
example, would not be guilty of blasphemy for mocking the Crucifixion
of Christ, under a properly-constituted Shariah court. For there
can be no blasphemy against “false Christian beliefs”.
Only against the “true Muslim Jesus”. And since, according
to Islam, Jesus was never crucified, where is the offence? Technically,
Ms Spears was being a good Muslim on that deleted episode of Will
and Grace, by making fun of the idea that Jesus was crucified.
(The way she dresses and behaves would make her a bad Muslim,
however.)
This is a different
worldview, from our Western one. It is not less rational -- it
works from different premises about man and God. We cannot dismiss
it, on its own terms. We can say, however, that our premises are
incompatible, and insist that in Canada, ours will prevail.
Copyright
2006 Ottawa Citizen
