Secular Democratic Rights and Blasphemous Caricatures Strategies for Judicious Response

Abstract

The campaign of denigration of reverend personalities of Islam, started recently from the publication of blasphemous caricatures in Western newspapers, has been steered into public sphere by the announcement of ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ contest. Despite strong protests by the Muslim countries and masses, the Western media, political leadership and a number of intellectuals seem to be bent on attacking the sensitivities of the Muslim World on the plea of defending the secular democratic rights, particularly the ‘freedom of expression and press’ and the Western ‘norms of secularism’. This kind of discourse has influenced some segments in the Western public as well. An analysis of the past practices pertaining to human rights carried out by Western media and political governments as well as the laws of European Union and the individual States shows that the case of publication of blasphemous caricatures is not simply a matter of protecting Western norms against the extremism of ‘radical’ Muslims. The majority in the Muslim World perceives this campaign as an instance of psychological warfare waged against them. While the Western governments and people need to understand the lethality of such a campaign, the Muslims around the world also need to carefully study the phenomenon of Islamophobia, furthered consciously in the West, and channel their responses after developing a well-thought-out short term and long term strategy. – Eds]