About a month back, Trey Parker and Matt Stone did an episode of South Park called "201," in which their superhero team of religious icons, including Islam's Prophet Muhammad, saves the day and Cartman gives a speech about tolerance.
In response to the depiction of Muhammad, a group of wannabe terrorists called up Comedy Central and issued a death threat, prompting Comedy Central to censor both the prophet's picture and Cartman's speech. This is all very well known.
Also well known is the fact that an obscure cartoonist named Molly Norris decided to protest the death threats by drawing her own cute cartoon of Muhammad and proclaiming May 20 "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," which is the correct way to respond to this kind of intimidation.
It's called nonviolent action. It's the thing that got Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. into the annals of history. (Granted, it also got them shot to death, but more on that later.) They were brave and heroic.
Pakistan banned both Facebook and Youtube over Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. That made headlines, too. Why? Because to Pakistan, these sites violated Islamic law by giving voice to users promoting the depiction of Muhammad.
Molly Norris is neither brave nor heroic. She eventually apologized to the extremists, who had sent her a few death threats, and renounced the movement she started as it snowball into something huge. And what's worse, Norris pretty much said the terrorists were right. To quote her website:
I did not 'declare' an "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day."
I made a cartoon of a satirical poster with a fake group behind it (Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor). It was solely a concept about Comedy Central's over reaction to a threat from revolutionmuslim.com, and their consequent decision to censor the television show South Park.
My cartoon was taken seriously & hijacked by people who used it to make facebook pages.
Satirical poster? Lady, you don't know shit about satire. Satire is a form of (nonviolent) violence, and political cartooning is supposed to be offensive. Take a look at any book of political cartoons from anywhere in the world. Most of it is really nasty stuff. Mean, ugly, and vile (and I don't mean just the stuff by poor draftspeople), which is what good humor is. There is no such thing as "gentle satire."
Look at Ann Telanaes. She's a former Disney animator who's been doing political cartoons for years, and her attacks on Islam have been pretty savage. Look at this one called "Miss Sharia." It isn't nice, but it's brilliant:
Why should it be? The best political cartooning is supposed to be savage. It's supposed to be mean. It's also supposed to be true.
Which is why the PLO killed Naji Salim al-Ali, a Palestinian cartoonist living in London back in 1987. He started criticizing them. He offended them. So they killed him.
What Molly Norris initially did was the right way to address the problem: fight terrorism with humor, intelligence, and panache. The response was threats of murder. She backed down and apologized to her oppressors. I guess she didn't want to end up like Gandhi.
Terrorism works.
(Images used as fair use.)
Follow Eric Lurio on Twitter: www.twitter.com/messy1
If Dr. King is correct, which I believe he is, then the Cleric Al Alwaki terrorizes Molly Norris with death threats, in the name of Allah, when things are controversial (and everybody is looking).
Molly Norris, on the other hand, has asked only for forgiveness and peace, not just out of fear, but because it is the right thing to do (even when nobody is looking), when things are controversial. Surely Allah will forgive her and the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), who preached peace, too.
Everybody else, as far as I can tell, (including the woman from Facebook, Dan Savage, South Park, et al), when things are heated and controversial, are looking out for their own egos forgetting now that Molly Norris is taking on the burden of THEIR insistence on continuing the EBDMD campaign.
Peace and Grace to you, Molly Norris. You are dearly loved by persons of character and integrity.
That last is an expensive pursuit.
Then, you conveniently summon Ghandi when it's convenient, as if because he (et al) chose peaceful means of protest over violence, he too was murdered?
Finally, are you saying that, ergo, the only way to win is to resort to violent means to achieve an end?
Your point escaped me entirely.
Oh, but then you backtrack across that little 'land mine' again to decide that Molly (et al) did the best they could have.
She has done more than you have, presumably, in the way of courage.
Anybody who thinks she weaseled out, go ahead and start a movement to your name. You can be the brave one. But don't point finger at others when you are not the one in the line of fire.
I hope Molly is well and safe as everybody should be. I think she's done quite enough.
I would love to pretend I would stand tall in the face of threats and intimidation, but in reality I have no idea how I would react if faced with the same situation.
Its easy to criticize anonymously on the internet, safe in front of your computer, knowing that the only consequence of your posts may be another post. Its another altogether when your name is all over the news.
I cannot blame Norris for backing away from Draw Mohammed Day. No work of art is worth dying for, and no artist has an obligation to put their lives on the line because of other people's ideas of free speech (bloggers who slam her, safe in the knowledge that they did not create a cartoon for Draw Mohammed Day themselves, take note). I was, however, disappointed at how few cartoonists took up the cause.
As a political satirist, I do believe that the best way to deal with extremists (of all stripes) is through ridicule. However, there has to be a concerted effort at that ridicule. Society as a whole has to support it. If that doesn't happen, it just endangers the lives of the few who are brave enough to use satire as a weapon against ignorance.
It's real easy to be brave behind the anonymity of the Internet. Real life? Not so much.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Show-Mohammed-Day/121228857900451
Show Mohammed Day: June 10, 2010
aka Wear a Veil Day
Rallies for Freedom of Speech & Religion:
Honoring the Spirit of the US First Amendment.
She's a person who didn't realize how big and far-reaching her ideas would be. The Internet does that to people. Look at all the people who gained instant fame thanks to it. It shocks some, tickles others, and drives others to near madness. Susan Boyle is STILL receovering.
She said something, and a LOT of people liked it, and a lot didn't. And the ones who didn't scared her more than the ones who did. That is not always how it goes. Hell, look how the people who liked it are reacting now. Talk about damned if you do...
She looked at the crazy world that she exposed herself to, and she didn't like it. She looked into the cyber-abyss and blinked. This does not make her a coward. It makes her like the people who hesitate before locking the barrel shut and setting off over the falls. Careful. Rational. Human.
She had a great idea in the form of a joke, and it got out of her grip. I look forward to seeing how you all react when your fifteen minutes come round on the clock.
Whenever I hear about someone caving in, I grow sad. Not for them, but for all those who don't cave in and paid the price. They understand what was at stake was something larger than the immediate so they were willing to sacrifice. We have to respect them.
If that formulation an indirect reference to my comment about the spelling of Ann Telnaes' name, then it's a bit unfortunate, as Ann Telnaes is not the cartoonist who backed down.
In other news, I can see that someone has flagged my comment as "abusive". If that's because he/she doesn't like me spamming Huffington with links to my song (three times in two weeks), OK, guilty as charged. If it's because of the song itself, then, gee, thank you, you made my day!
Unless you song is directly related to the content of the blog, don't link. You come off looking rather petty and self-serving. .
Now, I've already posted this twice recently, but if the moderators will permit me to advertise my own blog once more, here's a link to a song I wrote on this subject, "We’ll be Drawing Old Muhammad on the Wall"
http://ltuasoo.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/we%e2%80%99ll-be-drawing-old-muhammad-on-the-wall/