Sep 1, 2007
Sweden in cartoon controversy
It was Denmark in the spotlight before about controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, now it’s apparently Sweden. A small local newspaper in Sweden published a drawing or cartoon of the Prophet. I’ve not seen the drawing so I can’t really say what may be upsetting about it, but the Swedish paper published an English translation of the editorial commenting on the whole thing:
A liberal society must be able to do two things at the same time. On the one hand, it must be able to defend Muslims’ right to freedom of religion and their right to build mosques. However, on the other hand, it is also permissible to ridicule Islam’s most foremost symbols – just like all other religions’ symbols. There is no opposition between these two goals. In fact, it is even the case that they presuppose each other…
The right to freedom of religion and the right to blaspheme religions go together. They presuppose one another.
What happens if a fundamentalist Muslim wants to express his faith through pictorial art? Quite clearly, it will be easy to persuade art galleries that the pictures are unsuitable, that they may lead to conflict. So the restriction of Lars Vilks’ possibilities to express himself may also negatively affect Muslims’ right to express themselves.
In Pakistan especially people are upset to the point of burning the Swedish flag and a doll supposed to be the Prime Minister of Sweden.
