Selcuk Gultasli, Brussels
Robert Seiple, the US government's first ambassador for religious freedom, heavily criticized those who published the insulting cartoons of Prophet Mohammed and recalled, "Cartoons triggered the Holocaust, too."
Seiple serving as the first United States ambassador for religious freedom in 1998-2000 during Bill Clinton’s presidency said, "The question is not the freedom of expression but being civilized."
Seiple speaking to Zaman warned the European governments "to learn a lesson from the past" and "not to be late".
The former ambassador suggested Muslims to react against incidents quickly like Jewish people do. Seiple said the religion is sacred and the cartoons ridiculing "the sacred" are "impudent." "Ridiculing the sacred has no place in a civilized world based on values," Seiple noted. If the same is valid for Jesus-Christ, he added, a group of Christians would be rightly "very offended."
"One of our biggest problems today is that we do not understand our own religion. When we do not understand our own religion, we do not respect it, and we do not understand at all the religion of the others. And this brings terrible results."
The US for the first time issued a report on international religious freedoms during Seiple's tenure and announced to the public the extent religious freedom can be practiced. Ambassador Seiple upon being reminded the cartoons were published on the ground of "freedom of expression" said: "Nobody is talking about limiting the freedom of expression here. We are talking about being civilized and acting in a civilized manner. I neither saw nor heard anybody calling for the removal of the freedom of expression or thought in this discussion. People are just re-invited to have respect. I consider respecting beliefs of others comes before the freedom of expression in the scale of values. Freedom of expression must not humiliate people."
The former ambassador added he understands the anger Muslims feel, these kinds of events generally spiral out of control. "When you do not understand something, you categorize it. This happens because of intellectual laziness. You do not try to understand." After categorization, he went on, one produces stereotypes. When the stereotypes come out, one demonizes them, and then one hates them. From that point on, violence begins."
Seiple, recalling the caricatures published in Germany during the 3rd Reich period contributed to the formation of the atmosphere leading to the Holocaust, criticized the anti-Semitic cartoons published particularly in Egypt. Nazis had published several anti-Semitic caricatures during the 3rd Reich era. Jews in these drawings was regarded as a race exploiting Germany unmercifully, the source of all evils and corrupting German women.
Seiple terming the caricatures published in Europe as "an assault to pluralism" revealed his opposition to "irresponsible freedom" emphasizing, "Such activities were never advantageous and will never be so in the future."
Accusing the European leaders of acting "slow," Seiple cited, "They should learn a lesson from history and should not react only when they are under pressure."
Muslims are supposed to learn from the reactions Jews showed towards the Anti-Semitic events, he disclosed. "Why do Jewish people severely react to even a simplest event? Because they say the world public react slowly in the past. The world was slow to act while six million Jewish people were killed and their beliefs were humiliated across Europe. The European leaders should look back to the past, and avoid being late to react and should not react only when they are under pressure."
Seiple worrying that the thesis "clash of civilizations" by Samuel Huntington will be true if common sense fails, continued: "We are all the children of Abraham and come from his tradition, which is our great common ground. Everybody should keep away from clash; otherwise, we will experience a blood bath never seen in the world before."
Published February 04, 2006, Zaman
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20060204&hn=29384
