Editorials

Editor draws up the right cartoon response

By the

February 16, 2006


After the controversy surrounding the Danish political cartoons about Islam and the resultant backlash across the Muslim world, we haven’t had much to say about the issue – not because we like to avoid controversy, but because almost everyone involved was behaving at their worst. But in the last week a protagonist worthy of mention has appeared in a few newspapers, someone who everyone at Georgetown ought to know about. As an object lesson in courage and freedom of expression, we give you Jihad Momani, a man who needs our support – and isn’t getting it.

Considering cartoon scandal, it should be clear that everyone has a right to publish anything, but that these cartoons were outrageously offensive, both to Muslims and tolerant people in general. But the most visible Muslim response didn’t deserve any accolades, either—riots, murder threats and completely superfluous attacks on the Jews aren’t making things any better. So what’s a person who’s basically offended by everyone involved to do?

Well, if you’re the editor of a Jordanian newspaper, like Jihad Momani, you print the cartoons on the front page of your paper. And next to it, you print an editorial asking, “Muslims of the world be reasonable … what brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures of a hostage-taker slashing the throat of his victim in front of the cameras, or a suicide bomber who blows himself up during a wedding ceremony in Amman?” Then, you are promptly fired and soon after arrested by the Jordanian government for blasphemy.

The courage of Momani—who recognizes the offensiveness of the cartoons, laughs them off and delves to the more serious problem of relations between Islam and the West—should have been applauded by the Bush administration, which has been paying for press this good in Iraq. But when Jordan’s King Abdullah visited the United States last week, the President didn’t say a public word about Momani, although his arrest came only after Abdullah commented negatively on the editorial.

Current press reports indicate that Momani has been released on bail from prison; his whereabouts and whether or not he will stand trial are unclear. What is clear is that if we are to end the strife in the Middle East and put an end to the cartoon scandals of the future, we need to protect the Momanis of the Middle East (and there is more than one; another editor, Hicham al Khalidi, is also in jail under similar charges). That means calling Amnesty International and calling on the President to back his promises to support Middle Eastern liberalization.

Shortly before he was arrested, Momani spoke to Newsweek.

“We must put an end to this struggle [between Islam and the West] because it simply isn’t good for our future. We have to rebuild these relations and to do something positive to stop what is going on. And we have to start at home.”



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