The
Blanket has finally published the last of the
anti-Islamic cartoons, which caused so much controversy
across Europe last September, when first published
in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Just as this brouhaha began to subside in the rest
of Europe, it re-erupted in Ireland when the Editor
of The Blanket also decided to publish them.
She seems to have had two reasons for doing so,
firstly she felt that within some Islamic countries
(and communities in the West) the human rights of
women are trampled upon, at times in the most brutal
manner. Plus the fact that no newspaper or magazine
in Ireland had up until that date published the
cartoons, thus giving the Irish people no real opportunity
to make their own minds up about wether they were
of an anti-Islamic nature or not.
I am not sorry we have seen the last of these wretched
cartoons, for the decision to publish one cartoon
per Blanket update was for me like having
a running sore, for as each was published I felt
like the scab had been prematurely knocked off a
wound only to reopen it to the threat of infection.
So
what have we learnt from this kerfufle? Looking
back, did The Blanket Editor Carrie Twomey
make the correct call when she decided to publish
the cartoons, and has her decision had a positive
or negative impact? In my opinion, not only was
she mistaken in the decision she made to publish
the cartoons, but their publication has had a negative
impact on both The Blanket and the wider
struggle against Islamophobia. The fact is, their
publication in Ireland has not helped one iota as
far the struggle against anti-Muslim sentiment is
concerned, if anything it has only helped make an
already difficult situation worse.
It
cannot be denied that anti-Islamic bigotry in the
UK and Ireland, almost six years after the events
of 9/11, is at record levels. The publication of
the anti-Islamic cartoons in The Blanket
is in no way responsible for bringing this bigotry
and intolerance into being, as the blame for this
can be laid firmly at the feet of Bin Laden for
his murderous massacre in New York on 9/11, and
the criminal actions of George W Bush and his political
crony Tony Blair when they decided to ignore both
the United Nations and international law and rain
fire and death down upon the Iraqi people by invading
and occupying their nation, nevermind that the Iraqi
people and the government that ruled over them had
played absolutely no part in the crime committed
by Bin Laden's men on that fateful New York day...
Thus
I say again, not only has the publication of these
anti-Islamic cartoons in The Blanket failed
to play any role in reducing anti Islamic sentiment
in Ireland, it has not even helped to bring about
an understanding as to why many young Muslims are
turning towards political Islam in its many differing
forms. Indeed, I would go farther and say, as Brian
Kelly and Eamon McCann predicted when they first
opposed publication of the cartoons in The Blanket,
it may well have played a part in reinforcing people's
ignorance and prejudice against those who are members
of the Islamic faith.
In all probability, there are people who may not
read The Blanket on a regular basis, who
on hearing that the e-magazine was to publish the
cartoons, may well have had their misconceptions
and prejudice against those who practice the Islamic
faith reinforced, reasoning that if a progressive
magazine such as The Blanket thought there
might be some merit in publishing the cartoons,
then their own ignorance and prejudice could not
be beyond the pale.
The
main victim of The Blanket publishing these
wretched cartoons has been the e-magazine itself.
It lost the services of two of the better left wing
writers in Ireland in Brian Kelly and Eamon McCann,
in the latter case The Blanket lost one of
the country's foremost columnists, and despite my
having political differences with both men, when
push comes to shove both McCann and Kelly have been
consistent in coming down on the side of those who
are getting shafted by the powers that be, and thus
they have been a great loss to The Blanket.
What has happened with The Blanket of late
is that its political centre of gravity has moved
away from the left towards the centre, if not the
right.
Having
said this, the decision of Brian Kelly and Eamon
McCann to with-draw from commentating in The
Blanket was in my view a major error, on a par
with Carrie Twomey's when she first decided to publish
the cartoons. For not only did it weaken those who
remained to argue that publishing the cartoons was
a major mistake, reducing us to a minority, they
have not to date been replaced at The Blanket
by any new left-wing commentators, some of whom
may well be holding back, not wishing to go where
Kelly and McCann refuse to tread.
If
one considers The Blanket is published on
a regular basis and it is one of the most open and
inclusive publication in Ireland, not least because
its Editor Carrie Twomey is willing to consider
publishing most of the work submitted to her if
it stands up and it is not libelous or plagiarized,
The Blanket has the potential to be become
one of Ireland's foremost platforms for independently
minded progressive voices, something which at times
and when at its best it has come very close to being.
How allowing it to drift to the right or refusing
to encourage young leftists to write for it can
be to the advantage of the Irish working classes
is beyond me. (I am in no way suggesting that either
Brian Kelly or Eamon McCann have done this, simply
suggesting their boycott of The Blanket may
well have that effect.)
What we now need to do is put this controversy to
bed along with the last of the anti-Islamic cartoons,
make an effort to learn any lessons that arise from
the episode, and move forward.
Perhaps
in the process, instead of simply taking the word
without question of certain middle class intellectuals
who have ready access to Western media, we would
all benefit by studying Islam in some detail and
attempt to view the billion or so people around
the world who practice it not as a single slab of
unthinking humanity, only too willing to be moulded
by the likes of Bin Laden and other satraps, but
see them as being much like most of us in the West,
a mass of contradictions, opinions, differences,
interpretations and political ferment.
We
can continue to give support to those who are getting
on a daily basis the sharp end of the society we
live in, whether they be Muslims, who are often
blanketed together and falsely pilloried in the
media as being wife beaters, parents who mutilate
their children, potential suicide bombers and supporters
of Bin Laden, or the millions of ordinary people
not that dissimilar from the aforementioned who
are engaged in a thousand differing struggles to
build a better life for them and theirs.
Whilst
it is all to easy to point out the faults and criticize
the mistakes of the wretched of the earth, it is
not they who have turned what could be a garden
of Eden into a world in which those with the sharpest
elbows prevail. It is the forces of Capital who
have moulded and shaped this world in their own
interest, and it is they who our pens must be aimed
at, for if we lose sight of this fact, what and
whose purpose do we serve?
