« Caviar | Main | Tumblehome »
February 03, 2006
Bush government on the Muslims' side over cartoons ...
Well, what to make of this?
"Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," [State Department press officer Janelle] Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices."
Never, ever believe that the Bush administration is stupid. This is a wily political move, an attempt to divide the Muslim world while raising popularity at home.
The obvious thing would have been to strongly support Denmark, the European press and freedom of speech. But instead the Bush administration has made a vague supporting statement about the freedom of the press (something that it's not entirely keen on itself) and, no doubt to the chagrin of Anders Fogh, has indicated its displeasure with the tone of the cartoons.
This is, on the face of it, a quite extraordinary position to take. Denmark is a trading partner and military ally. But remember that on the whole, US citizens don't care what's printed in France Soir, Jyllands-Posten or Die Tageszeitung, and they certainly don't care what European governments do (or don't do) or say. To a great many US citizens, the Fox News Channel represents all that's great and good about press freedom.
I think that the Bush administration is envious of the level of control that hardline Muslim governments exert. Too often has Bush joked how easy his job would be if he was a dictator, his adherence to fundamentalist Christianity is well known, and I'm sure he would be quite happy to see stiff penalties doled out for dodgy religious cartoons in the US if he could get away with it. So on one level, the gap between the Bush administration and, say, the Iranian government is actually not that great. This kind of "be respectful to religion" statement also makes him look wise and tolerant to the Right who will reason that if this "Inciting-religious-or-ethnic-hatred-in-this-manner-is-not-acceptable" argument goes for Muslims, it surely must go for Christians too - more warm snugglies for them and more worries for the Left and the Liberal press. Because if you argue against this kind of statement, it's hard not to end up sounding like some kind of fascist Torah-/Koran-/Bible-burning, hate-inducing, sloping-browed thug ...
In summary : The Bush administration has claimed the one small patch of dry middle ground in this morasse before any Liberal commentator could climb on it, and they will stamp on the fingers and kick the faces of anyone who tries to claw their way on there with them.
Expect Bush's approval ratings to go up these next few days.
Elsewhere, this leaves extremist Muslims on the horns of a dilemma. They have three choices : 1) to publicly agree with the US, which would be a bitter pill to swallow, but would allow the outrage over the cartoons to continue unabated ; 2) to publicly disagree with the US, in the name of continuing the enduring game of automatically gainsaying anything issuing forth from the US, the Great Satan, which would have the side effect of effectively putting them in the position where they have effectively supported freedom of the press, which is obviously untenable ; or 3) to ignore the US statement and continue ranting. My bet would be 3. We'll see.
Posted by daen at February 3, 2006 07:23 PM