A riddle: how many times must you poke a Muslim before he becomes used to it?
I have no answer to that one, actually. Neither do any of the papers and tweeters continuing to share the images of Muhammed from this week's Charlie Hebdo, which is a shame because it is the question they all implicitly ask with their "defiance".
My original response to the attacks was that the cartoons should be reposted as many times as humanly possible on the basis that Islamists wouldn't be able to kill everyone who shared these drawings and therefore might at some point get tired of trying to do so. Similarly to when Twitter users reposted a Twitter joke that got a man convicted with the hashtag #iamspartacus in order to point out that since the law couldn't prosecute everyone who did it, the conviction was by definition unjust, I felt that maximum visibility of the cartoons would point out to Islamists that any attempt at redress was pointless.
The problem is that basically one of my ignorance, yet again. I don't hold anything sacred myself, though my empathy can just about stretch to, say, imagining being a black person seeing a caricature of black people as monkeys and feeling offended by that. To make that leap I can draw on times when I have felt belittled myself, and imagine what it is like to feel my very personhood diminished by association with a caricature - in that case I can understand the pain caused. But I have no reference point at all for the pain felt by Muslims when they see the prophet depicted.
They tell us they feel that pain and we must believe them. But because I can't empathise, just believing them isn't really enough. I can nod along and say we must respect their sensitivities, but deep down nothing will stop the voice saying it's a bloody picture! A picture, incidentally, that hasn't even been forbidden throughout Muslim history! I don't deep down believe the picture can be offensive, and yet clearly it is painful to some people, so who am I to say whether we should or shouldn't post the image?
Because to a large degree I am relying on my own flawed empathy, I assume that once Muslims have seen enough Muhammeds they must get used to it, like getting used to insect bites on holiday. After all, it's not like it can hurt that much. The effort involved in getting angry every time someone publicly mocks the prophet will just exhaust them, and after getting slapped around the face seventy times seven, they'll throw up their hands and forgive.
Obviously, understanding that this course of action will leave Muslims feeling humiliated and marginalised, we would need to add some kind of "we love you really" disclaimer to it all. I'm sure they'll understand that if they just stopped being offended, we'd stop it and we could all be friends.
Once again I am reminded of the following exchange from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
Galahad: Let us taunt [the killer rabbit]. It may become so cross that it will make a mistake.
Arthur: Like what?
The progressive response to just enrage conservative forces until they either make an error or give up is always tempting, but rarely good strategy. The wells of rage and resentment are deep, and self-replenishing. It is quite possibly the Muslim citizens of the west simply get more and more angry, which solves no one's problem. A considerably more complex solution is required than just thumbing our noses, even if Spartacusing is legitimate as far as it goes.
In any case, whether liberals provoke them or not, Muslims are going to have to get used to having their faith routinely insulted. The Terry Jones fiasco of 2012 demonstrates that there's not much of a way of stopping racists and nutjobs from insulting the religion in a free society, nor much of way of explaining to mobs around the world the difference between a citizen doing it and the state endorsing it. Since Muslims live in a world where technology if not states allow for anyone to say anything, they physically can't stop these insults from happening. The target is too massive. Arabs don't have the energy to riot every time someone somewhere does or says something Islamophobic, and the quicker they realise that the quicker they can come up with a new less violent strategy of redress.
Whatever the intentions behind retweeting or reprinting these cartoons, it may well be that repeated viewings of offensive material are the surest way to smooth Islam's titanic collision with modernity in all its messy and confusing glory.
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