Cartoons and killing: Clash of civilizations argument serves fundamentalists
I met several people over tea this morning at a local stand. As is common, the conversation quickly turned to politics. One man named Erhan summed up what many here and around the world seem to feel.
"Of course it is crazy and wrong to kill people for drawing cartoons, no matter how bad those cartoons are. But then they made another insult against Islam. Why? Twelve people are dead in France. How many thousands and thousands of innocent civilians have they killed in Iraq? Afghanistan? Palestine? They kill people with drones, with bombs, with bullets, many ways. Where are the protests for these people?" he said to me when we spoke about the recent protests here.
Erhan's words are backed up by independent sources: the Iraq invasion—prefaced on lies we now know—left more than 100,000 civilians dead. Around 10,000 civilians were killed or injured in Afghanistan in 2014 alone, then there is the matter of illegal drone strikes, which have left hundreds dead under the Obama regime.
It should go without saying (though sadly, it doesn't, and so needs to be said) that none of this is a justification for more attacks on innocent lives anywhere else.
The horrific and unconscionable strategy adopted by the killers at Charlie Hébdo, on the World Trade Center on 9/11, in the Underground on 7/7 in London, and so on, is pretty obvious. Create an atmosphere that breeds fear and hatred, and ultimately initiates a ferocious reprisal by the West—both domestically and internationally.
Not coincidentally, it is a tactic that also appears to be welcomed by power apparatuses in the West. A fearful public provides a ripe opportunity to curtail civil rights and pursue policy agendas that the population might normally find unpalatable—post-9/11 America is a classic example.
In any case, to many elsewhere around the globe the only conclusion drawn from times like these is that Westerners have the good life, with virtually all the money and the power on the planet, including the power to humiliate and insult anyone they like, whether it is at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo or on the pages of Charlie Hébdo. If one challenges the West, it will come back to punish the offender hundred-fold.
In the wake of 9/11, thousands of people in Tehran lit candles for the US victims, and many leaders conventionally considered hostile to the US condemned the attacks while expressing strong support for the American people. Amidst the horror and the pain, there was a chance for healing, a chance to hold hands with the vast ocean of humanity that also wanted peace. That window was quickly slammed shut as the dogs of war were unleashed.
Many in the world right now view the publication of further mocking images as deliberately causing more division, anger, and pain. This sentiment is further fuelled by self-serving elements on both sides of this tragic and artificial divide. The sympathy for the Paris victims felt worldwide has been replaced with yet more rage, frustration and mistrust.
In spite of a moment where solidarity was possible, the clash of civilizations narrative continues to—deliberately—push the people into isolated 'us' and 'them' encampments.
These are indeed dangerous times.
The wind that is blowing through Istanbul tonight carries all the trepidations of a city and a country on the brink. And make no mistake. What happens here has implications for the entire world.
But this city is resilient and, as a woman listening to my conversation with Erhan offered, the wind can change directions. Let's hope she's right—and that in the meantime it doesn't blow too hard.