What next? The Islamic world (I will not say that it's a "civilization" and I am still a bit skeptical about using the word "Islamic") was rocked, shaken and angry due to our Prophet being depicted in a cartoon and made fun of the world over. Muslims retaliated in the usual way...Burning, rioting, and damaging property...Old news now.The next question the "Islamic world" should ask what do do next? It is an offence in Malaysia to deal with the images and I'm certain other countries have taken similar action. What's the next move? What should we do so that nothing of the sort will ever happen again?
I was sincerely disappointed at our Prime Minister's reaction to the crisis at hand. He adopted an ostrich approach to the problem and seemed to want to ignore the affront to the Prophet. (This is my interpretation of the speech and it may differ from person to person) To me both ways of dealing with the problem are wrong, Badawi's and the rioting.
A strong approach to the problem needs to be taken, but an approach that is also grounded in reality, economics, and politics I've been playing around with this idea in my head for a few days and it may sound a little idealistic but here goes:
The majority of Muslim countries are countries which are mostly import markets, where a lot of foreign goods cater to a domestic market. A concerted effort from ALL Muslim countries across the world to boycott goods from Denmark may just result in a lot of irate Danish businessmen pressuring their government to take action. The best part is, Muslim countries need only to shift their buying power to other competitors. (I may need more indepth research on this, I admit)
The second could be a direct letter from the Malaysian Agung to the Queen of Denmark demanding an apology from the State. Denmark is also a constitutional monarchy and thus the Queen holds sway as Chief Of State. The silence of the Agung on this matter is rather disturbing too. The next could be the deportation of all citizens of Denmark from Muslim countries and the revocation of their business licenses. Simple enough...So long as we have the political and economic will. Saudi Arabia need only halt its supply of petroleum for a day for the prices of fuel to skyrocket in the world market. Chaos...I know, but chaos that MUSLIMS can control.
What's the point of all this? At the very least it will demonstrate to the rest of the world that we mean business...And start to shake off the image that we are a barbarian horde, good only for wholesale destruction. At its greatest we will demonstrate to the world that Muslims are not to be trifled with anymore and we are done being the laughing stock of the world's population.
1 comment:
Rigel:
I don't know what your yardstick for "punishment" is...
I don't think that a boycott of Danish products is punishment in any way. Its merely a statement of solidarity from Muslim nations, albeit with a certain degree of force behind it.
Danes are responsible for the election of their government and to draw a dichotomy between normal everyday Danes and the cartoonists themselves would be only serve to absolve (undeservedly) Denmark of a collective mistake. For example if a soldier from a different country commits a war crime, it is the collective responsibility of the whole country of origin to prosecute and to ensure that the criminal is brought to justice. The same principle applies here as well, Jyllands Posten was a public newspaper and therefore the public (Danes and The Danish Goverment) are reponsible for the content that is printed in the newspaper. Similarly if a Malaysian newspaper published a cartoon depicting the Queen of Denmark in a disrespectful way, Malaysia as a country will be held responsible for the publication because the publication operated under license form the Malaysian Government who receive their mandate form the people of Malaysia.
The chain of responsibility does not just stop at the cartoonist, thats a superficial approach to the problem.
Punishment or not, the Danes and democratic, free individuals across the world should start taking more notice of what their governments are doing in the name of democracy and sometimes the only way these individuals are going to realise it is by forcing them to realise that their bank balance is going to be effected.
Halian:
I didn't catch the statement of the Queen of Denmark...research has been slacking recently :-) Thanks for the info.
Your assessment of the House of Saud is in total agreement with mine. Its strange how American Foreign Policy is so amorphous when is comes to establishment of "democracy" and "freedom" and yet seems to throw those away when they see black gold.
All this talk about bridging the gap has me nauseated...in order to bridge that gap there has to be some sort of level playing field to start with but all i see is Muslim Nations currying favour with the "West" for their own monetary or political gain. As it is, Muslim nations are more often than not suffereing under extreme poverty, corruption, and only Allah knows what other atrocious stupidity. Gone are the magnificent times of Medina during the Prophet, instead what we have left are squalid, corruption infested countries which are exploited and stepped on my the nations of the world.
I wonder what Saidina Omar would say to that?
In order for us to be strong and to build a civilisation, we have to be integrated and united as a voice, not a voice which hides its head in the sand, but a voice which is loud and clear on its principles and viewpoints.
I digress though...after careful analysis, i found out that most of my action plans were unfortunately more idealistic than realistic. What made me more depressed was the fact that the reason why it is more "idealistic" is because of Muslim Nations themselves!
We have sucessfully managed to handcuff our own hands together. Ironic isn't it?
Allah Help Us...
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