During a week when news coverage has focused on the global Muslim reaction towards the cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, first published in Denmark and then republished in many other countries including Norway, Austria and France, it is of little doubt that Roxanne Palmer's Feb. 7 cartoon was inspired by current events.One of the main concerns of the global Muslim community is the actual sketching of Muhammad; any drawing of the prophet Muhammad, or any prophet for that matter, is not permissible and deemed highly offensive in the religion of Islam. It is believed that depicting religious figures may lead to idolatry, which is prohibited in the religion.
At first viewing of Palmer's cartoon, we stood paralyzed with incredulity and attempted to make some sense of the act. We tried to focus on the redeeming message in the cartoon: Islam and Christianity do not teach acts of violence as claimed by some of its followers. However, the more we called to mind the absolute furor that has erupted across the globe over the Denmark newspaper's publication of blatantly offensive pictorial images of prophet Muhammad, the more unable we were to curb the rising flood of emotion. Pure and utter indignation.
Out of all possible modes of conveying her particular message, which is as noted above not incendiary, Palmer made the crucial blunder of using the mechanism that stands at the center of the scandal. The pictorial representation of prophet Muhammad is viewed by a large portion of the current Muslim population - domestic and international - as unequivocally offensive. While the message of the dialogue in the cartoon is that religion should not be used to justify violence, this message could have been addressed in writing instead of using the picture.
For some of us, the publication of this cartoon was more hurtful than that in the international press because it was printed by members of our own Brown family. Brown is known for students who possess a unique ability to critically analyze their surroundings while maintaining a sense of humanity and compassion. The publishing of this cartoon leaves us asking what kind of community has Brown become when we exercise our freedom of speech for the intent of offending and deeply hurting others?
Qadira Abdul-Ali '06Kira Jumet '06Tereen Alireza '06Feb. 7
