Some were outraged, while others called for free speech in countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt that punish people for alleged blasphemy. Many expressed indifference, saying they were weary of debating cartoons that paled in significance beside the carnage taking place in wars in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region. Authorities ranging from Egyptian Sunni and Coptic Christian clerics to Hezbollah said publication of cartoons was provocative and counterproductive to dialogue. But Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned pan-Arabic news channel, sought to explain why there was no more groundswell of interest. “Western politicians and scholars anticipating or asking for meaningful political and religious reforms by the nonexistent organized ‘moderates’ in today’s Arab world will be better advised to be patient and bid their time,” he wrote. “Can those living in Baghdad, Aleppo, Sana, and Tripoli — just to name few Arab cities — be blamed if they were not shocked by the killing of the Charlie Hebdo twelve in Paris? Not is only Islam’s religious text being distorted, a whole Arab generation has been totally desensitized by unspeakable violence.” He went on to note that more than 76,000 Syrians died in 2014, the deadliest year since the uprising began, and that an average of 1,000 Iraqis died per month. “No one has a clear idea about the number of the maimed and the missing,” he wrote, “and of those uprooted, and those being claimed by the waves of the Mediterranean while sailing aimlessly seeking a foreign shelter.”
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 08:58:08 +0000
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