Blasphemous cartoons: Inappropriate use of press freedom

Qudsia Kadri

The outcry and outrage of Muslims all over the world is fully justifiable. The publication of blasphemous cartoons, first by a Danish newspaper and then picked up by several European newspapers in Spain, France and Germany shows the inappropriate use of freedom of the press by irresponsible, unprofessional and totally biased management and editors of these newspapers. Nowhere in the world 'freedom' is construed as unethical reporting of any piece of writing, photographs or pictures hurting the religious sentiments of any community or religion. In fact the respect for the beliefs and religious convictions of any individual, forms the basis of media, law and ethics.
The Danish Prime Minister Anders F Rasmussen's response is indeed surprising where he has referred to these cartoons as 'taboos' in Islam and the right of the western 'free speech'. Nowhere is 'free speech' defined as hitting out or mocking any religion and hurting religious sentiments of any individual or any religion. What we as responsible members of the media in this country fail to comprehend is the response or behaviour of 'democratic' and so-called free European countries which have undermined the basics of media ethics, the interaction between the media and the public sphere, the basis of which is the moral criteria which actually legitimises the ethics of journalistic practice.
The manner in which print and electronic media produces information and distributes it in the global village of today, is the thin line of divide between journalists and professionalism and the unethical non-professionals of the media world who are always ready to sensationalise news and provoke further hatred and contempt between communities and countries.
We view the printing of the cartoons and re-printing by some other European papers as a poor display of journalistic competency. The belief of Muslims that drawing pictures of any prophet of God is prohibited, is a well-known belief of Islam. Here, it would be relevant to point out that in the United Kingdom where Muslim children are studying in both the public and private school system are never forced to draw pictures of any prophet in their religious education classes. Religious education is a compulsory subject in primary schools in UK where all religions are part of the syllabus and I very clearly remember both my daughters studying in a predominantly Jewish private school and during a religious education class one of them was asked to draw a picture of prophet Moses during a lesson. She wrote about him but went up to the teacher and declined to draw a figure of the prophet saying our religion did not allow us to draw pictures of any of the prophets. She was not reprimanded and her refusal to draw the picture was accepted without question by the teacher and she actually scored an A+ in her final religious studies exams.
The reason for narrating the above story is that what the Danish Prime Minister has termed a 'taboo' is a well-entrenched belief amongst Muslims. So what was it that made the editors of these k0newspapers print a blasphemous cartoon.
The only conclusion that comes to mind is that it was to purposely start a conflict over fragile sentiments and beliefs, and which is not how democracies work. The basic essence of democracy is the right to live, the right to practice any religion, the right to be a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu in any country of the world without being ridiculed, mocked and penalized for his or her religion.