QUOTE(Moulton @ Sun 3rd February 2008, 1:26pm)
In a politicized culture, those in power can outlaw whatever makes them feel uncomfortable. Those not in power generally cannot exercise such preventive regulation.
And in the examples to which I linked above, we saw that, where Muslims are in power, the can and do outlaw what makes them uncomfortable. No one will say that Egypt's government is particularly representative, or Islamist (they hung Syed Qutb, after all) but on these issues, they're following the public - these don't threaten the government, only transgress popular sensibilities
Supposing these same people, unable to ban them outside of their own countries, sent Amazon.com and other on-line booksellers a "respectful" petition to withdraw Rodinson, Watt, Rushdie, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Muhammad-Maxime-Rodi...02081455&sr=1-2http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Political-Th...02081420&sr=1-6http://www.amazon.com/Satanic-Verses-Salma...e/dp/0805053093Should they do it? What I'm hearing is "yes."
What I'm trying to emphasize is that this is not just another tale of Wikipedia's by-now-famous irresponsibility - though some are treating it that way - but another chapter in an ongoing dispute about the indifference of Western society to Islamic sensitivities which, let's not mince words, strictly prohibit freedom of thought and expression about religion in all realms of life, including academia and the arts.
And it seems the fact that the French National Library is displaying one of these historic images (captioned simply "The Prophet Muhammad") has been lost in the shuffle…
http://expositions.bnf.fr/livrarab/index.htmhttp://expositions.bnf.fr/livrarab/pedago/grands/0_01.htmShould they also take it down?
May as well ban the whole field of Islamic studies - when you're getting rid of the likes of Watt and Rodinson, who do you suppose will be left? (Maybe John Esposito?) Do you imagine Bernard Lewis is any more palatable to them? Just ban any novel discussing Islam - Booker prizes mean nothing to Islamic jurists.
Someone doesn't like it when the lights are on, so, let's turn them off.
This post has been edited by Proabivouac: