Where is the protest against anti-Semitic cartoons?

Personally, I am offended when people use my national or religious symbols to make their political points or stereotype members of my faith.

For example, as a rabbi committed to Israel, I felt offended by a political cartoon that ran in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat on March 22, 2004, that shows a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating dead Palestinian children floating in a cereal bowl.

Ditto regarding a cartoon dated Oct. 11, 2003, from that same newspaper that shows a hideous cave man with bloody hands, tracking bloody footprints, wielding a club and wearing a tunic decorated with Jewish stars.

The Arab press often publishes cartoons such as these, many with anti-American themes as well. They can be viewed at the Palestinian Media Watch Web site, www.pmw.org.il.
Recently a Danish newspaper, in an effort to show that it need not follow Islamic teachings forbidding the portrayal of Mohammed, published 12 cartoons containing sketches of the Islamic prophet. One of them depicted Mohammed with a turban shaped like a bomb.

While the news media cannot be forced to obey any group’s religious laws and they have the right to draw Mohammed even if Muslims forbid it, there is no question that the depiction of Mohammed wearing a bomb is tasteless and offensive. The newspaper should have used better judgment and not published it.

While the hypocrisy of claiming offense at the Mohammed cartoons while allowing offensive anti-Israel and anti-American cartoons is galling, Muslims still deserve an apology. In fact, many world leaders have chimed in to offer it.

But where is the international outrage about the cartoons in the Arab press? Why doesn’t the world show concern about this?

The different reactions can be explained by violence. Muslims around the world responded to the offense against them by burning buildings, threatening kidnappings and issuing death threats against journalists.

Muslim clergy fail to teach effectively that violence is unacceptable as a response to speech, including speech that is offensive. Some Muslim clergy even incite the violence themselves.

No one riots to protest the offensive cartoons in the Arab press. Governments don’t stand up and take notice of peaceful democratic protests lodged by Israel or the United States the way they pay attention when a mob comes and burns down their embassy.

I am concerned by how this violent Muslim reaction will influence general Middle East reporting. How can the news media produce hard-hitting coverage of such sensitive topics as Islamic incitement to terrorism and Palestinian corruption when the specter of violent reprisal hangs overhead?

I empathize with the news media’s plight. Who am I to tell a reporter in the Middle East to risk his or her life in order to balance a story?

Better for the media to insert a disclaimer in all coverage of the Middle East. The following sentence should be printed at the end of newspaper articles and scroll across the screen during television reports:

“Regular standards of journalistic balance cannot be followed when reporting from this region due to the threat of violence.”

Not an ideal solution. But let’s not pretend that threats of violence don’t influence reporting. When news media organizations are unable to give us a balanced story, their leaders should let us know.

Rabbi Shlomo Levin is spiritual leader of Lake Park Synagogue.