It’s time to leave aside the controversy over the Danish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that has dominated the news in the past few weeks—and examine instead what is at the heart of the violent reaction of some Muslim protesters.
The virulent protests themselves are not new—we saw something similar decades ago with the Iranian fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie for his book The Satanic Verses.
But debate is necessary on this subject. Without the freedom to question, affirm, deny, revise or dismiss deeply held beliefs and values, there is only dogma that invariably becomes stale, lifeless and suffocating.
The kind of rage we have seen from some extremists is indicative in part of their incapacity to provide a persuasive argument in defence of their position.
Whatever reasonable arguments they might have for limiting freedom of expression on grounds of religious propriety, these have been shredded by the recourse to violence.
There is no such argument, however, in liberal-democratic society. To pretend that freedom of expression as a principle is not subverted when restrictions are imposed out of fear of causing offence, is to trade in hypocrisy—just as commissars of totalitarian societies do.
A segment of the Muslim population has, by indulging in violence, demanded that free societies restrict freedom of expression. If free societies, including Canada, concede to this demand, then one of their foundational principles is irreparably compromised.
What has been lost in the sound and fury of the present controversy is the rather simple question: Is the Muslim world a monolith? If it is not, then surely there exists a diversity of opinions among Muslims on matters sacred and profane.
To consider the Muslim world a monolith—and Muslims in general beholden to the opinion of some religious authority or power-holder—is a greater insult to Islam than any perverse imaginings of cartoonists or the even more perverse reaction of that segment of Muslims so readily driven to rage, be it contrived or genuinely felt.
“There is no compulsion in religion,” declares the Koran, Islam’s sacred text. A faith born of compulsion would be akin to demanding love following rape.
Since God in his infinite majesty neither compels, nor takes offence, it is reasonable to believe his prophets, including Mohammed, instructed their followers accordingly.
Hence, the recent rage really has little to do with Islam, and much to do with the sociology of parts of the Muslim world, where freedom remains an alien idea and dissent a crime.
Yet Muslims, such as Omar Khayyam (d. 1131)—dissident poet and astronomer-mathematician—defied authoritarian rulers, tyrants, and establishment gatekeepers of Islam to worship God and honour the Prophet in freedom of their own conscience.
Khayyam’s spirit persists even though the Western media has become greatly devoted to portraying only Muslim rage, and not the quiet courage of Muslims who are more offended by the perversity of violence within their societies.
As a few Muslims readily rage over some perceived injury or another, and demagogues in their midst spin excuses, it is worth recalling Khayyam’s admonishment:
Oh Canon Jurist, we work better than you
With all this drunkenness, we’re more sober:
You drink men’s blood, we, the vine’s,
Be honest—which of us is the more bloodthirsty?
He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Islamic Pluralism based in Washington, D.C., a Senior Fellow with the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, and an academic-consultant with the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. He has been a consultant with CIDA on development issues and has published widely in academic journals on foreign policy matters and area studies of the Middle East and South Asia.
Mansur is featured on the documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West produced by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He also unsuccessfully ran for the Canadian Alliance party in 2000.
Mansur has been accused by Canadian Islamic Congress of using "provocative, self-serving rhetoric", and for "promoting an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim agenda".
He is an Ismaili Muslim.
At a press conference on October 2, 2008, Mansur stated that "Islam is my private life, my conscience...[but] my faith does not take precedence over my duties...to Canada and its constitution, which I embrace freely;" "I am first and most importantly a Canadian;" "only in a free society will you find Islam as a faith and not a political religion." Mansur also criticized New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton, whom Mansur said "has gone to bed with Islamists", because he is running candidates in Ontario and Quebec who are closely identified with the push for Sharia law.
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