'Just World News' with Helena Cobban

Information liberation award to Juan Cole

Talking of freedom of media, information, and dialogue in our present world, I want to express huge appreciation to Juan Cole for liberating the "Fact File" on the Danish cartoons issue produced apparently jointly by the CIA-linked "FBIS" media-monitoring organization and its British counterpart at BBC monitoring.

A careful reading of this fact-file, going back to the original Sept 30 publication of the offending images and the reactions of many concerned parties since then really helps to clarify the whole tangled story, and to show that the world's "Muslims" have not merely been acting "emotionally and irrationally" to something that happened a long time ago... There is a whole history to this issue-- inside Denmark and more broadly, that it is important to know about.

However, the monitoring reports produced by FBIS and the BBC are for-pay products-- even though both are produced by tax money taken from taxpayers including (in the US) myself. So a big thanks to Juan liberating this "Fact File" for the global discourse.

Juan's own commentary throughout the file is also v. worth reading. His conclusion there is this:

The allegation that this thing was fanned by Saudi Arabia does not seem to be substantiated by the FBIS record, which shows Egypt's secular foreign minister to have been among the main fanners of the flame. Minor members of youth wings of Islamist parties in places like Pakistan then got into the action. Nor is it true that things were quiet after the immediate publication of the cartoons. Nor is it true that the Danish prime minister or the Jyllands-Posten expressed any sympathy for the hurt feelings of Muslims early on. Indeed, they lectured them on being uncivilized for objecting.

I just parenthetically note that this whole controversy is doing more for inter-Muslim unity than anyone could have expected. Including-- as Salah has noted here-- between Shii and Sunni adherents in Iraq; and also, as Juan notes, between more secular Muslims like the Mubarak government and their less secular confreres.

Interesting times. Let's focus on pulling back from escalating this into a "clash of civilizations" but try to focus on the need to civilize the discourse and all its related actions. Increasing the amount of information available about the issue, as Juan has done, makes a great contribution.