Garbis Altinoglu, February 2006
Publication of cartoons portraying prophet Mohammad as a terrorist by Jyllands-Posten, a reactionary Danish newspaper on September 30th, 2005 and their re-publication in Norvegian papers on January 10th, 2006 and in French, German, Spanish and Italian papers on February 1st, 2006, opened the way for a serious discussion and a political confrontation. Demonstrations were held in several Muslim countries as well as in Western Europe during which these cartoons were condemned. Dozens of people lost their lives at the demonstations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Nigeria and hundreds were wounded, though most of the events were more or less peaceful.
Freedom of the press?
Corporate bourgeois media and Western European governments have defended
the publication of the Mohammad cartoons under the pretext of “freedom
of the press”. Moreover, they have tried to portray the confrontation
over the cartoons as one between the forces of barbarism and religious
fanaticism on the one hand and those of democracy and secularism on the
other. This asssessment, however, has nothing to do with the real state
of affairs. In the US and Western Europe, considered the cradle of
democracy, print and electronic media, has long been under the control
and domination of big corporations, general staffs and bourgeois state
apparata. Yes, the freedom of the press is under threat; however this
threat does originate from the Muslim world and Muslim peoples, which do
not command any serious economic and political influence; it originates
from the US, sliding towards fascism and igniting the flames of a new
world war, and the monopoly bourgeoise of Western Europe, which has been
following in the footsteps of Washington.
The task of the bourgeois mediea has been to dupe and deceive workers and other exploited people, to distract their attention away from genuine problems emanating from capitalist exploitation and oppression and to create false agendas for this purpose. This media does not dwell upon attacks on workers’ rights and political freedoms and gradual drift towards fascism in “advanced” capitalist countries; nor does it dwell upon neo-colonial wars, waged in the name of “war on terrorism”, “peacekeeping” and “promotion of democracy” on the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Western corporate media is on the way to becoming a replica of the mouthpieces of Nazi Propaganda Ministry supporting the preparations of a new world war led by the axis of evil, comprising the US, Israel and Britain. Let’s take a look at some examples:
“Free” western corporate media raised a hue and cry for weeks over
the destruction of two statues of Buddha in Bamian, Afghanistan by the
Taliban prior to the invasion of that country; however it dwelt very
little upon the wide-scale destruction and pillage of the cultural
wealth of Afghanistan and Iraq by American invaders and their
accomplices.
“Free” western corporate media has been clamoring about the crimes of
Saddam Hussein, who was armed, financed and supported by its “own”
bosses, that is by various imperialist countries, including the USSR,
the US, Britain, France etc. for decades; but it has been almost
entirely silent over the fact that, according to the figures provided by
the UNICEF and other UN bodies, more than a million people lost their
lives in Iraq as a result of the UN Security Council embargo imposed
upon that country in 1991.
“Free” western corporate media has preferred not to mention the massacre of thousands of Taliban POWs and their burial in mass graves by collaborationist “Northern Alliance” forces in November 2001 at Mazar-i Sharif under the supervision of the US military in the wake of the overthrow of The Taliban government.
“Free” western corporate media, had times and again “revealed” Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction at the behest of the White House and the Pentagon and systematically warned the world over the “danger” this small, weak and worn-down country posed for the security of the much stronger West; however it has never dared to utter a word about Israel’s hundreds of nuclear and thermonuclear warheads, its state-of-the-art conventional arsenal and dirty record of aggression and expansionism.
With regard to Iraq, “free” western corporate media does not venture much beyond announcing the “security incidents” in accordance with the communiques of the Pentagon, British “Defense” Ministry and Telaviv. In this context, this media sheds crocodile tears over the prospect of Shiite-Sunnite civil war, which is being actively provoked by its bosses, as exemplified by the recent bombing of the Al-Askariya Mosque, that is by the intelligence organizations of the US, Israel and Britain and their local stooges.
“Free” western corporate media, which purports to be very sensitive over the freedom of the press, is not concerned with the killing of dozens of Iraqi and foreign reporters, cameramen etc. by US soldiers and their accomplices and the control of the Iraqi media by the invaders. Neither does it raise its voice over the systematic and CIA and MOSSAD-led massacre of hundreds of Iraqi academics and intellectuals.
Colonialist and racist mentality of “free” western corporate media does not allow it to defend the rights of –especially ‘backward’- nations to self-determination, a notion which is part and parcel of the Charter of the United Nations. It does not even question the “right” of the US and other imperialists to occupy other countries, loot their resources and establish puppet regimes there, under the pretext of “war on terrorism”, “peacekeeping” and “promotion of democracy”.
“Free” western corporate media is not very much concerned over the arbitrary capture and arrest of people suspected of being “terrorists” by American neo-fascists and their illegal transfer to secret interrogation centers, where they can be tortured and killed.
Accustomed to dub the legitimate resistance of the Palestinian people against Zionist occupation as “terror” and “violence”, “free” western corporate media has, in perfect accord with Washington and Telaviv, initiated another smear and disinformation campaign over the victory of Hamas at the January 25th elections. Moreover, right after the elections, it has begun to threaten both Hamas and the Palestinian people at the behest of American and Zionist state terrorists with the aim of breaking their will and discrediting their legitimate resistance.
No doubt, this list can be extended indefinitely. However, this much is sufficient to expose the role of the corporate media, which is nothing but a mouthpice of the monopoly bourgeoisie, and to show the racist/ colonialist mentality of the imperialist bourgeoisie in general and the false and hypocritical character of bourgeois democracy in particular. In his “Theses and Report on Bourgeois Democracy and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” presented to the First Congress of the Communist International on March 4th, 1919, Lenin had said:
“8. ‘Freedom of the press’ is another of the principal slogans of ‘pure democrasy’. And here, too, the workers know -and the socialists everywhere have admitted it millions of times- that this freedom is a deception while the printing-presses and the biggest stocks of paper are appropriated by the capitalists, and while capitalist rule over the press remains, a rule that is manifested throughout the world all the more strikingly, sharply and cynically the more democracy and the republican system are developed, as in America for example. The first thing to do to win real equality and genuine democracy for the working people, for the workers and peasants, is to deprive capital of the possibility of hiring writers, buying up publishing houses and bribing newspapers. And to do that the capitalists and expoiters have to be overthrown and their resistance suppressed. The capitalists have always used the term ‘freedom’ to mean freedom for the rich to get richer and for the workers to starve to death. In capitalist usage, freedom of the press means freedom of the rich to bribe the press, freedom to use their wealth to shape and fabricate so-called public opinion…” (Theses, Resolutions and Manifestoes of the First Four Congresses of the Third International, London, Pluto Press, 1980, pp. 9-10)
The situation is not much different today, despite the great advances in communications technology. The so-called mainstream media, both printed and electronic, is under the control of big corporations, the general staffs and intelligence organizations, while the opponents or critics of the existing system can make themselves heard only through the internet and newspapers, journals or radio stations, which command the attention of a much smaller audience.
The Position of Jyllands-Posten and the Real Motives Behind the
Publication of the Cartoons
Jyllands-Posten, the paper publishing the Mohammad cartoons in the first
place, stands close to Danish People’s Party, a neo-fascist and racist
party which supports the right-wing government of Prime Minister Fogh
Rasmussen. This paper is also known for its affinity to the views of the
neo-fascist Bush clique and the position of the “Atlanticist” faction of
Western Europan monopoly capital, which is eager for the rebuilding of
the “Cold War” alliance between the US and Western Europe and is in
favor of pursuing a more aggressive line against the Muslim peoples and
countries. As we all know, despite the irreconcilable contradictions
between the US and Western Europe, there has emerged a more or less
solid tactical alliance between the two, not long after the piratical
attack of the US and its allies on Iraq. Since then, American
imperialists and their Western European counterparts have been
collaborating on several fronts, such as the DR of Congo, Kosovo,
Afghanistan, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Georgia, the Ukraine. Both sides are
cooperating in putting pressure on Cuba, Serbia-Montenegro, Belarus,
Lebanon, Syria, Iran and even Russia. There is also growing behind the
scene cooperation between the two sides in Iraq.
Western European monopoly capital, which has initiated the so-called
First and Second World Wars for the redistribution of colonies,
semi-colonies, spheres of influence, sources of raw materials etc. is
now assisting US imperialists in their aggression against the peoples of
countries of the Muslim world and in this manner contributing to the
initiation of an impending Third World War. The war against the Muslim
peoples and countries of the Middle East and Central Asia and the
scramble for the control of this vast region and its resources is also a
war against other aspiring imperialist powers, such as China, Russia and
the Shangai Cooperation Organization formed under their leadership.
Despite their contradictions with the US and their cooperation and trade
with both Russia and China, EU imperialists have thrown their weight
behind Washington. The transatlantic alliance is firmly supported and
promoted by Israel and powerful Zionist lobbies all over the Western
world, which have played a very important role in the ongoing aggression
on Iraq and play a very important role in the preparation of planned
aggression on Iran. For the moment, this rivalry between different
imperialist powers and blocs is mainly being carried out under the guise
of fighting “Islamic terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism.” To deceive
their “own” workers into supporting their prospective military
adventures in the Middle East or elsewhere, EU imperialists need to
frighten them with this scarecrow.
EU imperialists led by Germany and France need an atmosphere of fear, terror, militarism and war for internal purposes as well. To gain a competitive edge vis-a-vis the US, China, India etc. and to outdo their imperialist rivals, they’ve been striving to push wage levels down, destroy the organizations of workers and abolish their social and economic gains. This drive is being met with sporadic, but growing resistance on the part of workers in France, Germany, Italy etc. Here too, the scarecrow of Islamic terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism” provides the European bosses with a suitable scapegoat and an excuse for diverting the discontent and anger of the workers towards the Muslim minority, which is being portrayed as potential terrorists and/ or unfair competitors on the job market etc. For some time, especially after the events of September 11, 2001, Western corporate media has been, more and more eagerly fanning anti-Muslim feelings towards the growing and mostly poor Muslim minority. Several incidents of reactionary terror, (Bali, October 12, 2002, Casablanca, May 16, 2003, Istanbul, November 15 and 20, 2003, Madrid, March 11, 2004 and London, July 7, 2005) which have targeted ordinary people and allegedly perpetrated by “Muslim terrorists” are being utilized to instill fear in European workers and toilers and to sow distrust between the Muslim minority and the great mass of European workers. In this way, EU imperialists strive to divide the ranks of the workers along religious and ethnic lines and build a social basis for their plans to build a fascistic police state.
However, it is not so easy to deceive European workers into supporting such military adventures and to cheat them away from their hard-won gains. Despite the absence of communist and more or less consistent revolutionary leadership and the betrayal of leaderships of revisionist parties and trades-union, European workers have not entirely lost their fighting spirit. After all, they are the repository of several revolutions and have a great tradition of resistance and struggle against fascism and capitalism. This, indeed, must be the reason behind the publication and re-publication of the cartoons of Mohammad, which is only a link in the much longer chain of imperialist psychological war against the Muslim peoples AND the workers of Western Europe and the US. So, the cartoon crisis has almost nothing to do with the defense of the freedom of the press or that of democratic values of the West, values which are in danger of being trampled underfoot by the monopoly bourgeoisie in power. The attempt to limit the context of the discussion with censorship vs freedom itself betrays an attitude to deflect the attention of the masses from the real issues involved.
The Political Character of Islamic Anger
The protest actions that have taken and are taking place in Muslim
countries and partly in Western Europe lack a revolutionary or more or
less consistent democratic leadership. Most seem to be spontaneous
actions and/ or actions organized and led by groups which describe
themselves as “Islamic”. In some places, such as Syria and Iran, it
appears that these actions are organized by state agencies, for the
purposes of utilizing the anti-imperialist potential of the wave of
popular Islamic anger and with the aim of reducing the aggressive
pressure of the US, Israel and the EU. In the special case of Nigeria,
where tens of thousands of people have lost their lives during the last
decade as a result of inter-communal violence, cartoon actions have
degenerated into a Christian-Muslim confrontation; we can surmise that
here, state agencies or other reactionary cliques were behind the
attacks and counter-attacks. In several Muslim countries, such as Egypt,
Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, the ruling cliques tried to ride the
wave of popular Muslim anger and maybe to make political capital out of
it by displaying false anger or engaging in noisy, but empty rhetoric.
Though targeting Denmark, Norway etc. initially, these actions took on a
more and more distinct anti-US and anti-EU character. This has been
especially true for Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the
latter two, cartoon actions have blended into protest actions against
imperialist invaders and their local collaborators. Although the
demonstrators have mostly demanded apologies from the Danish and other
European governments and condemned the Jyllands-Posten and other papers
involved, demands for the non-interference of Western powers in the
internal affairs of Muslim countries and for the expulsion of Danish and
other foreign troops from Afghanistan and Iraq have also been raised.
Consistent democrats and internationalists cannot approach these
protest actions from the extremely narrow and distorted perspective of
the freedom of the press or the defense of the so-called sensibilities
of the Muslim peoples. The Muslim world has been under the occupation
and/ or domination of Western colonial powers for more than 150 years;
colonial powers which have constantly interfered in the internal affairs
of Muslim peoples, oppressed them directly or through their agents and
pillaged their wealth and resources. Decades long occupation of
Palestine by Zionist aggressors, the ongoing suffering of the
Palestinian people with the open, “generous” and unabashed support of
the US and Western Europe and consistent backing of several reactionary
cliques and dictatorships by Washington and Brussels under the guise of
promoting democracy and human rights etc., has added to the discontent
and anger of Muslim peoples. This discontent and anger has been
exacerbated by the heinous occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, massacre
of more than 150,000 people in this “war on terror” and by haughtily
declared plans of American neo-fascists to re-design the map of the
Middle East and promote further regime change. It has been further
exacerbated by US-Israeli actions meant to suffocate Palestine, to
destabilize Lebanon, dominate Syria and bomb and occupy Iran etc. Should
one be surprised at seeing the Muslim toilers reacting on a massive
scale and sometimes in a violent manner against this whole system of
exploitation, oppression and degradation under the pretext of offensive
Mohammad cartoons under these conditions? Not at all. Therefore to
neglect or to pretend not to see the deep discontent and anger of the
Muslim masses and focus the attention of the public opinion on the
cartoons and the question of the freedom of the press is not only
entirely misleading, but utterly immoral and unacceptable as well. In
one of his articles written in January-February 1916, discussing the
impact of the Dreyfus case in France, Lenin had said:
”The socialist revolution may break out not only in consequence of a
great strike, a street demonstration, a hunger riot, a mutiny in the
forces, or a colonial rebellion, but also in consequence of any
political crisis, like the Dreyfus affair, the Zabern incident, or in
connection with a referendum on the secession of an oppressed nation,
etc.” (“The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to
Self-Determination”) To a certain extent, the situation in the Muslim
world may be likened to the situation in Western Europe in 1915-1916. In
a somewhat similar fashion, this long accumulated and entirely
legitimate discontent and anger of the Muslim toilers has exploded on
the pretext of Mohammad cartoons. Next time around, the Islamic anger
might burst on another pretext.
How to Approach the Protest Actions of the Muslim Masses
Under the conditions mentioned and in view of the lack of a
revolutionary or more or less consistent democratic leadership, it is
understandable that the anger of the Muslim peoples can at times assume
irrational forms, be diverted towards incorrect targets and be utilized
for reactionary ends. Class-conscious proletariat is aware of this
danger; it is also aware of the endless machinations and provocations of
the intelligence organizations of the imperialist invaders, their allies
and local stooges, who strive to incite violence between workers and
toilers of different nationalities, religions and sects. A case in point
is the provocative bombing of Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra, Iraq on
February 22, with the aim of furthering their plans for a civil war
between Shiite and Sunni toilers. Unless the Muslim masses are
illuminated with the internationalist and revolutionary world view of
the proletariat, resistance actions conducted under the banner of
political Islam are liable at times to deviate from their real aims and
target potential and indisputable allies and friends of the Muslim
peoples, such as revolutionary groups, foreign workers, Christian
communities, women’s groups etc., rather than their enemies. This is
true, for the cartoon protests as well. On the other hand, the
relatively low level of development of capitalism in Muslim countries
and the resulting preponderance in these countries of petty-bourgeoisie
and semi-proletarians coupled with the frustration and desperation of
the Muslim toilers, who have been oppressed, exploited and degraded for
decades and hundreds of years by colonialists, imperialists, Zionists
and their local servants leads to a semi-anarchistic state of mind and
at times to a tendency to blind terrorism. In his article “Anarchism and
Socialism” written in 1901, Lenin had described anarchism as “a product
of despair. The psychology of the unsettled intellectual or the vagabond
and not of the proletarian.” To a certain extent, this, unfortunately,
is very much the case in certain Arab countries, such as Palestine and
Iraq.
However, all these considerations do not detract from the revolutionary potential of the Muslim peoples and their protest actions with regard to Mohammad cartoons. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people have risen and are on the streets is in itself is a source of fear for the reactionary cliques in power and their imperialist masters. What is more, as I have mentioned above, in several countries, such as Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, these protest actions have assumed an anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist character and dealt blows at imperialists and their local agents. Under conditions of imperialist aggression and/ or fascist dictatorship, Islamic (or other religious) resistance movements may play a limited progressive role, as long as they fight against the enemies of the people. We can remind ourselves of the “liberation theology” of Latin America, of the protest actions of Buddhist monks during the Vietnamese national liberation war in the 1960s and 1970s, of the victorious struggle of Hizbullah against Zionist occupation and terror in Lebanon during 1978-2000 and of the presence of Islamic resistance movements in Afghanistan and Iraq. In view of the continuing US-led imperialist-Zionist aggression, we may and should expect further upsurges of the Muslim masses with more explicit anti-imperialist demands. Such mass movements may lead to the destabilization and weakening of pro-US collaborator states, such as Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt etc. and their replacement with anti-US and anti-Zionist Muslim states. Such developments, of course, would mean tactical blows at the US; the main enemy of the workers and peoples of the world. Strictly guarding its political and organizational independence, class-conscious proletariat and its party will not and should not flinch from engaging in united action with such Islamic groups against imperialists and their quislings.
Of course, being materialist, class-conscious proletariat is against
religion and all sorts and manifestations of idealism. It also is aware
of the fact that, ruling classes and their state apparata have been
using and continue to use religion to confuse and dupe workers and other
toilers for the purpose of perpetuating their reign. Moreover,
proletariat and its party defend the gains of great bourgeois-democratic
revolutions have won in their struggle against the monarchy, aristocracy
and clerical reaction, including the freedom of the press. On the other
hand, it is obvious that, real and consistent struggle against fascism,
militarism, imperialism and capitalism can only be waged under the flag
of Marxism-Leninism, that is, under the leadership of the Communist
Party of the class-conscious proletariat. Even the most radical and
advanced political representatives of the petty-bourgeoisie are unable
to wage a determined struggle against fascism, militarism, imperialism,
let alone overthrow capitalism. Therefore, it goes without saying that,
in the middle and long run, Islamic resistance movements, which are even
more backward than petty-bourgeois revolutionary democracy ideologically
and politically, do not really have the prospect of providing real
leadership to the Muslim masses. Only class-conscious proletariat and
its party will be able to lead the Muslim workers and toilers, in their
resistance against imperialist oppression, occupation and terror.
Formation of communist parties of the proletariat in the Middle East,
who will unite under their banners all workers and exploited strata of
all nationalities, religions and sects, is task of foremost importance.
Arab and Muslim masses shall be liberated from the clutches of
imperialism, Zionism and local reaction only under the leadership of
such parties, which will crown the first stage of revolution with the
overthrow of capitalism and the victory of socialist revolution.
This is no empty rhetoric. Before the October Revolution of 1917 and for
some time after it, Russia was one of the most backward countries of
Europe. At the First Conference of Industrial Managers in 1931 Stalin
had said:
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must
make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they crush us…
Bolsheviks must master technique. It is time Bolsheviks themselves
became experts. In the period of reconstruction technique decides
everything.” (“The Tasks of Business Executives”, Problems of Leninism,
Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1940, pp. 366-67) And he was
right. Ten years after that speech, Nazi Germany, accompanied by its
vassals invaded the Soviet Union with a huge army. In spite of initial
setbacks and heavy losses, workers and other toilers of the land of the
Soviets were repulse and crush the most formidable war machine of the
time. And this was due to the correct and courageous leadership of the
Communist Party, the internationalist fraternity of the workers and
peoples of this vast country and to the gigantic strides the Soviet
Union had taken in the building of socialism and the conquest of
technique. Without mastering technique and as a direct result of it,
without producing better tanks, airplanes, guns etc., it would be much
more difficult, if not impossible for the Red Army of the workers and
peasants of the Soviet Union to defeat Nazi invaders. If the Muslim
toilers and peoples want to put a stop to the bullying and aggression of
the imperialist West (and to that of other imperialists), they are
obliged to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet Union of Lenin and
Stalin. That is, they are obliged to overthrow the corrupt, reactionary
cliques exploiting and oppressing them on behalf of imperialists, begin
the construction of a genuinely just social order, that is socialism and
replace private ownership of the means of production with that of public
ownership and outdo or at least equal the technique at the disposal of
their imperialist tormentors.