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02/15/2006: "Caught Between the Censor and the Fatwah?"

For once I had prepared a blog long in advance but I just couldn’t make myself send the syrupy, uncontroversial read, when freedom of expression and creativity is being threatened. So here goes a new one, off the tip of my fingers.

For the past four years I lived in an Islamic country where freedom of expression was limited, in an environment that stifled creativity in whatever form it sought to manifest itself and measures were taken to make things close to impossible [be it in the business world or in the arts, or in any other field to be truthful]. For four years - while hanging on to my own beliefs and getting on silently with my own life and work - I respected the laws and the ways of the land and went out of my way to find the common ground upon which to build something that could exist within the system and might be meaningful to all. I had an abundance of ‘subversive’ ideas but I kept silent, not out of fear but out of respect and good sense – out of the realisation that such ideas need not necessarily take form if I want more important work to see the light of day. Not once did I try to impose ideas or methodologies I believed to be superior or more efficient, and we all worked within the framework that was available and made the most of it. In the process, I made many friends and gained insight into a new culture – a positive balance, even if not much else was given me in return.

I do realize that very few people may share my views or understand my actions, either in the West or in the Islamic world where arrogance in defending conflicting ideals of superiority seems to have become the [visible] norm. Alas, the life I have led has made it difficult for me to nurture xenophobic thoughts… thus far. I tend to admire the perseverance and sacrifice of those who leave their own countries in search of a better life elsewhere. I understand their plight and I recognize how important they can be to the economies and societies they integrate. In my country [in Europe in general, and in Denmark all the more so], the ideas, movements, professional aspirations and projects of foreigners are not subject to a different set of laws and I am pleased that it is so. The prospect of it being otherwise would be unthinkable. Therefore, I have a certain difficulty in accepting last week’s events triggered by the publication of cartoons.

Upon returning home I have found that home has changed. Unfortunately, not for the better. On the one hand, superficiality, licentiousness and arrogance have increasingly replaced depth, freedom and consensus in all aspects of society. On the other hand, 9/11, 3/11 and 7/7 – to mention only some of the more media-alluring events – have gotten worryingly close.

As of last week a new and perverse form of terrorism came into play: The attempt to impose laws and prohibitions that do not even apply to the non-believer, on those very people who have provided a basis for a better life, in freedom and with access to education and fundamental legal rights to many who would not be able to claim them in the countries that so feverishly uphold their beliefs! While in total disregard of the international principle of reciprocity, the observance of which they seek only in their benefit, countries that do not afford freedom of religious expression to other faiths [and limit the rights of their own people and foreigners alike] now demand that we limit our freedom of expression and creativity – lessen rights granted to all – to accommodate their particularities and protect their sensitivities. In short, that we diminish what is ours and provides the basis for their own freedom, yet at the same time improve what we offer them, namely, a religious reverence way beyond the freedoms [religious and civil] they already enjoy.

Either I’ve been away for too long or this is the epitome of stupidity. What I find most shocking, however, is that our politicians should scramble to excuse themselves and editors be asked to beg for forgiveness, leaving us wondering if a new debate is afoot: the possibility of a certain degree of control that would leave us - cartoonists, musicians, writers, intellectuals, artists, etc. – caught between the censor and the fatwah. I may not yet have become a xenophobe, and I most certainly do not conform with the prevailing trends the cream of our society wishes to upkeep, but I refuse to be blackmailed and so uphold the right of the Danish cartoonists to be free to create and publish their work, even if they do represent a right-wing minority of Europeans I do not identify with. I do so because the opposite would mean to relinquish one of our greatest conquests: Freedom of Expression.

Freedom finds balance in Respect. In the free world, disrespect meets with legal action, something that was, and still is, available to those who felt offended [Denmark is, I believe, one of the more generous societies in Europe in this regard]. In this, and without wishing to sound arrogant, Europe grants those offended more than they could ever expect in the countries they have left behind out of choice or of necessity. Yet instead, and for greater effect [and delight of our news agencies and TV producers], random, ignorant, gratuitous violence has been the chosen response. The reasons behind the unbridgeable gap between the once undeniably great dar-al-islam and the growing arrogance of the flourishing West are best left to historians, political analysts and other discussion forums to unravel. However, this is a point where political events threaten to affect creative freedom, and so I felt this blog belonged here.

Next, no doubt, we’ll be asked to stick to pretty chocolate-box-cover-art [if any art at all] lest sensitivities be offended further when passing by an art gallery or visiting a museum in Paris, London, Madrid, New York…………..

If you choose to visit or live in the free world, you accept its hazards alongside the good things. You must first learn to grow up, as heartbreaking as growing up is for all of humanity, regardless of colour or creed.

In my next post, if nothing gets in the way, I’ll get back to the syrup.

Replies: 16 Comments

on Friday, February 24th, nN160vhHRy said

NNVlPuL0MBLm 6NNkUu3kn86 qcuTYGAVcut

on Tuesday, February 21st, perreaoult said

art is going to be made dispite murder so I make what I experiance. That is when I know it is good work. So look at it and don't fear.

on Friday, February 17th, Hyacinthe Baron said

I am pleased that my statement was chosen to be repeated.
It would appear that terrorists snuck a spam piece in and mingled surreptitiously while I was typing my comment...or even worse...copied and pasted my comment into their spam and will now proceed to terrorize all their potential victims. Terrorists are everywhere! Read my books: Echo of A Scream Book One and Echo of a Voice Book Two of the CASSANDRA'S TEAR TRILOGY. Go to http://www.amazon.com under books, author Hyacinthe Baron and you can LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK!
You will notice I have an awful lot to say and didn't even know it until I sat down to write.
Ah, visual art is a silent process isn't it?

on Friday, February 17th, Houses to rent said

Progress is being set back to the dark ages. We all need to be frightened. Terrorists rule and women are hiding again behind the Mullah, as are, I am confinced, the terrorists themselves.

on Thursday, February 16th, Brad Michael Moore said

Believing in God doesn't make us his only creation that can think or exist. Why create a universe? Perhaps to show us how small we really are, and what great possibility there is of life elsewhere. Maybe life exists that’s better and smarter… Maybe there’s life, out there, that has learned to overcome its ego.

The fabric of the universe is perfect in its existence - we are far from that reality. We prefer to destroy as much as we create... I'm sure there is a better model somewhere in this cosmos. What a blow to our self-esteem if they were brave enough to visit. Come to Earth to help us down from our little stool we believe stands so high. We only recognize one universe, but if you add all the "One God's" people believe in – our universe might need to sublet.

"Ridicule my mother, ridicule my god – I will not burn your house down, nor threaten you - such is the achievement of civilized people. Between you and me, without common sense only comes anarchy."

Please, be happy in your beliefs - I'll be happy with mine. Just don't expect me to believe that your system is the best, or only true one around. The real truth is out there, but it’s unexplainable in human language. That’s what ideas are for, and art is what ideas are about.

on Thursday, February 16th, gabriella said

Jose - by all means consider making your project according to your best instincts and without censoring your intentions. others will do that in response. doing the politically correct, hence expedient and more comfortable version, means reducing the power of your work to move others along a journey of discovering their own biases, adherence to flawed beliefs or need to check assumptions.
Walter had written in one of his earlier comments in the discussion forum of the cultural lack of understanding of metaphor. It seems to me that really good editorial cartoonists make ample use of metaphor, as have done artists such as Goya and Daumier and others. There is a hunger for poetic expression in both the written and plastic arts, and presence of such out in the world have a great deal of power to move others along similar questionings and understandings of life conditions.
It is inevitable that making art cannot help but be a personal and political statement, for what we choose to give image to, how and with what materials reveal a personal belief system. All one has to do is to look at and think about the ramifications of all that one sees -artists everywhere are wearing their hearts and beliefs on their sleeves.

on Thursday, February 16th, walt said

No doubt Hyacinthe, women have taken the brunt of much of the worst that our history has poured out. Hidden away, covered up, treated like cattle or wealth and mostly second or third class citizens at best, used for ***,used as slaves, and all the while still balancing things so that it all stays glued together. Whether religion, the monarchy or other dictators and power mongers, even democracies that allow the majority to oppress the minority, we have a long way to go.

on Thursday, February 16th, Hyacinthe Kuller Bar said

And please, if we are going to discuss this religious-political topic,(almost as an excuse to not practice art or the denial of misspent beliefs) then while at it let us not forget the castration, isolation and repression of women by men who are allowed to run amuck in the name of the religion of some patriarchal god or other.

Just the other day some TV station showed Michelangelo's David and took the liberty of covering the penis for the sake of their viewers.

God, the Mother must help us all.

on Thursday, February 16th, jose freitas cruz said

Shirley, it is an almost impossible barrier to overcome, and no doubt in one thousand years time we'll still be at a loss for a solution. I do hope you understand that I am not taking sides with Christianity either. As I mentioned the west (what we call the West) has gone through its periods of dark ages when it was precisely Islam that shone.

on Thursday, February 16th, Markus said

testing posting... please ignore.

on Thursday, February 16th, shirley babashoff said

Everybody (apparently) wants to have the right to feel offended! And one famous day the Pope (Pope Paulus IV) unfortunately felt offended too...
I am joking a bit now here, but
Jose Freitas the problem you rise is certainly complex and complicate, almost impossible to solve.
Let me only say that Christianity like Islam never felt at easy with freedom of expression, as we well know!
Let me quote so to explain my joke from this our website: "Daniele da Volterra was forced by the Counter-Reformation to paint draperies over Michelangelo’s nude figures in the Last Judgment."
What a pity!

(source: http://wwar.com/masters/d/daniele_da_volterra.html
of course)

on Thursday, February 16th, jose freitas cruz said

Hyacinthe, Walter, Andrew, Gabriella, thanks for taking your time to read this one and for sharing your views on a topic I though I was going to be massacred for. Regardless of being in favour or not you have gotten to the core of it and that gives me some reassurance.

In your last Blog, Walt, you flourish the topic of engagement, and how the trend has been towards a distancing of the artist from the true world that surrounds him. How I agree. Not only is there a reluctance in being seen doing things not pertaining to the loftier realm of fine art but also a growing tendency to hide behind empty theories (philosophical or otherwise) with no bearing on what is happening in the ‘audience’. All that matters is being seen on the ‘stage’ – far removed from reality – collecting the prize. What I enjoyed about your text was that you bring home the message that the real value of what we achieve through our art lies not in the sum of money others will say our work is worth but the wealth of our interaction with others within a community, either through our art or through the things our artistic talent can help us do – if in the process the latter transcends the mundane and reaches other heights, well, that’s the jackpot.

What I would like us to hold on to, and I believe many who visit these blogs do, is this idea that our interaction within a community is the greatest asset we have. You mention Hyacinthe, how you believe a change may come through art. I would say that all the change we have undergone as human beings has been the result of the light cast by artists (writers, poets, musicians, etc.) on things previously not seen before his interaction with them.

As Andrew says we are revolutionaries [or should be]. And we do have a responsibility, whether we like it or not. What we do touches people around us and helps them to see/think the things they had grown blind/oblivious to in a different light. We cannot control their discoveries but we can set them on a journey. That’s our responsibility.

To bring this back to the theme that matters, what made me write this blog was not so much the clash of cultures or the inept response of one to the callous [given the gravity of the times] act of another but a dilemma I saw myself facing, given the gravity of the times.

I have devised a series of pieces I have yet to determine the best way to bring to life. At this stage they are merely sketches but they are begging for a life, and by life I mean beyond the canvas, beyond the 3 dimensions of a sculpture even. I have been looking into making these pieces interactive. At the core of these interactive pieces lies a series of very controversial behaviours I was privy to in the years I spent abroad. I had been [have been, for too long] going down the line of presenting these as huge brains with certain synaptic activity. Of course the overall conditioning would be an important factor and this is where the dilemma sets in. Do I go ahead and do these pieces with the original conditioning [I trust I need not say more] or do I subvert the original idea and generalize the conditionings according to different groups [to remain politically correct] thereby removing power and pertinence from the overall display and taking all life and meaning from the project?

This is what is at stake. Regardless of the whole historical background, of who was right and wrong throughout the times, the question is whether an artist should be made to ask himself this question out of fear in a world we would claim to be free?

Would my pieces help? It would make us all think, and by thinking it would maybe make us question; by questioning, to consider investigating; by investigating, to learn; and by learning to grow into something other than what we are now. That is how I see change happening and that is how we artists promote it. The more we keep in touch with our community the more efficient our message will be in the long run.

In some places where change is taboo the run will be longer, but eventually the day will come, and just as we in the West once lived in darker ages, others will one day understand the importance of freedom and the possibilities of change.

My biggest worry is that we let the good things we have go bad and fall back into darkness. It is, after all, Ebb and Flow as Gabriella points out.

on Wednesday, February 15th, gabriella said

Jose - good blog and yes it definitely belongs here.
The National Post out of Toronto did an editorial on this furore, and provided examples of the kind of political cartoons contained in Palestinian newspapers that vilified the Jews and Jewish nation and drew parallels between then and the Nazi apparatus of Germany in the 30s. Political cartoons like these show what the prevailing sentiments of Muslim culture are, and what the bulk of people are encouraged to believe there.
Surely there are educated Muslims with a good grasp of History who will refuse to fall in line with beliefs in these kinds of representations, just as there are educated Westerners who can see beyond polarized group-think.
History shows there is a waxing and waning of beliefs, subsequent social behavior and identifying with the ethos of a prevailing political ruling class.
The conflict with Islamic culture is of long-standing history. We are merely experiencing a modern version of it, where the butting up of a theistic culture with societies that have embraced Individualism as an abiding philosophy is a new wrinkle in an old cloth.

on Wednesday, February 15th, Andrew Wielawski said

Good blog, Jose. I do feel it belongs here. There is a political aspect to the side one is on in this argument, and artists are supposed to take the more revolutionary one. But really, I believe that we bear the responsibility for our positions, and we bear it alone, and shouldn't choose a side to belong to. Each issue we confront should be examined individually, but I don't see a lot of artists doing this. Conformity to someone else's dogma should never be the choice we make, if we are to break new ground through the work we create.
Then, there is the issue of Alah, God, or whatever your faith suggests you call him. In the massacres committed in the name of Catholicism, I don't believe the faith itself was responsible, but rather the men who perverted Catholicism to suit their own, usually monetary, needs, like the German knights who burned Catholics in Poland and Lithuania in the 13th century to steal amber, and then reported back to the Pope in Rome that they had 'converted' pagans. Those throwing bombs because of cartoons are in the business of throwing bombs, and have far different goals than upholding respect for a religion. The religion is, as it always has been, just an excuse.

on Wednesday, February 15th, walt said

Jose,

We see similar if not yet such violent responses in the U.S. when religious figures are lampooned. Those who have attached themselves to groups with strong beliefs usually expect the rest of us to follow even if we see a different truth. I give several assignments to my illustration students each year that deals with political and celebrity cartooning including satire, lampooning and characeture. I remind them that this is perhaps the last if not one of the last remaining realms of uncensored expression-- the Op Ed. I also remind them that there is often a line one should not cross called good taste. An opinion may not have any uplifting value and therefore a reasonable contra response is also legitimate. But for some taste is only in their mouth. I do not censore them specifically.

In most illustration (at least here in the States) censurship is excercised by marketing departments. A book will not be sold at Barnes and Nobles, or other big retail book stores if their marketing departments do not approve the cover art. Not many people know this. And while this may seem like morality at work the truth is it has more to do with sales than morality. Censorship is everywhere whether we are aware of it or not.

I haven't seen the cartoons in question. I may not even find them very funny or insightful myself. But I reserve the right to satirize whom I please. In fact to be able to see the visual opinions of cartoonists who have managed to get their fingers on the pulse of an audience is to see what that audience really thinks. It may be offensive. But I'd rather know what the general opinion looks like. It gives me a sense of where I am and who I am dealing with everyday. And, if the artist has not found that pulse their work will not stike a harmonic chord and their audience will respond by not supporting their opinions. This is the only valid form of censorship. So my attitude is to let Allah punish an offense. Only God can see a persons heart. Especially when the offender (as in this case) is outside the sovereign rein of a religion.

This is a clash of cultures. The one with long standing power and the other just beginning to have power after having lost it for some time. I do not believe either one should dominate the other. I would argue that ultimately a religion should only focus on its own walk with the faith. The judgment about what happens outside that faith has already been made the moment one becomes a convert. Isn't that enough of a statement? Let each faith prove their own validity within their own walk. Either God is or is not. But I cannot know if I'm forced to believe even in something I can find no faith in on my own. I think this is both the weakness and the strength of religion.

By the way, in the late 700's there was a period when the Byzantine Catholic Church removed all visual reference to God and the saints from their churches. Today we call it the iconoclastic controversy. It lasted about a hundred and 25 years. And this occured when Muslims began to invade from the south bringing their own more chaste version of 'thou shall not make graven images.' This clash of cultures is not a new thing. At one point in this history both Christian and Muslim communities often shared the same buildings in perfect peace.

on Wednesday, February 15th, Hyacinthe Baron said

We all need to be frightened. Progress is being set back to the dark ages. Terrorists rule and women are hiding again behind the Mullah, as are, I am confinced, the terrorists themselves.

A male idol who is not Jehovah has ruled out all things feminine and that includes artistic endeavors.

Isn't a central tenent of certain religions that there can be no graven images? Isn't there a patriarchal ruler in the heavens above who has declared that He will never be seen in any medium or known in any way except within the individual?

When individuals are overcome and overwhelmed with faith and hope that this ruler will show himself how can they care about anything else, especially art?

Reminds me of the story of the Cult of the Airplane in New Guinea. Once, a long time ago a cargo airplane from the USA dropped supplies, including cola drinks, on a mountaintop. Ever since the tribe waits and watches in good faith that the plane will return.

Remember the stir when Mapplethorpe showed his images? Here we overcame prejudices because we have been given the right to do so.

We may feel depressed at times, rue our individual lots or extol our good fortunes and go our way without experiencing very much repression.

It is unimaginable that the right to express one's self would be denied and that an individual could be forced to RELINQUISH their individuality.

Though I ponder how apt this blog is to this site as it raises truly ponderous questions, I hope all will consider the issues it has raised. Perhaps in this way the problem of what exactly plagues humanity can one day be resolved. I have a feeling that will happen through art.

In my Cassandra's Tear Trilogy the hypothesis is put forth by the Artist Eve, the main character, that duality is the problem and that it is caused by a seperate consciousness simultaneously inhabiting the existing human brain. IT as it is called has a separate agenda from the basic human need to survive: IT wants, desires and works toward the goal of returning to space from whence it fell to earth.
I had the opportunity to discuss this theory with Jonas Salk, and Francis Crick and other scientists, who mostly agreed that there is "something" alien within us that might have sparked evolutionary changes, but that nothing physical has been spotted within the brain as yet.

This kind of creative expansion of expression is what makes us artists and may just lead to truth.