c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Scholars have said the controversy surrounding the recent publication of 12 cartoons in European newspapers that depict the Prophet Muhammad and other Islamic symbols is symptomatic of a clash of civilizations.

Riots prompted by the cartoons, along with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq and Iran’s defiance over its nuclear weapons, are all directed at a West dominated by Christians (aka “anti-Muslim Crusaders”) and Jews (aka “Israeli killers of Palestinian children”).

The cartoons first appeared last September in Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper. Last month a Norwegian publication reprinted them. The drawings subsequently appeared across Europe. Here at home, the Fox News Channel aired the cartoons and the Philadelphia Inquirer reprinted them.

Angry Muslims have rioted in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, India, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. At least nine people have been killed in these well-televised paroxysms of rage, and hundreds more injured. Diplomatic offices in Islamic countries (especially those of Denmark and Norway) and a Maronite Catholic Church in Beirut have been attacked, and there are threats of economic boycotts against Danish products. Muslim clerics have called for the beheading of the cartoonists who are currently hiding in fear for their lives.

Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, has called for the “prosecution of the extremists” who, he charges, have fomented the rioting that has led to violence and death. He seems to forget, however, that many of the demonstrations _ especially in the dictatorships of Syria and Iran _ could occur only with governmental approval.

The violent reaction to the cartoons is a reminder that instant communications and globalization have sped up the increasingly bitter confrontation between the West and militant Islam. That process will only accelerate, bringing toxic xenophobic Islamic societies into closer contact with the “Satanic” West.

But almost unnoticed during the current furor is the huge number of obscene anti-Jewish cartoons and articles that regularly appear in the Arab and Islamic media. While demanding that the West curtail all anti-Islamic cartoons and articles, Arab and Muslim leaders encourage an relentless anti-Jewish campaign in their own electronic and print media.

On April 21, 2001, Al Ahram, a leading Egyptian daily, published a cartoon featuring hooked-nosed Israeli soldiers killing Arab youngsters and gleefully drinking their blood _ a direct link to the infamous medieval Christian libel that Jews used children’s blood in preparing Passover matzah.

Last November, Al Yawm, a Saudi newspaper, superimposed the Nazi swastika on the Jewish Star of David. The German newspaper Die Welt, sensing the irony, recently said “the protests from Muslims would be taken more seriously if they came across as less hypocritical” by not protesting the Syrian TV depiction of rabbis as cannibals.

The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” an anti-Semitic Czarist Russian forgery, is readily available in many Islamic countries and was featured on a 2002 Egyptian TV series. Last week the Arab European League, based in Holland and Belgium, posted an anti-Jewish cartoon on its Web site showing Dutch Holocaust victim Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler.

But the anti-Jewish imagery is not limited to the Arab and Muslim media. In 2003 The Independent, a British publication, printed a cartoon showing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon eating the flesh of a Palestinian infant, with a “Vote Likud” button covering his genitals. The caption reads: “What’s wrong, you never seen a politician kissing babies before?” Incredibly, that vicious cartoon beat 34 other entries to win the 2003 “Cartoon of the Year” awarded by the British Political Cartoon Society.

Despite protests from Israeli and Jewish leaders, there have been no apologies for such outages from either the Islamic or Western media or from government officials. Horrific anti-Jewish material is permitted, even rewarded, while perceived anti-Islamic material is met with rioting, boycotts and death threats.

Clearly an ugly double standard is at work.

Repressive Arab and Muslim leaders who control their national media cynically reject such protests, citing “freedom of the press.” It’s the same principle they vigorously denounce when the Western media presents anything deemed anti-Islamic.

Finally, has everyone forgotten that Syria and Egypt launched their 1973 surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s most sacred holy day? Talk about respecting religious sensibilities!

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

KRE/PH END RUDIN

Editors: To obtain a photo of Rabbi Rudin, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug. If searching by subject, designate “exact phrase” for best results.