Islamic Protests Create Uncertainty for Travelers

Islamic Protests Create Uncertainty for Travelers
From Greg Cruey, Your Guide to Asia for Visitors.
Feb 6 2006

Danes, Norwegians evacuated from Syria and Lebanon A simple cartoon could ruin your trip in the next few days if you are traveling to many parts of the Muslim world. Protests turned deadly over night in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press, as Afghan police fired on a crowd demonstrating outside a U.S. military installation there. One protester died. Protests have now occurred in a number of Asian countries over the publication in several European newspapers of cartoon caricatures of the founder of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad. A dozen such cartoons have been published and republished in papers in Norway, France, Germany, and other countries in the past two weeks. Included in the cartoons: an image of Muhammad with a turban shaped like a bomb and a cartoon of the Prophet standing outside heaven saying to suicide bombers, "Stop! We've run out of virgins." The cartoons were first published by a Danish newspaper in September; growing indignation in the Muslim world over the cartoons and a boycott of Danish products in some Middle Eastern nations kept the issue from going away. Now protests have broken out in a number of Islamic communities. The cartoons are considered offensive by Muslims for two reasons. Much has been made of the fact that Islamic law is seen as prohibiting the making of images of the Prophet Muhammad on the grounds that it could lead to idolatry. But that conviction is held more firmly by Sunni Muslims. Most Shi'ite groups object less; and the area of the mystical sects of Sufi Islam has long featured images of the Prophet. The more potent reason for Islamic anger over the drawings is probably less theological: the cartoons are plainly intended to be derogatory and, some would say, racist. Some of the most recent protests have been violent. The Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, Syria, were burnt by protesters on Saturday. The embassies of Sweden and Chile were also damaged there. Citizens or Denmark and Norway are being evacuated from the country. On Sunday protesters in neighboring Lebanon set fire to the Danish Embassy in Beirut. The government there put over 2,000 riot police and soldiers on the city streets to control demonstrators. At least 28 people were injured there. In Tehran, Iran, protesters broke windows at the Austrian Embassy and set small fires. Protests have occurred in a variety of other locations, including some outside the Middle East. The Danish flag was burned outside Denmark's embassy in Indonesia last week. The German Embassy was the target of protestors in Amman, Jordan, after a German magazine reprinted the cartoons. European Union facilities in Gaza was picketed by protestors and a German citizen in the west Bank city of Nablus was briefly kidnapped this weekend. And there have also been protests in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Few Asian destinations are unaffected by the growing crisis. Islam is a pervasive cultural force across the continent, a connecting factor between East and West Asia. Many Western observers miss the fact that Indonesia, with almost 200 million Muslims, has the world's largest Muslim population. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, each with over 100 million Muslims, rank second, third, and fourth (though not necessarily in that order). None are in the Middle East. When the 75 million Muslims of Iran and the 70 million in Turkey are factored in, and when the Islamic communities in the Philippines, Malaysia and the Arabian Peninsula are included, we discover that the southern edge of Asia is layered with three-quarters of a billion Muslims. Nor is Islam confined to the southern or coastal portions of Asia. The interior and northern reaches of the continent from Turkey, across the Caucasus, and through the great steppes to the edge of Mongolia is populated by Turkic Muslims like Russia's Tatars and China's Uighers. The current crisis has also served to inflame historic communal violence between Muslims and Christians in some locations. Police have defused three different bombs in the last two days in Indonesia's Maluku region - bombs that would have targeted the largely Christian population of that region. The riots in Beirut resulted in damage to a Maronite church in the city, as well as to the embassies involved. It is difficult to predict where the next set of demonstrations will occur or whose embassy may be targeted - especially since republication of the cartoons seems to still be a possibility. Travelers from the Southern Philippines to Dubai should be aware that they could find themselves caught in a tense situation overseas if a newspaper from their home country reprints the offensive cartoons while they happen to be traveling for pleasure or business in a country with a large Muslim community.
Note: the information in this story was gleaned from a variety of news sources including the Associated Press, CBS, the BBC, CNN, Reuters, and the Agence France Press. 


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