In the Fallas festival, giant sculptures of the high and mighty are placed in the streets for the public to mock before being destroyed in an orgy of gunpowder and flames. It has survived attacks by the Roman Catholic church, various puritanical rulers and the Franco dictatorship.Contrast with the confidence of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, France:. . . .Valencians watched global protests against newspaper cartoons of Mohammed with growing alarm. Last month, the mayor, Rita Barberá, urged artists to "temper freedom with a sense of responsibility" when referring to religious subjects. At least one well known local Fallas artist admitted to removing elements from his display of comic sculptures. . . . that identified them as Arabs.
Félix Crespo, the senior official in charge of the Central Fallas Council that runs the festival, urged the neighbourhood committees that raise funds to build the sculptures to avoid mixing humour with religion, "because that can be misunderstood".
Everyone assumed these warnings referred to Islam because sculptures of Roman Catholic priests, nuns, even of God, are a central part of the Fallas.[emphasis mine]
A municipal cultural center here on France's border with Switzerland organized a reading of a 265-year-old play by Voltaire, whose writings helped lay the foundations of modern Europe's commitment to secularism. The play, "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet," uses the founder of Islam to lampoon all forms of religious frenzy and intolerance.Something about the attitude of this mayor tugged at my memory, and I wondered if the residents of Saint-Genis-Pouilly descend from the Huguenots who fled into the mountains of the Swiss border (among many other places) in the 16th c. to escape persecution by the Catholic Church. Another town in that area is Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, which matter-of-factly sheltered thousands of Jewish children during WWII. In the documentary "Weapons of the Spirit," the people of Chambon repeatedly cited their Huguenot heritage when asked about their motivations. Like other dissident Protestant groups, the Huguenots sought religious freedom by emigrating to the New World in large numbers, had a deep distrust of state religion and state authority in general, and considered the Old Testament equal to the New as a source of Divine instruction.The production quickly stirred up passions that echoed the cartoon uproar. "This play . . . constitutes an insult to the entire Muslim community," said a letter to the mayor of Saint-Genis-Pouilly, signed by Said Akhrouf, a French-born cafe owner of Moroccan descent and three other Islamic activists representing Muslim associations. They demanded the performance be cancelled.
Instead, Mayor Hubert Bertrand called in police reinforcements to protect the theater. On the night of the December reading, a small riot broke out involving several dozen people and youths who set fire to a car and garbage cans. It was "the most excitement we've ever had down here," says the socialist mayor.
. . . . Now that tempers have calmed, Mayor Bertrand says he is proud his town took a stand by refusing to cave in under pressure to call off the reading. Free speech is modern Europe's "foundation stone," he says. "For a long time we have not confirmed our convictions, so lots of people think they can contest them."
I wasn't able to find out if that is indeed the heritage of Saint-Genis-Pouilly. But the good humor, the matter-of-fact refusal to be pushed around, and the physical and intellectual distance from the centers of urbane sophistry -- all remind me of the villagers of Chambon.
Then we have the man who guided the campaign against the Voltaire play, one Hafid Ouardiri, who is about as far from a Huguenot as you can get. The Protestant dissidents helped usher in the Enlightenment by precipitating a rupture between the Church and the State, which in turn set the stage for the concept of inalienable individual rights.
Mr. Ouardiri is going in the other direction:Mr. Ouardiri, an Algerian-born former leftist radical, came to France in the 1960s and says he used to chant the 1968 student slogan, "It is forbidden to forbid." Now a devout Muslim, he says he champions "the need to forbid." Algeria and other Muslim countries, he says, were colonized by Europeans "nourished by Voltaire."So are we still, I hope.
In Voltaire's play, the characters of Seid and Palmira are inspired by from Mohammed's adopted son Zeid and his wife Zainab bint Jahsh. Mohammed's desire for Zainab caused him to invent a Commandment saying that God ordered Zeid to divorce Zainab, and that is was Divinely OK for Mohammed to marry his daughter-in-law. Koran, Sura 33:37.
The play is a direct assault on the moral character of Mohammed by Voltaire. Who had more than a little bit of skewering the religious in him.
The complete translated text of Mahomet can be found online. Go to freewebs dot com, then /drjackwheeler/index.htm
Mohammed was also mostly exempt from the Soviet Proletcult assault on religion in the 1920s. Anti-religious propaganda in Russia was otherwise so comprehensive that the government even blasphemed against Babylonian and Sumerian deities.
Churches and synagogues were looted and closed, but not mosques. All religious schools were closed, except Muslim ones. Priests and rabbis were arrested, but Imams retained full civil rights, including the right to "vote", and were allowed to continue preaching. Even Islamic courts were not touched.
The leading Soviet expert on Islam was Mirza Sultan-Galiev, a Tatar Muslim and a protege of Stalin, who argued that it was necessary to maintain solidarity with non-Soviet Muslims, who were seen as a major weapon against "Asian Imperialism".
Stalin turned against his protege when Sultan-Galiev tried to create a Muslim Communist Party, and even a rival "Colonial International" led by Muslims. (So bang, bang, bang.)
Islam wasn't spared all persecution (Stalin hated everybody equally) but they were incredibly lucky compared to Christians and Jews.
BTW, the first Islamic congress to grant equal rights to women was the All-Russian Muslim Congress that met in Moscow in March 1917, a few months before the revolution. It was dominated by westernized liberals who were opposed to traditional Islamic restrictions. Those liberals were also mixed up with Russian "liberals" like the Kadets and the moderate SRs, so they got swept away during the revolution. Conservative Imams were probsbly very happy to see that.
Joe: a direct assault on the moral character of Mohammed by Voltaire.
Speaking of the irreverent cheese-eaters, Theodore Dalrymple points out that "The French have emerged in this crisis as far stauncher and more fearless and unapologetic defenders of freedom than the Americans or the British."
Pym Fortune's party and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's parties are in freefall. Labor won big by courting the Muslim Vote; and some observers would not be surprised to see official anti-blasphemy laws introduced in the Netherlands (applying only to Islam of course).
It may be the sheer obstreporousness of the French that saves them from Islam. The Daily Telegraph in the UK pulled an article (reportedly after threats) that predicted full dual-legal systems of Sharia and UK law; with defacto Sharia already in existence.
The French have indeed behaved far better than the Anglo-Saxon nations during the Cartoon Jihad. It's embarassing as hell and hopeful, all at the same time.
The Netherlands' ongoing descent is a good illustration of why Trent & Tom's comments about a strategy of "saving the remnant" and cutting losses elsewhere will probably prove correct. Though there's a Pope who may disagree, and Benedict certainly seems to be trying to do the "Miracle Max" thing by getting Europe to vomit up the poison pill of relativism and rediscover its belief in its own culture. That the culture of Voltaire should one day depend on a Pope's assistance would doubtless make the playwright spin in his grave.
On which topic, Eugene Volokh adds this:
Please note that Fallas has nothing to do with a reading in a town. In the Valencian festivity hundreds of monuments are planted, and hundred of thousands of visitors can reach the city in a single day. So many of both of them that many streets are closed and cars are left in the outskirts. Security issues are far more complex.
Moreover, the importance of the Fallas for Valencians is mainly economic. It is a festivity that has evolved in the last 150 years where anyone, no matter citizenship, race or religion, can participate; unlike Easter processions. It is quite popular and they do not want any incident in such a big celebration.
BTW, don't worry because the top exponent of Islam in Spain, our prime minister
I am sure will be abundantly displayed.