The latest victim of a decades-old wave of violent intolerance and hate is the artist formerly known as Molly Norris, against whom a "death fatwa" was issued on July 12. Sadly, on September 15, 2010, many news outlets announced that the former Ms. Norris went into hiding under an assumed name at the urging of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Her offense against Islam? The former Ms. Norris had drawn a satirical cartoon in the spring of 2010, purporting to announce a "Draw Muhammed Day." As a result, she will be in what amounts to a witness protection program (at her own expense). She has cut all ties with her former life and family in order to avoid being murdered. Norris is the latest artist to be placed on the "Islamic Hit (List) Parade," put there by the al Aqaeda connected cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki was linked to the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre and the failed bombing in New York City's Times Square.
The former Ms. Norris has joined Islam's "roll of honor," her only consolation being that she is in some very good company.
For twenty-two years, Salman Rushdie has been subject to a price on his head for publishing a novel called "The Satanic Verses." His book was the subject of violent protests in many countries, most notably the "fatwa" imposed against him by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran. The "fatwa" of course was merely a euphemism for suborned murder. The death threat continues to this day, having been reaffirmed, for example, in 2005 by the Ayatolla Ali-Khameini. Rushdie has confirmed that he receives an annual message from Iran reaffirming the call for his murder.
In 2004, a Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh, great grandson of the brother of Vincent Van Gogh, was murdered in cold blood in response to a film he produced with Ayaan Hirsi Ali called "Submission." The film was critical of the treatment of women in Islamic countries. Theo Van Gogh was shot eight times, knocking him off of his bicycle and killing him. His attacker then attempted to decapitate him with one knife, and stabbed him in the chest with a second knife. Two knives were left sticking out of his chest, through a note containing a five-page screed full of threats against western countries, Jews, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and referencing a Muslim terrorist organization.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali apostate to Islam, worked on the film "Submission" with Theo Van Gogh. She rose from meager origins in Somalia, emigrated to Holland, and was elected to the Dutch Parliament. As a result of the note stuck in Theo Van Gogh's chest and other threats leveled against her, she was forced into hiding. She has lived in fear for the last six years under armed guard.
In 2005, an small Danish newspaper called the Jyllands-Posten produced a satirical series of cartoons depicting the the Muslim Prophet Muhammed. As a result, riots and threats of violence erupted worldwide, Danish and Norwegian embassies were set on fire, and 139 people were killed. The various cartoonists who drew the offending parodies were forced into hiding under numerous threats of death. On several anniversaries of the cartoons' original publication, there have been violent reenactments of the original cartoon riots.
In 2008, Kurt Westergaart (the artist who drew the famed "Mohammed with a bomb in his turban" cartoon) was the target of an assassination plot. In 2009, Yale University Press published a book about the Danish cartoons, and censored the images from the book out of fear of violent reprisals.
Geert Wilders, a Dutch Member of Parliament, produced a film in 2008 called "Fitna" which was critical of Islam. As a result, death threats were issued against Wilders and he has been forced to live under armed guard ever since.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the American cartoon television show "South Park," were subjected to death threats in 2010 as a result of an episode satirizing the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. The incident was the subject of controversy due to the decision to censor the image of Mohammed. The threats against Parker and Stone specifically referenced the murder of Theo Van Gogh, and warned them in not-so-veiled terms that they would be next.
Lesser known victims are legion. In 1985, the 80 year old Mahmoud Muhammad Taha was hanged in Khartoum, Sudan for the crime of writing a book on the history of Islam which suggested that Mosque and State should be separate. In 1987, 80,000 books that were accused of "attacking Islam" were burned at Isfahan University in Iran. In February, 1989, several Iranian writers and poets, Amir Nikraiin, Manouchehr Behzadi, Djavid Misani, Abutorab Bagherazdeh, Said Soltanpur and Rahman Hatefi, were executed for publishing material critical of Islam. In 2004, the musician and poet Ahmad Bayat Mokhtari was kidnapped and murdered (by being run over with a car) for publishing material offensive to Islam. In January, 2006, Journalist Elham Afrotam was arrested and jailed for writing an article critical of the Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power. These are only some examples of the nearly endless list of Islamic outrages against freedom of thought and expression.
One would think the media and artistic communities in the free world, who make their livings and hone their crafts by pushing the limits of parody, satire, and comedy, not to mention serious journalism, writing, and film-making, would stand shoulder-to-shoulder against this barbarity. Ironically, however, the protestations in this instance seem oddly muted.
When an unknown and irrelevant pastor from a small, rural, 30-parishioner church in central Florida threatened to burn a few copies of the Koran, everyone of note up to and including the President of the United States came rushing to defend the honor of Muslims who cherish that book.
Burning a Koran warranted Presidential attention because it might "lead to" violence. So why is there little attention given to actual, real-life, violence?
Who stands with the former Molly Norris, wherever she may be - and whoever she is - now?
Who stands with the former Molly Norris, wherever she may be - and whoever she is - now?
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