By Lim Yan Liang And Nur Asyiqin Mohamad Salleh, The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
SINGAPORE has stepped up security patrols and surveillance in relevant areas in the light of the terror attack in Paris, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday.
President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have also written to French President Francois Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls to convey their condolences over the attack on the offices of satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo, which killed 12 people.
"Singapore strongly condemns this savage act of terror," Mr Lee wrote. "It reminds us that terrorism and extremism pose a serious threat to all civilised societies, and that it is totally wrong, and contrary to the values of all religious faiths, to invoke religion to justify such savagery," he added.
Said Dr Tan: "As France mourns the victims, may the perpetrators be brought to justice swiftly, and may the wounded have a speedy recovery."
Post by Lee Hsien Loong.
"Singapore strongly condemns this savage act of terror," Mr Lee wrote. "It reminds us that terrorism and extremism pose a serious threat to all civilised societies, and that it is totally wrong, and contrary to the values of all religious faiths, to invoke religion to justify such savagery," he added.
Said Dr Tan: "As France mourns the victims, may the perpetrators be brought to justice swiftly, and may the wounded have a speedy recovery."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement condemning the "heinous attack".
Muslim leaders condemned the attack, but also criticised the magazine's provocative tone.
Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli told The Straits Times that distrust between communities in France had spiked.
"We're looking at a tragic conflict in a society where one part values absolute freedom of speech and has licence to be irreverent and even insulting to all religions and another that believes it has a divine licence to reply by spilling blood," he said.
"I'm glad our society values religious and racial harmony, and collectively does not tolerate anything that threatens this peace."
Said Ustaz Khair Rahmat of the Religious Rehabilitation Group: "History has shown us that one small mistake can easily get out of hand and escalate into a riot. We are very lucky communities in Singapore are very respectful and tolerant of each other's religion, and it takes work to keep it that way."
Satirical drawings of Prophet seen as an insult to the faith
The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
PARIS - For many Muslims, satirical depictions of Prophet Muhammad, revered not only as a prophet but also as a moral exemplar, are no laughing matter.
Islamic scholar Moataz al-Khateeb explains that all the prophets - Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and others (of the Abrahamic religions) - are highly respected figures in the Islamic faith. One cannot differentiate between them in terms of the reverence that should be given to each.
"Therefore, Muslims believe that the prophets have a higher status than other people. To ridicule them or their lives is an insult to the origin of their faith, and therefore any abuse to them is abuse of Muslims in general," he told the Al Jazeera website.
Mr Mohamed Magid, an imam and former head of the Islamic Society of North America, told CNN the Muslim prohibition on depicting prophets extends to Jesus and Moses, whom Islam treats as prophets. Some Muslim countries banned the films Noah and Exodus: Gods And Kings because their leading characters were Hebrew prophets.
Scholars of religion said Muslim opposition to portraying Prophet Muhammad was not generally violated in earlier centuries because of a gulf between much of the Muslim world and the West, reported CNN in a piece titled "Why Islam forbids images of Muhammad". In the age of globalisation, non-Muslims and critics of Islam have felt free to depict Prophet Muhammad, including in offensive ways, but publication in Europe of these cartoons has triggered protests worldwide.
Commentators and Islamic scholars said the prohibition against any depiction of Prophet Muhammad is an attempt to ward off idol worship, which used to be widespread in Islam's Arabian birthplace.
A central tenet of Islam is that Prophet Muhammad was a man, not God, and that portraying him could lead to revering a human in lieu of Allah.
"It's all rooted in the notion of idol worship," said Mr Akbar Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic Studies department at American University. "In Islam, the notion of God versus any depiction of God or any sacred figure is very strong," he told CNN.
"The Prophet himself was aware that if people saw his face portrayed by people, they would soon start worshipping him," said Mr Ahmed.
"So he himself spoke against such images, saying, 'I'm just a man'."
The most common visual representation of Prophet Muhammad in Islamic art is by elaborate, swirling Arabic calligraphy, wrote The Guardian's Middle East editor Ian Black.
Cartoonists raise nibs in salute to Charlie Hebdo, press freedom
The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
PARIS - Cartoonists around the world, including The Straits Times' Prudencio Dengcoy Miel and Adam Lee, did what they do best as they expressed anguished solidarity with their French counterparts who were gunned down on Wednesday.
The attack at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo left 12 dead, including some of France's best-known cartoonists: Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, 47; Jean "Cabu" Cabut, 76; Georges Wolinski, 80; Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, 57; and Philippe Honore, 73.
One cartoon that quickly went viral online, by Dutch artist Ruben L. Oppenheimer, showed a plane flying into two pencils standing erect, reminiscent of the former World Trade Center in New York.
"Ultimately, people who carry out these attacks can't defeat ideas through these means, and they won't succeed," Pope wrote, adding that he once met a cartoonist involved in the shooting and that the attack "hit a nerve".
"Our task is to keep doing what we do... Focus our satire on those in power and those who seek to wield power in ugly ways like these gunmen, and be part of a movement that promotes social solidarity, and a free and open and tolerant society."
Unbowed, European news organisations challenged the attackers by publishing controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad across their front pages yesterday.
The Danish newspaper that sparked global controversy by publishing cartoons of the Prophet in 2005 was the country's only major daily that did not carry illustrations from Charlie Hebdo, out of concern for its staff's security.
Otherwise, from Britain's The Guardian and Germany's Tages- spiegel, to best-selling Czech daily Blesk and Spain's El Pais, news groups honoured their slain colleagues by republishing the cartoons central to the assault.
Otherwise, from Britain's The Guardian and Germany's Tages- spiegel, to best-selling Czech daily Blesk and Spain's El Pais, news groups honoured their slain colleagues by republishing the cartoons central to the assault.
But in North America, some media outlets decided against publishing the cartoons, including Associated Press, CBC News and CNN.
"We publish the satire of Charlie Hebdo out of respect for the murder victims, who were defending the freedom of opinion," Berliner Zeitung said. "We do it for freedom of the press and of expression, for freedom of the arts and freedom of religion."
The Financial Times published several Charlie Hebdo cartoons on its website, including one of the Prophet holding up his hand and warning: "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter."
Other cartoons published show the Prophet crying, with the headline "Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalism".
El Mundo in Madrid ran a black strip at the top of its front page that read "Je suis Charlie", meaning "I am Charlie".
Mr Flemming Rose, editor at Denmark's Jyllands-Posten who commissioned the cartoons in 2005, said Charlie Hebdo was defending press freedom.
"Charlie Hebdo didn't shut up... and they have now paid the highest price for that," he said.
Many editorial pages were outraged, insisting the killings should not undermine press freedom.
France's media erupted in fury, with the daily Liberation running the headline "We are all Charlie" - a line repeated in many other papers and echoed online with the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie.
The attack "targeted the heart of democracy - the freedom of the press", wrote German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, adding in an opinion piece that the gunmen must not be allowed to win.
The Financial Times was one of the few to criticise Charlie Hebdo, and faced a backlash after publishing an opinion piece by its European editor. In an online article, Mr Tony Barber condemned the attack, but accused the weekly of "editorial foolishness" and said it had "just been stupid" to provoke Muslims with the cartoons.
"Some common sense would be useful at publications such as Charlie Hebdo, and Jyllands-Posten, which purport to strike a blow for freedom when they provoke Muslims," he wrote.
Associated Press spokesman Paul Colford said: "It's been our policy for years that we refrain from moving deliberately provocative images." Since much of the agency's content is distributed to newspapers and websites, he said, "we will err on the side of caution for some instances".
For CBC News, Canada's national public broadcaster, it was a continuation of existing policies put in place to respect "the mass of Muslim believers", said spokesman Chuck Thompson.
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
BLOOMBERG, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
When Paris shootings strike close to the heart in S-E Asia
By Farish A. Noor, Published The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
By Farish A. Noor, Published The Straits Times, 9 Jan 2015
THE murders that took place at the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris have sent shock waves across the globe, and the immediate concerns that have been raised by analysts are whether French society will have the resilience that is required to cope with this national event and whether the centre of French political society will move further to the right as a result.
Doubtless, many are worried that the killings will be exploited by right-wing nationalist elements in the country who may seize the moment and use it as an argument for more immigration control, the demonisation of minority communities and a more visible police presence all over the country. Should such a widespread moral panic occur, it would signal instead a victory for the terrorists who would probably be happy to see French society in a state of crisis and panic, as it would also polarise that society further.
We in South-east Asia have never been immune to such threats as well. It ought to be remembered that the region is home to almost all the major religious communities of the world: Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Confucianists live side by side in communities that have been ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse for centuries.
However, we also live in a world that has grown increasingly globalised and where the global communicative infrastructure that has been put in place connects us with developments in other parts of the world. Today, the conflicts in places like Iraq and Syria are relayed to us instantaneously, on a real-time basis. In some cases, these external variable factors have also impacted upon some groups and societies in a manner that fuels the centrifugal tendencies that already exist within them: Marginalised individuals from the region have fled their comfort zones to take part in wars that have nothing to do with them directly, but which affect them on a more personal emotional level.
Additionally, globalisation means that our diverse societies are now forced to confront diversity on a daily basis, smack in the faces of some who may object to opinions and world views that they find contrary to their own.
The concern of security analysts and academics lies in the manner in which societies react to such diversity, and to what extent societies can cope with difference: The scientist who teaches the theory of evolution, for instance, does so in the name of scientific research and certainly does not seek to offend. But in real-life situations, such ideas may be offensive to others who regard such theories as antithetical to their religious beliefs.
Likewise, while we defend the right of all citizens to hold onto their personal beliefs or cultural practices, there are no laws that can prevent disagreement of opinion or to compel everyone to be accepting of every theory or belief system that exists.
Here lies the predicament of the security analyst: How do we manage differences and diversity, and how can plural, complex societies live at ease with themselves?
Globalisation and the communicative infrastructure that connects the world today did not invent pluralism and diversity; they have merely made them more real to us on an everyday basis.
A lesson that can be learnt from the Paris tragedy is this: Living as we do in a plural and complex South-east Asia, it is crucial that societies and governments alike appreciate that diversity is a reality that we cannot ever hope to escape from, and that there is no isolated space where any community can live in a state of blissful ignorance of the other.
It is also important to realise that wherever there is pluralism, there is bound to be diversity - in beliefs, world views and opinions - and what is important to some may be less so for others.
How we are to live and deal with this is going to be the challenge for South-east Asia in the years ahead, but it is a challenge we are going to have to face together.
The first condition to be met when dealing with this challenge, to quote the philosopher Michel Foucault, is to deal with it with intelligence, and not with hate.
The writer is associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.
The writer is associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.
Cartoonists - the 'mad men' of journalism
By Tom Plate, Published The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2015
By Tom Plate, Published The Straits Times, 10 Jan 2015
AS THE editor in charge of the opinion pages of newspapers in New York and Los Angeles, what was the hardest part of my job? Dealing with annoying, demanding bosses? Calming down angry readers? Smoothing the enormous egos of neurotic writers? No, that was the easy part.
The hard part was supervising the truly creative artist - the crazy mind that could twist a lance into your brain to make a point that you knew in your heart was true, but mere writers somehow found impossible to capture quite so deftly.
Yes, I am talking about newspaper and magazine editorial cartoonists - truly the "mad men" of journalism.
In various positions at different United States newspapers, I had the job of "supervising" them, an almost impossible task.
Make no mistake about it: At their lampooning best, which is when they are at their meanest, they hardly ever show any mercy - only respect for the truth… even if it is the truth as they see it. They don't care how you see it. There are no soft edges to their work. And they know how to hurt. Sorry to say, but most of them enjoy it - at least the good ones with whom I worked.
Not everyone sees the issues of the world as they do, of course. And the number of angry phone calls I took from readers who were outraged by an editorial cartoon in the newspaper is testament to that. The list includes mayors, governors, university presidents, religious leaders - sometimes, it felt like it would never stop.
And I also got many angry, worried calls from my bosses, especially newspaper publishers. American publishers like to make all their readers happy. But the editorial cartoonist views his work not as happy-making or newspaper marketing, but as newspaper truth-finding. Their view is that if everyone is happy, they are doing something wrong.
There's really not much the "supervisor" can do. On very rare occasions, it's possible to simply not publish the cartoon - I remember once spiking a tasteless drawing of Saddam Hussein "mooning" to the world. But if you do that too often, you break the spirit of the artist (and of largely admiring employees), and hate yourself later for not having had more editorial courage.
You then risk defeating the whole purpose of the newspaper: to fervently engage readers in the news, issues and controversies of the day, whether through the relatively civilised rationalities of expression in prose or through the relatively barbaric "emotional drone attacks" of the editorial cartoonist.
Some of the esteemed cartoonists with whom I worked have received Pulitzer Prizes - and many other top awards. However, in recent years, at US newspapers at least, the edgiest of them have retired, or been quietly retired.
The new crop seems, to me at least, tamer, even worryingly polite - more like genteel illustrators than the noisy but brilliant drunk at the family dinner table. The passion somehow seems to have diminished.
But not in Paris: Tame was not the word to describe the caustic cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine targeted in an attack by gunmen that killed 12 people, including journalists, cartoonists and police officers.
We should understand that the range of its cartooning was hardly confined to Islamic targets; its people skewered just about every imaginable sacred cow under the sun. Charlie Hebdo was, in effect, an equal-opportunity insulter.
We should understand that the range of its cartooning was hardly confined to Islamic targets; its people skewered just about every imaginable sacred cow under the sun. Charlie Hebdo was, in effect, an equal-opportunity insulter.
The gunmen might have killed the magazine's staff, but they have rekindled the spirit and reason of the satirical magazine in general.
They did not realise it, but these Islamist assassins met an enemy that, over time, will defeat them. They met the truth.
American author and professor Tom Plate was an editorial page editor, at various times, at the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Long Island Newsday. His published memoir on these experiences is titled Confessions Of An American Media Man.
American author and professor Tom Plate was an editorial page editor, at various times, at the Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Long Island Newsday. His published memoir on these experiences is titled Confessions Of An American Media Man.