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AMB.
PIERRE SCHORI: FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE ERA OF GLOBALISATION: 08/11/2007
(MaximsNews Network)
UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 08 November 2007 -- In
Sweden, the right to freedom of speech is guaranteed by law. However, in the era of
globalisation this right must be accompanied by some responsibility that goes
beyond the personal whims of the individual.
According to
Pierre Schori, former Swedish deputy minister for Foreign Affairs, current director general
of the Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE and member of the Arab Reform Initiative,
Lars Vilks,
a well-known Swedish artist, does not contribute to
the cause of those who fight for freedom of speech in Muslim countries, but in
fact does quite the opposite.
Many
of us have supported the fight for freedom of speech and other rights in
countries where writers and artists have been threatened by dictatorial regimes
or violent fanatics.
We
did so in
Sweden
with Bangladeshi Taslima Nasreen
and Indian Salman Rushdie, uniting our efforts with those of Amnesty
International and the writers’ association PEN.
As
President of the Olof Palme Memorial
Fund, I have been able to contribute to the Olof Palme Prize being
granted to democrats such as
China’s Weng Jingsheng, Algeria’s
Salima Ghezali,
Russia’s Anna Politovskaia,
Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi and, this year, to Mossaad Mohamed Ali from
Darfur, amongst others.
A
common characteristic amongst them is the fact that they all risked their own
liberty, and on occasions their own lives, for the recognition of rights in
their respective countries.
Now
we are expected to support a Swedish artist who depicted the central figure of
Islam as an animal, a dog to be precise. In order to demonstrate his lack of
prejudice, Vilks also drew a pig symbolising a Jew.
Lars Vilks has thus acted to
"find out how far one can go". He decorates his artistic "fight
for liberty" with jokes such as: "I am quite pleased with the fact
that Al-Qaeda has become part of the artistic project; exactly like the
government and the prime minister” (SvD, 17 September 2007).
In
fact, there are several others that, without really knowing how, have been
implicated in his project: the police, taxpayers in general, Swedish export
companies, Swedish residents in Muslim countries and, of course, Swedish Muslims
and Muslims who live in Sweden.
What a great contribution to the right to freedom of
speech and what publicity for
himself and his work!
It
is difficult to believe that Lars Vilks was not aware of how far one can go in Sweden. The list of challenges to the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the
press in our country is long.
We
have seen almost everything in Sweden, from
a malicious caricature of a leader of Sweden’s Liberal Party with a pair of tweezers
attached to his genitals and the countless provocations of Lars Hillersberg in
the magazine Puss, to Sune Johannesson
who, at the end of the 1960s, intended to exhibit a poster of a naked girl
smoking a hashish pipe in the Lund Art Gallery (the police prohibited it and
Folke Edwards, the then director of the gallery, resigned).
To
this list can be added Carl-Johan de Geer, who inscribed the word "kuken"
(a Swedish term for vulgarly referring to the male member) on the Swedish flag
and a swastika on the star-spangled banner; Peter Dahl’s painting with
Princess Sybilla naked in an obscene pose; Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin’s Ecce Homo
(Jesus accompanied by homosexuals);
and all of caricaturist Zetterling’s creations… These provocations were
directed against Swedish legislation and good habits, but they did not have
direct international repercussions.
Reformists from the
Arab World can attest to how the
Iraq
war and the Western boycott of the democratically-elected Hamas government in
Palestine
have hindered their struggle. Insults to Muslim religious symbols in Western
countries do not make things easier.
Vilks enjoys liberties in
Sweden, but it is not much of an encouragement
to the cause of those who advocate for rudimentary freedom of speech in Muslim
countries. In fact it is completely the opposite (since I profess no religion I
did not associate my displeasure with Vilks’s provocations to the image of
God, but to the insulting extreme right-wing caricatures of Olof Palme, who was
depicted, on a dartboard, as a crazy man with a lost gaze and an eagled nose).
The
Muslim Council of Sweden has clearly dissociated itself from the death threats
aimed at Vilks, but it has also called for respect for its religion. The right
to freedom of speech is guaranteed by law in Sweden
and nobody has asked for any change to that situation. However, in the era of
globalisation, this right, which was achieved after so many efforts, must be
accompanied by some responsibility, beyond personal whims and wishes.
Some
voices were raised, especially amongst journalists, demanding a clearer
condemnation by the prime minister and the government as a whole; but if Fredrik
Reinfeldt may be congratulated on his first anniversary as prime minister, it is
for the intelligent and constructive manner in which he dealt with the Vilks
affair.
He
explained the Swedish constitutional right to freedom
of expression and, at the same time, highlighted the need for mutual respect
amongst the different communities. He also invited the ambassadors from Muslim
countries in
Sweden
to a meeting and visited a mosque in Stockholm.
Reinfeldt
acted in a significantly different way to his Danish counterpart, who initially
refused to meet with Muslim diplomats after the publication of caricatures of
the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
last year.
It
is time to deepen this debate and move beyond categorical declarations and
offensive provocations. Reinfeldt could adopt two quick measures to put an end
to this issue and at the same time create awareness about Islam and relevant
Swedish legislation.
First,
he could commission the Globalisation Committee of the Executive to create a
plan of action aimed at explaining how freedom of speech is embedded in the
Constitution – within Sweden as well as internationally – and promote
respect for different religions.
And
second, he could discuss this issue with his Scandinavian colleagues within the
Nordic Council and other fora.
Within
this dialogue there is also space for other thorny issues, such as equal rights
for men and women, the difference between individual values and legal rights and
integration and exclusion, to be addressed.
Meanwhile, I believe that Lars
Vilks should visit the Waldemarsudde
Museum
in Stockholm
to check how Eugen, “the painter prince”, signed some of his work at the
beginning of the last century: He wrote on the back of his paintings the
self-critical words: "Without value".
*
This text was taken from the online edition of the Swedish newspaper Svenska
Dagbladet, SvD.se, 21 September 2007.
Labels:
Pierre Schori,
Freedom of Speech,
Globalisation, FRIDE,
Muslim
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