Silver LiningYemeni journalists and extremism trap [Archives:2006/930/Opinion]

Mohammed Hatem al-Qadhi
[email protected]
The information Ministry impatiently ordered the closures of three newspapers and the arrest of some journalists on charges of reproducing the cartoons defaming Prophet Mohammed. It even tarnished the image of the journalists and their newspapers, mobilizing the public opinion anger against them.

Now the newspapers (Yemen Observer, al-Hurriyah and al-Rai al-Aam) are closed and the journalists are standing trial. The danger does not lie here in the prosecution of our colleagues including Mohammed al-Asaadi. Rather, it stems from the bad image created by the mosque preachers and the state-run media which just disseminated the news about the case, influencing the people who now believe our colleagues have abused Prophet Mohammed and consequently deserve death. Their lives and future are at stake.

Unfortunately, some clerics were able to influence most of the lawyers, pushing them to stand against the journalists. They have even been attracted by the amount of money the influential cleric Abdulmajeed al-Zindani collected to cover the cost of the prosecution of the journalists. Motivated by their respect to their profession and their belief the journalists have done nothing wrong, the advocates Mohammed Allawo and Khaled al-Anisi went against the stream and decided to defend al-Asaadi and his fellow journalists. Despite the risk that they might face and loss of their reputation, the two lawyers decided to go ahead and even convince some of the clerics who were against the journalists. They could persuade these clerics that there is misunderstanding that has to be sorted out.

This is fine. But, it is difficult to go and explain the implications of the case to everybody. It is the mosque preachers and the state-run media that can do this and explain that there has been misunderstanding. The official media could at least bring the issue for debate and give the journalists a chance to address the people and defend themselves. It could also have brought clerics of different opinions to discuss the issue so that the people are not misled by just one opinion. It just started the fire and did nothing to turn it off. This really justifies our call to call off the state monopoly of broadcast media. Had there been free radios and TVs, it would have been possible for the journalists to tell the people their real story and what they meant by reproducing the caricatures.

Even if the court verdict comes in favor of our colleagues, other clerics will not keep mute. Sheikh al-Zindani openly said he would respect the court verdict. However, he confirmed that the court judge and his verdict will be questioned by clerics. This means that the journalists will continue to battle with clerics whose opinions and views are a fatwa or a religious edict for many people. There are a lot of fanatic people who take such things for granted and are blindly ready to kill without even questioning the reason. We do still remember the assassination of the late democrat politician Jarallah Omar. The assassin, Ali Jarallah, was a fanatic person who just read in a newspaper article saying that Omar demanded that death penalty should be abolished. He passed his own fatwa and went to assassinate one of the vocal voices of democracy and liberalization in the modern history of Yemen. Who will guarantee that the same will not take place against one of our colleagues?

Khaled al-Anisi has been right when said that the intent of the government was to put both the journalists and the clerics into a real fight. The clerics will look at the journalists as infidels and the journalists will consider the clerics extremist. The outcome is that when we come to the debate of the draft press laws by the parliament, there will be an already mobilized angered opinion against the journalists. Then, all will demand a more restrictive law that will put the journalists under the grip of repression.

I know it is not in the interest of our government or any other Arab governments that the number of freedom and democracy leaders grows. Therefore, the government will not hesitate to even use the trick of religious extremism to defame the journalists if the technique of repression and beating will be of negative consequences. We all know that more fanaticism and extremism means less democracy and freedom fighters.
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