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An Open Letter to Stephen Schwartz 4/3/2006 4:59:32 PM
[Edited to repair broken URL] After reading Stephen Schwartz’ fascinating essay, Muhammad Caricatured , I came away confused by the manner that he could attack the totalitarianism of fundamentalists within his own faith (Schwartz is a Sufi Muslim and a widely known critic of Wahhabi extremism) yet with regards to the Christian world, tends to side with the most totalitarian interpretation of Catholicism and attacks all its critics and dissenters as “enemies of religion” or as being league with communists (see my previous exchange with Schwartz on the subject of Italian playwright, Dario Fo.) So I sent Mr. Schwartz the following email on March 18, 2006 through the Weekly Standard’s website. As he has not responded, and previous experience shows that he generally responds promptly to me, if an insulting retort comes to mind, I can only conclude that he has chosen not to respond. I will not openly speculate as to why I have received no response. Enjoy, and imagine what could have been.
Dear Mr. Schwartz: Since our last exchange of views, I came upon your essay regarding the recent dabacle over the Danish cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb. I understand your position to be that a.) the Islamic world is by no means in universal agreement that pictorial depictions of Mohammed are forbidden; b.) even if this ban were universal, there is strong historical precedent that Islamic law is understood by Muslims not to be binding on non-Muslims, and c.) that satire of a revered figure is not tantamount to an incitement to violence. Despite our earlier quarrel, I found your presentation well argued. However I was struck by the seeming contradiction between these positions and the one you took in our dispute regarding Dario Fo, so I wish to pose some questions so that may be further enlightened: 1.) Given that you advocate an Islamic world that respects, even honors pluralism, both among the different branches of Islam and between Islam and other faith traditions, how is it that your conception of pluralism does not extend to the Christian world, and more specifically, the Catholic Church and Dario Fo, whose written work indicates that he is a Christian of a sort, albeit, a "heretical" Christian? 2.) You equate satire directed at the institutions of the Catholic Church with opposition to religion itself-- what was once called "atheism." The only way this equation would work is if one regarded the Roman Catholic Church as the one true faith, and its institutions and hierarchy as being theologically ordained-- that while Dario Fo's satire is so often aimed at such institutions as the Papacy, the Inquisition, and the Autos-da-Fé, this satire makes him not a protester but an enemy of religion itself. My question is: how can one who claims to be a Sufi Muslim take such a Thomistic argument on behalf of the Catholic Church? If you insist on such a theology, can you be a student of Islam? Are Protestants who choose a different ecclesiastical order than that of the Catholic Church, yet claim to be Christians, “enemies of religion?” Is the Catholic faith so weak that it is threatened by a few plays? 3.) Why is it that a Danish cartoonist ridiculing Mohammed is to be tolerated, yet an Italian actor and playwright ridiculing the Pope and the Inquisition not to be tolerated? Indeed, a major target of Fo’s ridicule of the Catholic Church (for which you call him an atheist) is its history of sponsoring violent persecution of the Jews of Europe. Does ridicule of anti-Jewish violence make one an “untiring enemy of religion?” 4.) The only example of violent persecution associated with Mr. Fo's plays to which I was able to find reference was the 1973 abduction, torture, and gang-rape of his wife, the actress Francesca Rame, by a Fascist terror cell, so why do you insinuate a linkage between the persecution of the Catholic clerisy by Communist regimes or paramilitaries and Mr. Fo's satirical work? Why do you insinuate such a linkage between Communist regimes and my own opinions? Do you condemn violence and threats of violence against Mr. Fo and his family? Have recent events caused your views on the relationship between satire and established religion matured in the last few months?
