MEDIA REACTION GLOBAL OUTRAGE OVER MUHAMMAD

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 000344

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR/R/MR, I/GWHA, WHA, WHA/PDA, WHA/BSC,
WHA/EPSC
CDR USSOCOM FOR J-2 IAD/LAMA

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO OPRC KMDR PREL MEDIA REACTION
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION GLOBAL OUTRAGE OVER MUHAMMAD
CARTOONS; BUENOS AIRES 02/09/06


NOT CLEARED BY AN AMERICAN OFFICER


1. SUMMARY STATEMENT

Main story today is the global escalation of violence
over Muhammad's cartoons, and its unpredictable
consequences.


2. OPINION PIECES AND KEY STORIES

- "Freedom and Common Sense"

Pablo Ceron, centrist, leading "Clarin" international
columnist, opines (02/09) "Freedom of expression or
blasphemy: two opposed concepts seeking to explain the
uncontrollable situation that broke out these past two
weeks - although nobody can predict whether it already
reached its climax --. What began as a religious
conflict ended in a clearly political protest march.
Yesterday, the U.S. accused Islamic Fundamentalism of
taking advantage of the Muslims' wrath. And they're
possibly right. But what strikes the attention is the
insistence in publishing Muhammad's cartoons - a
decision that fuels a fire that is dangerously
spreading and does nothing but incite hatred. Freedom
of expression must go hand-in-hand with common sense
in order to avoid widening the deep rift between two
worlds that are drifting apart."

- "The Wrath of the Believers"

James Nielson, Liberal, English-language "Buenos Aires
Herald" international analyst, opines (02/09) "....
The message the rioters and those who are egging them
on are trying to get across, is that it is O.K. to
insult Jews, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists, as many
newspapers in Muslim countries do with sinister
relish, but nobody anywhere should be allowed to get
away with saying nasty things about the prophet
Muhammad. This rule of thumb has long been understood
wherever there are large Muslim populations. In Europe
and the U.S., even hardened satirists who have no
qualms about driving pious Catholics and Protestants
up the wall steer clear of Islam for fear of being
murdered.

".... Ironically, those who are allegedly most
offended by the depiction of the prophet as a human
bomb are also the most determined to prove that by and
large the cartoonist responsible had got it right.
Instead of staging an ostentatiously pacifist march
carrying doves or flowers, they warned the Europeans
that another 9/11 was coming their way and that Jews
had better prepare themselves for a 'real Holocaust'
that would be far more effective than Hitler's.

".... Unfortunately, there is no formula that can
accommodate both what to many is the licentious
tolerance that is the hallmark of all democratic
societies and the extreme intolerance that is the
characteristic of most Islamic ones. As the Danes and
others have just found out, when the two collide even
the tiniest spark can cause a worldwide conflagration
and, like it or not, there is no reason to think the
one now raging will be the last."


3. EDITORIALS

- "Distance between Faith and Fanaticism"

An editorial in center-right, daily-of-record "La
Nacion" reads (02/09) ".... The escalation of violence
(following the publication of Muhammad's cartoons)
might spark more problems, now that Iran's leading
daily Hamshari launched a contest of cartoons on the
Holocaust, seeking to prove the limits to freedom of
expression....

"It would be necessary, in the meantime, to find out
if what caused the recent protest riots resulted from
spontaneous reactions of the people or were carefully
staged by some authoritarian administrations of the
Arab world with the purpose of worsening the present
antinomies, benefiting their dark strategic interests.

".... From another point of view, it would be
convenient for Western mass media to be particularly

cautious in their irony and reports on issues related
to religious symbols of peoples that are extremely
zealous about their tradition or history.

".... Those who are trying to lead humanity to an
obscure and irrational confrontation -- a clash of
civilizations with no turning point -- are undermining
religious principles, trying to take advantage of a
false and anachronistic relationship between politics
and religion.

".... Historic monotheism - in its different branches
- mustn't side with ideologies or trends that want to
sow hatred and horror. Faith and fanaticism are two
paths which, in practice, never cross each other."


4. To see more Buenos Aires reporting, visit our
classified website at:
http://www.state.sqov.gov/p/wha/buenosaires

The Media Reaction Report reflects articles and
opinions by the cited news media and do not
necessarily reflect U.S. Embassy policy or views. The
Public Affairs Section does not independently verify
information. The report is intended for internal U.S.
Government use only.

GUTIERREZ