Controversial cartoons that ran in a Danish newspaper last September have since created a clash of civilizations, ASU professors said Wednesday.
The professors were participating in a panel discussion on the Danish cartoons in Old Main's Carson Ballroom in front of about 30 people.
The cartoons portrayed the Prophet Muhammad and have since enraged many Muslims worldwide, who found the drawings offensive.
Linell Cady, director of ASU's Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, led the discussion.
"It's really become quite a serious matter in the international community," Cady said. "There are so many questions that need to be addressed."
The clash between Western and Islamic culture raises questions about freedom of speech and freedom of the press, Cady said.
Sani Umar, a historian in the religious studies department, said the war on terror, the invasion of Iraq and the war in Afghanistan have created a lot of fear in both the Western and Islamic worlds.
"Both sides are feeling under attack from the other side," he said. "There is a mutual sense of siege and a mutual sense of incomprehension."
Muslim reaction to the political cartoon is comparable to the way those in the secular community would feel about the offense of treason, Umar said.
Mark Woodward, an associate professor from the religious studies department, said although the cartoons are shocking and offensive, they are nothing new.
"This literature simply repeats itself over and over and over again," he said.
Though in the past few decades some Muslim communities have voiced anti-Christian or anti-Judaism beliefs, cartoons depicting prominent figures from either religion would never be created, Woodward said.
"It is almost unimaginable that you would find cartoons like this about Jesus, Moses or Abraham," he said.
Jim Weinstein, a professor from the College of Law, said the cartoons bring to light a political debate as well.
"It's not just that Muslim people feel insulted," he said. "There is an offense to the God."
In the United States, the cartoons fall within the boundaries of the First Amendment, he added.
"We have a right to say anything we want, to be as insulting as we want," he said.
European countries have a different legal stance, he said.
"Many countries have laws against [printing offensive material] based on religion, race, sex, etc.," he said.
The censorship laws in European countries are rarely used to prosecute offenders, Weinstein added.
When the panel opened up the floor to questions, Paul Green, an editorial writer for the East Valley Tribune, said he was shocked by the U.S. media's reaction.
"There are exactly four newspapers in the country that have seen fit to run these cartoons," Green said.
America's refusal to reprint the cartoons was an act of cowardly self-censorship, he added.
But Weinstein said it was in good taste for the media to decline the re-printing of the cartoons.
"It's the difference between what you have a right to do and what's right," he said.
Reach the reporter at kelsey.perry@asu.edu.
