Blasphemy!

The art and science of psychotherapy is based on the power of words. Words are the tools of the trade; they’re the transmitters as well as the building blocks of healing, growth, and transformative change. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me”? No psychologist can agree with that!

Across the Muslim world, “sticks and stones” have been the response that followed an Egyptian television personality’s featuring a YouTube video clip that mocked the prophet Mohammed. The violence was accompanied by demands for U.S. government suppression of material that insults Islam.

We have seen this all before before: murderous rage followed the publication of cartoons in an obscure Danish newspaper, Salman Rushdie forced into hiding for years when his life was threatened by a fatwa for his novel, Satanic Verses. Rampaging mobs send the bloody message: words are powerful and threatening.

The notion that words can threaten a society (or a soul) is not unique to Islam. Judaism, and Christianity, as well as Islam, have strong injunctions against blasphemy. Religious texts affirm that God and leadership are to be spoken of only with the greatest respect and reverence, or dire consequences, in this world and in the next, will ensue. These religious laws testify to a truth that words are indeed powerful. To my knowledge, however, no modern Jewish or Christian country has criminalized blasphemy. Yet.

Over the past 10+ years, the 57 member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has sponsored and tried to pass a U.N. resolution calling on countries to criminalize “defamation of religion.” At first glance the phrase seems bland and politically correct, but last year the Pew Research Center looked at what really happens in countries with blasphemy laws. The report, “Rising Restrictions on Religion” noted that laws against “blasphemy, apostasy, and defamation of religion” in practice are used to punish religious minorities whose unorthodox views are seen as threatening religious harmony in the country.

And it is certainly the case that countries “outraged” by the offensive YouTube clip, are not inhibited in any way from expressing hostility towards other religions and cultures. Sermons, television entertainment, and school textbooks are replete with materials that demonize those others, inciting their population against them. Memri.org is a website that translates and aggregates articles, cartoons, and video from the Middle East and South Asia, and makes them accessible to the non-Arabic-speaking world. Check it out and you’ll find that much of the material is vile (see, for example, the Tom Lantos Archives on Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial on that site), but some are hopeful. Just today, an article was posted with the encouraging headline “Harsh Self-Criticism In Arab World Over Violent Reactions To Anti-Islamic Film.”

In the drama of psychotherapy, self-examination is often the first step toward change. Perhaps this time it will be true for the troubled regions of the world, as well.