Constructive Provocation

By: Travis Kavulla

It could have been the embassies burning, or the pledges of decapitation for offending cartoonists, or the priest shot dead while praying in his church in Turkey.

About two weeks ago, it struck me and my fellow editors at The Harvard Salient that in observing the global reaction to the now famous Danish cartoons, we were witnessing an important aspect of Islamic political culture being laid bare.

To us, whatever the extenuating circumstances, an obvious and inescapable conclusion of the cartoon furor was that the Muslim world did not have as high a tolerance as the West for a full, free expression of ideas.

Not that anyone was saying something so impolitic around campus. In fact, nobody was saying anything at all.

Two weeks ago, if an observer looked at Harvard Yard's poster boards or glanced at the e-mail lists where campus events are routinely publicized, he would have seen the following: a lecture by literary critic Elaine Scarry entitled “Undoing Democracy: Military Honor and the Rule of Law,” a law-school panel called “Detention, Rendition, and Torture: Waging America's Global War on Terrorism outside the Rule of Law,” and (naturally) the recurring Noam Chomsky oration on the wickedness of America's foreign policy.

The most significant event in world politics somehow couldn't penetrate Harvard's single-minded obsession with America's imperial wrongdoing. Many students simply didn't know what the Danish cartoons looked like. A number of them shared a misperception with rioters in Syria and the West Bank that the cartoons depicted Mohammed as a pig or in flagrante delicto.

So we at The Salient tried to start a jumpstart a conversation that needed to happen. We decided to publish the cartoons.

We trusted that Harvard students would not become violent. And we knew that Harvard ostensibly prides itself on providing a full, even risqué, climate of free speech. After all, this is the university which allows students to publish a pornographic magazine called H-Bomb — in fact, the student government funds it!

This is the same Harvard where a gay-advocacy group once handed out blank posters to its members with instructions to let their imaginations run wild. The resulting works were emblazoned with lines like “Saint Sebastian: The First Fag in the Military” and “I Worship the Lord with my Wet Quivering Clitoris.” These images were then plastered around the Yard.

And this is the same Harvard where a student dressed as the Virgin Mary was photographed masturbating, an oeuvre which was submitted as a final project for a class called “American Protest Literature from Tom Paine to Tupac.” That image was later posted on one of Harvard's most heavily trafficked blogs.

These were blasphemies, but nobody at Harvard responded by burning down a building.

Alongside the four cartoons we republished, we ran an editorial explaining our decision: “Christianity has evolved as the West has evolved, and Christians have grown thick skin. It almost goes without saying that similar depictions of Christ, or the pope, or a crucifix would have hardly elicited a response save a handful of letters to the editor. In the 21st century, a violent response would, in any case, be unfathomable. We have no doubt that Islam will one day evolve as well, to be able to tolerate things its practitioners might find offensive or taboo. Part of this maturing process is not catering to a sensitivity borne of fear of death that has plagued many would-be critics of radical Islam.”

The Salient took a gamble. We knew the cartoons would offend Muslims on our campus. But we thought the risk was worth it because our decision would serve as a starting point for meaningful conversations.

And it has.

The Harvard Interfaith Council held a forum last week to discuss the cartoons; more than 100 people attended. Harvard's Institute of Politics also held an event to analyze the controversy. Last week, I was honored to receive an invitation from a member of the Harvard Islamic Society to attend Friday prayers. Three hours of enlightening discussion followed. The cartoons have become a feature of campus conversation.

In so many ways, the reaction to The Salient's publication of the cartoons has vindicated our reason for publishing them. It has proved beyond all doubt that politically incorrect pictures and language can beget a more fruitful conversation and get more minds thinking. Isn't that what universities are meant for, anyways?

— Travis Kavulla is a senior at Harvard and editor of The Harvard Salient.