So I again owe a few blog posts and they are forthcoming here soon. (It will provide me with an excuse to procrastinate ;)
But today I am going to write about my excitement filled day yesterday. You may have heard about the lecturer at Uppsala University yesterday that was attacked while giving a lecture about free speech in art. I was at that lecture that turned into chaos before it was cancelled.
The lecturer was Lars Vilks, a Swedish Artist who drew the Prophet Muhammad's face on a dog in 2007. A simple google search of his name will produce a synapsis of the whole controversy. He is also the person that so called Jihad Jane has been accused of plotting to kill.
Anyway, when I arrived at the University, there was a crowd outside demonstrating against Lars Vilks with police standing guard at the door. When I entered, I found myself in a long long line in order to pass through a security checkpoint for the lecture. Because I did not bring my backpack, I was able to go to the front of the line and get wanded by security. Inside, the room was only 1/6 full 10 minutes before the lecture was to start. The security lines would end up making the presentation start 1.5 hours late.
While I was waiting for the lecture and my friends who had purses, I waited in my seat just watching. Lars Vilks came out with his security personnel to take a few photos of the room. Immediately some people began yelling at Vilkes about various things. "don't take photos of us", "you are a liar", "we want religious freedom" was pretty much all I could make out over all of the yelling. Vilks stood there for 5 min listening to everything, especially a man of Arabic descent in the first row. When he left the room, the yelling ceased and we then continued to wait. When the room was nearly full, a lady outside the lecture hall started yelling something in Arabic. I do not know what it was but after 30 seconds, she was then removed from the building.
When the room was full (260 people), they closed the doors and the police, of which there were 10 inside the room with just outside, and a school official gave us a safety lecture laying out the rules. They were simple.
1. When Vilks is presenting, he has the floor and the audience is to respect that.
2. There will be time for questions/debate after Vilks presentation is finnished
3. If you leave the room, you cannot return
4. Anyone not respecting these rules will be asked to leave/removed
Then Vilks came out. He began by taking about art that has been banned throughout the last few hundred years. Showing examples including Jesus, Mary and the Pope. He then talked about a video made by Soohra Heera, an art student in Amsterdam from Iran. He talked about the history of the video and then proceeded to show it. The video contained sexual and homosexual images pertaining to Islamic culture. After about 15-20 seconds of the video, a person in the front row rushed forward and attacked Vilks. Someone also threw some metal object at him as well.
Vilks was rushed out of the room and the police lined the front of the room armed with pepper spray and batons. chaos ensued for the next 5 minutes with physical outbursts at one point taking place in three different parts of the room. I remained to see if the lecture would continue, but the police then announced they were ending the lecture and that people were to exit the room at once through the emergency exit in the back. On the way out, tensions were high and outside was the group still protesting.
Now that I have been able to process the events a bit as opposed to having my head on a swivel, I have some thoughts about the impact of what happened.
- I will admit that before yesterday, I was aware of Lars Vilks but did not know anything of what he says. I would have liked to hear what he says about freedom of expression. I may or may not agreed with him, but I was not given the opportunity.
- It was disappointing in that Mr. Vilks never got to any of his own thoughts or ideas. He had simply been going through giving a context of where we stand today.
- The full video he was showing is not at all what I anticipated. I have since watched it online and it draws in aspects western culture as well.
- When the police announced the end of the lecture, the people who were upset cheered. They had wanted and succeeded in silencing someone they disagreed with, taking away his right to free speech.
- Not all Muslims in the room reacted in violence and rage. Some were irritated that the outburst occurred. One woman in front of me said "this is not how Muhammad would have wanted us to act"
I think the precedent that was set yesterday is a dangerous one. In Sweden, like the USA, people have the right to free speech. The nazis can hold their rallies and though their message is one that is abhorrent, they are allowed to speak their mind. If we have a right to free speech, we must all have it, not only from a government but from the people because the government should be the representation of the people.
I can understand that Muslims are upset at Vilks and I can even say that Vilks depiction of Muhammad is not respectful, but, this is a free country and he has the right to say and draw what he wants, even if it angers some. The fact that people are upset does not condone violence or him losing his right to express himself.
There are many people that I adamantly disagree with, but I cannot silence them. I can however speak my mind as well. Some can even make jerks look like idiots
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