When my housemate brought back a copy of the new Gair Rhydd on Saturday, I was surprised that they had printed one of the cartoons, but didn’t imagine the reaction it would provoke. I didn’t realise the fuss until I tried to go up to the Gair Rhydd office on the Tuesday, and was stopped by a security guard who wouldn’t tell me what was happening. I was then puzzled by the absence of the paper around the Union, but didn’t know what was happening until I received a text from my Dad telling me he’d just seen on the BBC lunchtime news that the paper was being pulped.
Between the printing deadlines and the paper hitting university stands, the international situation and reaction to the cartoons developed rapidly and alarmingly. The decision was taken shortly after the paper was printed. The precise details of who decided what, who pushed who and so on are rather murky, and I’m told that there is not actually any provision in the Students’ Union constitution for the suspension of the editor or reporters as happened. I’m sure this issue will be raised at the Students’ Union AGM this evening, and will likely rumble on for some time.
Contrary to The Oxford Student‘s patronising and uninformed article “What was Gair Rhydd thinking?”, this wasn’t “infantile attention-seeking”, nor the taking of a deliberate stand on issues of free speech (although there are very interesting issues surrounding free speech raised by the cartoon controversy, I’ll discuss them some other time). The cartoon was printed simply for information purposes, not to offend or provoke, by people who didn’t realise the implications of what they were doing.
The Respect Party (which probably couldn’t have much less respect following Galloway’s antics in the Big Brother house) was outside the Union trying to get people to sign a petition against Islamophobia at Gair Rhydd. While well-intended, it was only worstening the situation by perpetuating the idea that Gair Rhydd was deliberately out to offend Muslims. It wasn’t: it printed the cartoon for information purposes not realising how offended Muslims would be. The decision to print the cartoon was incompetent rather Islamophobic.
Tomorrow the suspended students will face their disciplinary hearings over what happened. I hope the powers that be see sense and reinstates them – they were ignorant and insensitive, but what’s needed is understanding and reconciliation, not a witch-hunt.