UAE: Boycotting Goods Not Islamic Say Arab Dons

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Meena Janardhan

DUBAI , Feb 20 2006 (IPS) - While Islamist clerics and regional trade groups have called for a boycott of European goods in reprisal for the caricaturing of Prophet Muhammad, leading Arab academics and intellectuals say this could only boomerang on the religion and its followers.

According to one report, by the end of the first week of February, the boycott of Danish goods by consumers in the Middle East alone had resulted in losses of over 30 million US dollars to the Danish economy.

”Personally, as a Muslim, I do not approve of boycotting Danish goods because, according to available statistics, Danish business with Arab countries is insignificant. Therefore, the boycott of Danish products by Muslim countries may not have a big impact on their economy,” said Prof. Mohamed Kirat at the College of Communication, University of Sharjah.

Kirat’s colleague Hassan Al Subaihi said while he ”admired the boycott against Danish products by individuals”, he believed that it would have been more effective if it had been officially backed by governments. ”A more organised and peaceful action should take place – violence in Arab countries gives people the opportunity to portray Islam as an intolerant religion that promotes terrorism.”

The drawings, originally published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September have sparked protests, often violent, in several Muslim countries. Islam holds that representations of Prophet Muhammad could lead to idolatory and therefore, forbids them.

Retaliatory boycotts were initiated in Saudi Arabia on Jan. 26, when supermarkets displayed signs saying Danish goods have been taken off the shelves. This served as a cue for other countries in the region and the rest of the Islamic world.

”Customers are avoiding products from Denmark and tell us to stop selling them. We have taken these items off our shelves,” said Pramod Kumar, the sales manager of a Dubai supermarket chain.

”Our customers ask us if the medicines we are selling them are from Denmark – if they are, then they refuse to buy them,” said Moin Khan, a salesman at a pharmacy in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Scandinavian dairy giant Arla Foods said that it was losing 1.8 million dollars worth of sales daily in the Middle East.

Denmark’s Danske Bank estimates that Danish goods worth 10 billion kroner (1.6 billion dollars) annually are threatened in 20 Muslim countries – although losses could soon extend to areas such as services. Denmark exported goods worth 73 billion dollars in 2004.

Free trade negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries also face disruption. With over 80 billion euros (95 billion dollars) worth of goods traded, last year, the EU is easily the largest trading partner of the GCC.

Qatar’s chamber of commerce has halted dealings with Danish and Norwegian delegations and urged Muslim states to do the same. In Bahrain, the parliament has formed a committee to contact Arab and Islamic governments and encourage them to enforce the boycott.

In the UAE, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that it would be forced to impose a boycott on all Danish and Norwegian products if the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Saudi Arabia agrees to coordinate boycott action regionally.

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson has warned that if governments backed the boycotts they could face action from the World Trade Organisation (WTO). But, so far, the boycotts have been a matter of consumer preference.

”I have joined the boycott,” said Ahmed Tolba, an Egyptian trader in Sharjah. ”No one is going to insult my religion and get away with it.”

”I will not even buy a pin made in these countries. This is our way of showing the world that we cannot be taken for granted,” said Ayman Sheriff, a Dubai-based information technology manager of Jordanian origin.

There were some who differed. ”I don’t know if such boycotts or acts of violence are the right retaliation. Perhaps open dialogue and negotiations should have preceded them,” said Rolla Ismail, a Lebanese manager in a Dubai firm.

But reactions from Arab intellectuals were clear in local newspapers and they seem to have enormous influence on consumers.

On Feb. 2 the Saudi daily ‘Al-Watan’ said the government could not force its citizens to buy Danish products. ”There is no power on earth that can force us to buy their butter, just as they (Danish government) say that they cannot force a newspaper to refrain from publishing certain content.”

Mona Al-Bahr, a UAE intellectual, said in the Arabic daily Al-Bayan on Feb. 10: ”We have been equally harmed by the offensive drawings and by the retaliatory attacks on the buildings of the Danish and Norwegian embassies because such attacks affirm the theme implied in the drawings- that Islam is a religion that calls for violence and suppression!”

”Who is boycotting whom?” asked Saudi intellectual Ali Al-Mousa, in Arab News on Feb. 16. ”Boycotting is a healthy protest as long as it achieves the goal of registering protest, and not in the barbaric manner a handful of Muslims who behaved (badly)by burning down government property. This does more harm than goodà With all the SMS messages that were circulated, we did not hear anyone asking to boycott (Danish) insulin?”

”When we move from being poor educated consumers to highly productive and educated producers, then we can talk about boycotting productsàuntil we transform our universities into technologically advanced research institutes, instead of poetry-teaching schools, we cannot talk about boycotts,” Al- Mousa said.

The Secretary General of the GCC, Abdulrahman Al Atiyyah, has demanded that Europe, especially Denmark, come out with a clear, formal apology to calm down the raging furore over the cartoons.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has maintained that his government could not be held responsible for the actions of an independent newspaper. Jyllands-Posten, has apologised but insisted on standing by its decision to print the caricatures, citing freedom of speech and expression.

Academics believe the OIC could take the lead in opening a dialogue on the issue with the West and raise awareness about Islam. Some want the OIC and other Islamic organisations to press for international legislation that would check the stereotyping of any religion.

Blaming lack of dialogue for ignorance about Islam among non-Muslims, Kirat said he would urge Muslims not to indulge in retaliatory acts and thereby prove the West right.

”Through this act (publication of the cartoons), the West has tried once again to prove that Islam is a religion that promotes terrorism. Instead, we should look at opening up positive channels of communication with the Western world and provide them insight into the teachings of Islam and the Muslims through research, books, movies and newspaper articles.’