All We Need is More Aboutaleb

• Author: Pranoto Iskandar
• Position: Editorial Board
• Pages: 461-466

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2015 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

461

Note. I would like to thank Joshua Snider of University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

and Chris Cason of the Editorial Board for their helpful comments and suggestions.

from the Editor’s Desk

ALL WE NEED IS MORE ABOUTALEB

PRANOTO ISKANDAR

Editorial Board

It is evident that the so-called “the Charlie Hebdo aair” is not only noth-

ing new in essence but also is very likely to repeat itself in the foreseeable

future.1 Moreover, this aair has highlighted a much broader failure on

the part of nation-states and Muslim communities to deal with a particu-

lar manifestations of violent activism, e.g. the Danish Cartoon incident.2

To put it bluntly, the question remains: why “visible” Muslims failed to

respond in a mature manner? Rather than accepting the cartoon as an

exercise of freedom of expression, or at least engaging in a reasoned ex-

change, the majority of Islamic voices, including self-proclaimed moder-

ate groups, vehemently demanded some curtailment of this hallmark of

the individual dignity.3 Some even went further by agrantly commented

1. Perhaps, the best place to start is a website that exclusively “tries to explain the

cartoons within the context they were published so that they may be better

understood.” U C H C, http://www.

understandingcharliehebdo.com/ (last visited March 20, 2015).

2. See Danish Cartoon Controversy, N.Y. T, available at http://topics.nytimes.

com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/danish_cartoon_controversy/index.

html (last visited March 18, 2015).

3. Prashanth Parameswaran, Charlie Hebdo a “Clash of Values,” Says Indonesia’s Former

President, T D, Jan. 15, 2015, http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/

charlie-hebdo-a-clash-of-values-says-indonesias-fomer-president/ (noting that

“Former Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono admitted Wednesday

that the root of the Charlie Hebdo attacks was a ‘clash of values’ between Islam

and the West, and that getting past this ‘clash’ would require limits to freedom of

expression.”).