City passes pro-Arab resolution

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Two of this country's fundamental freedoms the freedom of the press and the freedom of religion butted heads inside City Hall Tuesday evening over a pair of cartoons The Independent published one month ago.

After an hour of impassioned debate, the resolution the City Council finally voted on proclaiming the city's support for its resident Arabs, instead of its Muslims, and stripped of any references to the press forged enough of a compromise to pass, but not without dissent.

The cartoons appeared in The Independent amidst weeks of violent protest around the globe, sparked by their prior publication in a handful of newspapers across Europe. The cartoons not only violated a sacred tenant of the Islamic faith which forbids all images of the prophet Mohammed for fear of encouraging idolatry but suggested that all Muslims were terrorists. Danish products stopped selling. Embassies went up in flames. Editors faced death threats. Protesters lost their lives.

Two weeks after The Independent published the cartoons, a local Lutheran and a Presbyterian pastor urged the council to reassure the community's Muslims of their safety. The proposal that emerged censured The Independent for reprinting the cartoons, praised the community's Muslims for the diversity they've added, and did "not condone" the offense of Muslims or any other group.

Jamal Jawad, the local Muslim community's unofficial spokesperson, said he appreciated the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment as much as anyone. But for Jawad, the press and the cartoons had gone too far.

"The big picture here ... is that everyone is drumming to a bigger war, or bigger conflict, of civilization," he said.

Jamal recounted a telephone call from his son a few months ago insisting he meet him at a local gas station. There, on one of the pumps, he said, were the words "Kill all Arabs."

The hatred may start with words and cartoons, Jamal said, but left unchecked, it would lead to action, "and sooner or later you will pay for it, and I will pay for it."

The resolution, he said, was an attempt "to stop the wave of hate."

If ever the press threatened to create tension, agreed John Mezoff, it was up to the community's citizens "to decry such abuse."

Mike Butler, a local high school student and self-avowed "huge free speech advocate," did not fully appreciate the importance of the resolution until another Muslim student explained just how offensive the cartoons were. The experience, Butler said, "awoke me."

It was important to remember, he added, that the resolution was not attempting to criminalize any action of the press; it would simply not condone hate.

For others, it was the government that was going to far.

Independent publisher Bob Zollinger, breaking his public silence on the cartoons, began by praising the council for starting off its meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, by pledging allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stood.

"One of those things that we stand for is the First Amendment," he said.

The people had a fundamental right to the news, Zollinger said.

"The government has no business in the dissemination of the news," he said. "It is free and it needs to flow."

Even John Haynes, who made it clear he was no fan of The Independent, had to agree. The people had a right to know exactly what sparked the international furor, he said.

Gabriel Armijo (husband of Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo) described the cartoons as the "meat of the story," as something a critical reader could not do without.

For still others, like Milagros Padilla, reprinting the cartoons was more than anything an act of hate.

"There are times when we take steps to curb hate," she said, and for Gallup, that time was now.

Hate, said Martha Zollinger, Bob Zollinger's mother, had nothing to do with it.

"It isn't that we dislike anyone when we print something," she said. "We don't make the news, we just print it."

"The truth may not be acceptable to everyone," Bob Zollinger said. "It may not be nice and pretty, but it is the truth."

Whatever that truth was for the community's Arabs, the reality, said Mayor Bob Rosebrough, was that they lacked "a basic sense of safety."

More than anything, he said, the resolution was about recognizing the "gift of diversity" that makes Gallup special. It was not about condemning or seeking to limit the freedoms of the press, he added.

Most of the councilors signed on to the resolution, with a few caveats.

Councilmen Pat Butler and Bill Nechero, insisting on the separation of church and state, suggested changing all references to "Muslims" to "Arabs," creating a racial distinction rather than a religious one. Taking Bob Zollinger's suggestion, they also asked to strike all references to the press.

Councilman Frank Gonzales suggested the city "discourage" rather than "not condemn" any attacks and offenses.

With those changes, the resolution passed 4-1. Armijo dissented.

By singling out one group, whether by race or religion, she worried the resolution would do more to further divide the community than unite it.

Armijo said she would support a much broader resolution, one that singled out no one. Substituting Arabs for Muslims did not change that. Nor did it shake her feelings that the resolution was still about religion. And as a matter of church or, in this case, mosque rather than state, she said, it was a matter for the council to avoid.