Rarely has an incident highlighted the gaping chasm between two worlds more than the Danish cartoon controversy.

In the West, the controversy points to the need for continuing discussion and consideration as to how to maintain freedom of the press while being sensitive to ethnic and religious minorities. This is becoming more important as societies become increasingly multicultural and multireligious. Discussions can help many Muslim immigrants living in the West come to appreciate that a free and responsible press serves everyone's interest, including theirs. In America we seem to do a better job at this than Europe because our mindset is based on integrating minorities into society as equal partners.

On the other hand, in much of the Arab and Muslim world there is no such conversation taking place. Broadly speaking, there is neither a free press nor a sensitive press. In many Arab/Muslim countries we see a state-sponsored press that disseminates anti-Semitic and other hateful material.

Hypocrisy is the only word to describe the Arab/Muslim world's outrage over the cartoon controversy – not that they do not have reason to be upset (as opposed to engaging in violence or threats), but that they have no credibility on this subject because of their own press and culture.

Unfortunately, it is not well-known how widespread and long-standing are the press and other attacks on Jews in too many Arab countries. A sampling of such hatred is instructive:

The anti-Semitic blood libel has appeared throughout the Muslim and Arab world with gruesome accounts and depictions of Jews murdering non-Jews and using their blood for ritual purposes.

An episode of the anti-Semitic television series, Ash Shatat (“The Diaspora”), shows a heinous dramatization of the killing of a Christian child by a rabbi and the use of his blood to make matzah. The program is a Syrian production and was first aired in October and November 2003 by the Lebanon-based satellite television network Al-Manar, which is owned by the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Al-Manar is widely available to viewers across the Muslim and Arab world and around the world. The closing credits of the programs give special thanks to various government ministries in Syria, including the security ministry, the culture ministry, the Damascus Police Command and the Department of Antiquities and Museums.

The Saudi government daily, Ar-Riyadh, ran a two-part article entitled “The Jewish Holiday of Purim” by Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma of King Faysal University in Al-Dammam, on March 10 and March 12, 2002 which claimed that Jews murder Muslim or Christian children and drain their blood to make pastries for the holiday of Purim.

Abu Dhabi Television aired a television comedy skit in November 2001 portraying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon drinking the blood of Arabs.

Conspiracy theories of Jews plotting to control U.S. foreign policy, dominate the world, control the media, spread deadly diseases, and perpetrate terrorist attacks abound in the Arab and Muslim media. Often, Israel is the target of these theories, thereby crossing the line of legitimate criticism of Israel to anti-Semitism. For example:

The Qatari Ash-Sharq printed a cartoon accusing Jews of controlling the media and spreading lies about the Holocaust (Feb. 19).

The state-run Syrian daily al-Thawra accused Israel of developing the bird flu virus to harm the genes of its Arab neighbors. According to the newspaper, Israeli scientists are trying to identify genes unique to Arabs and then develop viruses that attack these genes. This conspiracy theory is reminiscent of medieval charges accusing Jews of poisoning drinking wells (Feb. 9).

United Arab Emirates newspaper, Al-Bayan, ran a cartoon depicting a Jew deviously holding a yo-yo of the world in his hand to illustrate Jewish domination of world affairs (Dec. 22, 2005).

Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories placing the blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Jews and Israel have been popular with many claiming that Israel, not Osama bin Laden, was behind the horrible events of 9/11. Rumors that originated in the Arab world and circulated on the Internet falsely claimed that 4,000 Jews did not report to work, or “called in sick” that morning. It suggested that no Jews died because they somehow had foreknowledge of the attack.

Denial of the Holocaust is common throughout the Arab and Muslim world in statements by their leaders, in newspaper articles, at book fairs, and at conferences on Holocaust revisionism. For example:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust with statements that Iran does not accept the claim that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews while speaking to reporters at an Islamic summit in Mecca on Dec. 8, 2005, and statements that the Europeans have created a myth in the name of the Holocaust while speaking to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Zahedan on Dec. 14, 2005.

The semi-official Iranian Mehr News Agency, whose articles are made available on the Internet in Farsi, Arabic and English and widely circulated throughout the Muslim and Arab world, has featured interviews with some of the world's most active and notorious Holocaust deniers. Arthur Butz, a professor of electrical engineering and author of the 1977 book, “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century,” told Mehr News, “The alleged slaughter of millions of Jews by the Germans during World War II did not happen” (Jan. 25). Michael A. Hoffman II, an Idaho-based Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist termed the Holocaust, “a religious cult masquerading as history” and “a means for Judaizing the West” (Jan. 24). Mark Weber, director of the California-based Institute for Historical Review, an organization that promotes Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism, called Holocaust remembrance “a one-sided campaign designed to further Zionist interests” (Dec. 11, 2005).

The United Arab Emirates newspaper, Al-Bayan, ran an article accusing the Jews of using the myth of the Holocaust to control the world by having the General Assembly of the United Nations accept “the exaggerations and inflating of the Jewish Holocaust in Germany which is known as the Holocaust and dedicating an international budget to commemorate it annually” (Nov. 25, 2005).

An annual book fair in Cairo, Egypt, the largest literary event in the Arab and Muslim world, which attracts many people and includes books from all over the Arab world, displays a selection of books that contain anti-Semitic text, Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews, including Muhammad Jarbu'a, “Exempting Hitler from the Holocaust Accusation,” Lebanon: An-Nida, 2002; “ Muhammad 'Isa Da'ud, “The Bomb: Jews whom God transformed into Monkeys and Pigs,” Madbuli as-Saghir, 2003; Dib 'Ali Hasan, “Encyclopedia of the Jews' Crimes,” Damascus: At-Takwin, 2004; Mazen an-Naqib, “The Murder – from the Jewish Scriptures and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion unto Knightless Horse,” Damascus: Al-Aawael, 2004.

Throughout the Arab and Muslim media, Jews are depicted with stereotypical and demonic features. For example:

The state-owned Qatari newspaper Al-Watan depicts an evil-looking, stereotypical bearded Jew with a big nose, black coat and hat plotting to bring down the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Jan. 6).

The Omani newspaper, Al-Watan, ran a cartoon depicting a bearded angry Jew with a long beard and black hat slicing the throat of an Arab in front of two weeping Arabs (Feb. 3, 2004).

What is particularly disturbing about this widespread assault on Jews in the Arab/Muslim media is the fact that so many of the organs are media-controlled or sponsored and that government officials have failed to stop such media bigotries or even to criticize or condemn them.

So I return to my original point. We in the West must struggle with the dilemma we face. Sensitivity to religions and minorities is crucial without undermining the freedom of the press. But if the Arab/Muslim world is to have something significant to contribute to the discussion, it needs to get its own house in order and to start taking seriously both the freedom of the press and the responsibility of the press.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.