Politics and Propriety in Oman: Omani Reactions to the Danish Cartoon Controversy

This paper investigates the unusually quiet reaction in Oman, in comparison to many other Muslim countries, to the Danish cartoon controversy in the spring of 2006. Through interviews with young adults, elites, members of the religious establishment, and the business community, the author demonstrates how people learned about the controversy and how their reactions were influenced by the economic and political concerns of the regime. The survey showed that the young adult survey respondents almost uniformly misunderstood the relationship between press and government in the West, and in Denmark in particular, and that they felt powerless to protest the perceived insults in any way other than the grass-roots organized boycott. He follows the progress of boycott and shows how the controversy was resolved, by investigating the reactions of local supermarkets and the Omani (government-controlled) press. The study proves that it was primarily the desire to maintain economic stability (and therefore a safe atmosphere for foreign investment) that led the regime to strictly control the public discourse on the controversy