Why insulting prophet Muhammad?!

people do strange things to religion

dyslexia wrote:

people do strange things to religion

and make it what they want it to be.

French weekly reprints cartoons

8 February 2006 • The Independent

A satirical French weekly reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed that sparked violent protests worldwide, a day after a court ruling cleared the way. Under the headline "Muhammad overwhelmed by the fundamentalists," the cover featured a new caricature depicting the prophet with his head in his hands, remarking, "It's hard to be loved by idiots." On Tuesday, a French court threw out a lawsuit by five Muslim organizations aimed at blocking the publication on technical grounds.

Far-Right Swedish Party Publishes Mohammed Cartoons

9 February 2006 • Radio Sweden

Sweden's far right Sweden Democrats (SD) have decided to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed in their online newspaper. Swedish Radio reported that the SD are sponsoring a contest encouraging readers to send in their own cartoons of Mohammed. Foreign Minister Freivalds condemned the contest, saying that it was insensitive, provocative and irresponsible.

AP Protests Use of Photo in Controversy

8 February 2006 • Forbes

The Associated Press protested Wednesday the misleading inclusion of an AP photograph in a pamphlet that a delegation of Danish Muslim leaders carried on a Mideast tour in December-January. The picture shows a bearded man wearing fake pig ears, a pig nose, and a pink embroidered cap on his head. He was wearing the costume while participating in a pig-squealing contest in a French farm village last summer. The photo had no connection with Islam or the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. A spokesman for the delegation said: "I have no comments."

Quote:

Far-Right Swedish Party Publishes Mohammed Cartoons

My summary:

Quote:

9 February 2006 • Radio Sweden

Sweden's far right Sweden Democrats (SD) have decided to publish cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed in their online newspaper. Swedish Radio reported that the SD are sponsoring a contest encouraging readers to send in their own cartoons of Mohammed. Foreign Minister Freivalds condemned the contest, saying that it was insensitive, provocative and irresponsible.

Knowing your feelings on the subject; I'll concede there was room for sensitivity before the sh!t hit the fan. (Full stop.) But, I feel very strongly that solidarity in the name of freedom should dominate the aftermath.

A friend emailed me a link to a video a few days ago showing 4,000 Islamic demonstrators in Paris and the two men who stood up to them (maybe they saw the chick flick O'Bill references? )

It's remarkable when you think about it....they're either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish. You decide.

Cartoon crisis pressures and irks French Muslims

Reuters
10 February 2006

Violent protests in the Middle East over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad are pressuring France's Muslim minority to walk a tightrope between French citizenship and Islamic solidarity.

Leading French Muslims now fear that instead of being accepted as France's second religion, Islam and its followers here are linked with outraged Arabs sacking Danish embassies.

"We're dealing with two types of ignorance, about Islam and about the freedom of speech," Sohaib Bencheikh, a prominent theologian, said of the Middle Eastern protests. "I'm surprised by the over-reaction of my fellow Muslims."

Many French Muslims are born and educated here. Friday mosque attendance has fallen to about 10-15 percent, about the same level of weekly worship for French Christians, and many young Muslims know little or nothing of the towns and foreign tongues their ancestors left behind.

Rachid Benzine, a leading young Muslim intellectual, bemoaned the fact the protesting Arabs thought their faith gave them the right to use violence.

"We're witnessing the theologisation of international relations," he said. "Some say we're heading toward a clash of civilizations, but it's more like a clash of ignorances on both sides."

Olivier Roy said Middle Eastern governments and movements sought to influence the Muslim diaspora by stressing what kept them apart from their European neighbors. "Muslims in Europe are having an increasingly difficult time living with burdensome godparents like this," he wrote in Le Monde.

European Journalists Begin to Condemn Cartoons

IPS
8 February

A growing number of European journalists and caricaturists are condemning the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed that have deepened the schism between Europe and the Muslim world.

Jul, a French caricaturist, said: "I think that the cartoons of Mohammed have caused this hysteria in the Muslim world because there is a deep anti-Arab and anti- Muslim racism in Europe." Swedish writer Jan Guillou said that the Danish cartoons were "vulgar and cowardly, because they were intended to offend the already distressed Muslim immigrant minority."

Some commentators pointed out that European freedom of the press is not absolute as some editors pretend, and that tribunals often rule against journalists and artists. Christian Schertz said German law provides for jail of up to three years for insults to religious belief. "And those beliefs are not confined to Christian ones, but to all religions."

Press urges end to cartoon riots

BBC News
6 February 2006

Lebanese papers condemn the sacking of the Danish embassy in Beirut and accuse their government of failing to take responsibility. Many Arabic commentators agree that the protests have gone too far.

Lebanon's Daily Star writes: "The damage that the rioters did - both to Lebanese property and to the image of Islam - was far worse than that done by the cartoons."

Nabil Abu-Munsif in Lebanon's Al-Nahar opines: "The attack was simply an advanced attempt to blow up Lebanon and set it on fire," while Abdelkrim Ghezali in Algeria's La Tribune expounds: "It is no coincidence that it is only in Damascus and Beirut that the embassies of Denmark and Norway were set ablaze ... Syria has every reason to want to divert the world's attention... It is time to stop exploiting the anger of the masses to achieve political goals such as saving a party or regime. Such action can also be viewed as another form of blasphemy."

In Oman's Al-Watan, Abd-Al-Aziz Al Mahmud comments: "I wished that this anger were directed against America, which is the actual cause of our humiliation and degradation."

JustWonders wrote:

A friend emailed me a link to a video a few days ago showing 4,000 Islamic demonstrators in Paris and the two men who stood up to them (maybe they saw the chick flick O'Bill references? )

It's remarkable when you think about it....they're either incredibly brave or incredibly foolish. You decide.

JW,

I just posted 13 examples of Muslims or Muslim organisations in Europe and elsewhere who openly took a dissenting stance on the anti-cartoon protests, in this post on one of the other threads.

And those are just 13 examples I happened to come across, not specifically looking for 'em.

There's plenty of 'em. Not that afraid, apparently (perhaps not quite as much reason to be as it's sometimes made out).

An aside - after I watched the video, one of my first thoughts was remembering something I read about what an American officer supposedly said at the Battle of the Bulge..."they're in trouble now, they got us surrounded"...or something like that :wink:

"I like to be out on the point where there's nothing but me and the goddam Germans and we can fight by ourselves." When the 101st Airborne was surrounded at the Battle of the Bulge, Abrams led the relief column into Bastogne with an attack that was watched with unabashed professional admiration by Panzer Commander Fritz Bayerlein. Later, Abrams led the dash to the Rhine, moved so fast that he captured an astonished lieutenant general and his staff at their desks. Fighting far out in front of the Third Army, Abrains was frequently cut off. "They've got us surrounded again," he once said, "those poor bastards." Said General George Patton of his aggressive tank commander: "I'm supposed to be the best tank commander in the Army, but I have one peer - Abe Abrams. He's the world champion."

http://www.3ad.com/history/cold.war/abrams.htm

Can you tell me where I might find the few remaining vestiges of intelligent life on Earth?

chris2a wrote:

Can you tell me where I might find the few remaining vestiges of intelligent life on Earth?

Who made you to judge on this Earth?

If the human is touched by adversity, he implores us, but as soon as we bestow a blessing upon him, he says, "I attained this because of my cleverness!" Indeed, this is only a test, but most of them do not know. [Qur'an 39:49]