Dare to Speak: Islam vs Free Democracy and Free Enterprise (II)
Section 10.
The House of Islam’s Relationships with non-Islamic Nations
Denmark
When Dare to Speak was first drafted, Denmark was not even mentioned. Suddenly, in 2006, Denmark became a focal point of Islamic hatred. Its plight once again made the clash between Free Democracy and Islam impossible to ignore. It also revealed the speed with which Muslims can strike terror throughout the world, as well as the sensitivity of Islam’s tripwire for detonating global conflict.
Denmark’s story began innocuously enough. As Kevin Sullivan tells it in his February 2006 article for The Washington Post, entitled Cartoon furor began quietly,[1]
The global furor over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad can be traced to one day last September when newspaper editor Flemming Rose smelled a good story.
He said he’d read that museums in Sweden and London had recently removed artworks their staff deemed offensive to Muslims. A Danish comedian told him that he felt free to desecrate the Bible but that he’d be afraid to do the same to the Koran. Then Rose read that a Danish children’s book author couldn’t find illustrators who dared draw Muhammad for a new book on Islam.
Rose…suspected the art world was self-censoring out of fear of Islamic radicals. So he contacted 25 Danish newspaper cartoonists with a challenge: Draw Muhammad as you see him. Twelve responded…including one that depicted Islam’s holiest figure with a bomb in his turban.
“We have a tradition of satire in Denmark,” Rose, 47, said…“We do the same with the royal family, politicians, anyone. In a modern secular society, nobody can impose their religious taboos in the public domain.”
Islamic leaders, however, did not share Rose’s view that these cartoons were simply iconoclastic affirmations of Denmark’s Freedom of Speech. Nor did they pause to contemplate why someone might think it appropriate to draw Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban. Instead, they railed against the caricatures as outrageous insults, and responded in a way that demonstrated that the caricatures were true. Sullivan continues:
At the Islamic Cultural Center in Copenhagen, Ahmed Abu Laban saw the cartoons. “We were astonished and extremely shocked,” said Laban,…One of Denmark’s most prominent Muslim clerics…
Laban immediately called together 11 other Muslim leaders to plan a response. Eliciting no regrets from the newspaper or the Danish government, they sent envoys to the Middle East to seek support…
But how did those Danish envoys transform their outrage in September into an international conflict in January? Easy! They added obscene cartoons to the ones actually published:
The cartoons were “a volcano in Egyptian media,” Laban said. “People were extremely angry.”
…
Government officials and other critics here said Laban’s delegations intentionally inflamed Islamic leaders in Egypt and Lebanon by passing off several obscene cartoons of Muhammad as among those published in the newspaper.
In short, these mass riots were orchestrated by Islamic leaders who falsified cartoons and attributed them to Danish artists. Their goal was to foment hatred against the West and launch a series of retributions.
Even after the forgery was exposed, Muslims preferred to remain outraged by the original cartoons, even though they previously garnered little attention. Muslim outrage ignored the fact that, by definition, political cartoons are always offensive to someone, and every group imaginable is caricatured by cartoonists sooner or later. Jews and Christians may grumble when their founders are satirized in political cartoons, but they generally view such caricatures as statements about themselves, not their founders, and they treasure the right to Free Speech enough to bear those insults without resorting to riots, destruction, or murder.
To my knowledge, no one in a Free Democracy has ever died because of a religious caricature. For example, the cartoonist who drew Muhammad with a bomb as a turban had previously drawn a cartoon where the Star of David was attached to a similar bomb, yet no crisis materialized. [2] Political cartoons of Jesus and Moses are common throughout the world.
Muslims give two reasons for being outraged over Muhammad’s caricatures. The first is that such cartoons are an insult to Muhammad, and therefore, to Islam. The second is that any image of a person can lead to idolatry, and this danger is especially true for Muhammad. The question of how a political cartoon can both insult Muhammad and lead people to idolize him is left unanswered.
Also unexplained is why Muslims responded so rabidly, considering the many times in Islam’s history when Muslims themselves created images of Muhammad, as evidenced by the following quote from Islam: A Very Short Introduction, in a space that once contained the reproduction of such an image: [3]
In the first edition of this book, this space contained an illustration from the famous manuscript of Rashid al-Din’s Universal History (1307)…Although the illuminated manuscript…is widely regarded as a masterpiece and is often reproduced, a small number of readers found the picture blasphemous. In the words of one of them: ‘There is definitely no human being that can ever depict the beauty and grandeur of his (the Prophet’s) countenance. ’ There is no explicit ban on figurative art in the Quran, but popular Muslim tradition became strongly iconophobic…
It is hard to imagine that the author, a professor at Oxford University, would remove the depiction of Muhammad simply because “a small number of readers” were unhappy with the book. Authors, especially academics, endure criticism as part of their jobs. The author’s use of the word “blasphemous,” together with an understanding of how Muslims responded to Salman Rushdie’s “blasphemy,” reveals that fear is what actually motivated the removal.
This quote also reveals what appears to be the real reason for Muslim outrage at the cartoons: In the eyes of many Muslims, Muhammad was superhuman, despite claims to the contrary. To these people, Muhammad’s “beauty and grandeur” was so great that any image of him is inadequate, therefore insulting. If an image of Muhammad that is considered a “masterpiece” is “blasphemous,” then a satirical cartoon is outrageous beyond words.
At this point, it is interesting to note that while Muslims demand respectful deference, they do not give it. Muhammad himself seemed to enjoy making fun of non-Muslims, as several hadiths reveal, such as: [4]
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 54, Number 435:…The Prophet said to Hassan, “Lampoon them (i.e. the pagans) and Gabriel is with you.”
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 59, Number 449:…The Prophet said to Hassan, “Abuse them (with your poems), and Gabriel is with you (i.e., supports you).”
Sahih Muslim, Book 31, Number 6081:…Allah’s Messenger…said, “Satirise against the (non-believing amongst the) Quraish, for (satire) is more grievous to them than the hurt of an arrow.”
On the other hand, how are Muslims taught to repay Infidels who insult Muhammad? Numerous hadiths provide the answer, such as: [5]
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 53, Number 409:…While the Prophet was in the state of prostration, surrounded by a group of people from Quraish pagans, ‘Uqba bin Abi Mu’ait came and brought the intestines of a camel and threw them on the back of the Prophet.
The Prophet did not raise his head from prostration till Fatima (i.e. his daughter) came and removed those intestines from his back, and invoked evil on whoever had done (the evil deed). The Prophet said, “O Allah! Destroy the chiefs of Quraish…”
Later on I saw all of them killed during the battle of Badr and their bodies were thrown into a well except the body of Umaiya or Ubai, because he was a fat person, and when he was pulled, the parts of his body got separated before he was thrown into the well.
With this background, the Islamic response to these political cartoons becomes more understandable, even if it is not more justified. Reading about the orchestrated responses to these cartoons is like watching an explosion whose shrapnel is malice, anarchy, and intimidation:
Developments in Prophet Drawings Case
The Associated Press, WIBC 1070 News Radio, Indianapolis, Indiana, February 2, 2006
Thursday’s developments in the controversy surrounding the publication by European newspapers of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which has sparked outrage in the Islamic world:
Armed militants with ties to the Fatah Party surrounded European Union offices in Gaza and threatened to kidnap foreigners…
More than 300 Islamic students rallied in eastern Pakistan, chanting “Death to Denmark!” and “Death to France!”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Austrian ambassador, representing the EU, to protest the publication…
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the images, calling the publication an “insult … to more than 1 billion Muslims.”
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said that while his country upholds free expression, “such freedom cannot be used as a pretext to insult a religion.”
The managing editor of the French daily France Soir that republished the drawings was fired…
The Jordanian weekly newspaper Shihan published three of the caricatures, saying it was reprinting them to show readers “the extent of the Danish offense.” Hours later, its editor was fired …
About 100 Lebanese women staged a sit-in in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon.
…
Syrians Torch Embassies Over Caricatures
By Albert Aji, Associated Press Writer, February 4, 2006
DAMASCUS, Syria – Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam’s revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday…
In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags…
Iraqis rallying by the hundreds demanded an apology from the European Union, and the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas called the cartoons “an unforgivable insult” that merited punishment by death.
…
Aggravating the affront, Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said repeatedly he cannot apologize for his country’s free press…
The Vatican deplored the violence but said certain provocative forms of criticism were unacceptable.
“The right to freedom of thought and expression…cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers,” the Vatican said in its first statement on the controversy.
…
In Santiago, the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Chilean Embassy in Damascus was also torched…
…
“We will redeem our prophet Muhammad with our blood!” they chanted.
Mahmoud Zahar, leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, told the Italian daily Il Giornale the cartoonists should be punished by death. “We should have killed all those who offend the Prophet and instead here we are, protesting peacefully.” he said.
…
Anger swelled in Europe, too. Young Muslims clashed briefly with police in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, and some 700 people rallied outside the Danish Embassy in London.
…Iran’s president ordered his commerce minister to study canceling all trade contracts with European countries whose newspapers have published the caricatures…President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the caricatures showed the “impudence and rudeness” of Western newspapers against the prophet as well as the “maximum resentment of the Zionists (Jews) ruling these countries against Islam and Muslims.”
In this article, note the words of support that the Catholic Church offered Muslims. They will soon regret those words.
As the explosion spread, the leaders of the Free World, who normally stand up for free speech, stood down instead. Caught off-guard, they scrambled to diffuse a bomb that had already detonated. They even went so far as to side with Muslim terrorists, whose weapon was intimidation this time instead of murder. They joined with these terrorizers in declaring that Freedom of Speech should be limited far beyond the “don’t shout ‘Fire!’ in a theater” level accepted in the West. One wonders where these defenders of Muhammad were hiding when Jesus was insulted in the press. Moreover, what about respect for Denmark, whose embassies were stormed and whose flags were burned? Clearly, these reputed “Defenders of the Free World” were defending Muhammad instead out of fear of his followers. Their positions had nothing to do with respect:
Irate Muslims Stage New Protests
By Scott Wilson and Kevin Sullivan, Washington Post, February 4, 2006; Page A12
…
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticized European newspapers for republishing cartoons that originally appeared only in one newspaper in Denmark. “There is freedom of speech, we all respect that,” Straw told a news conference during a visit with Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol. “But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory. I believe that the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary. It has been insensitive. It has been disrespectful, and it has been wrong.”
The United States expressed a similar view. “We…respect freedom of the press and expression, but it must be coupled with press responsibility,” said State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper. “Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.”
…
In the Indonesia capital, Jakarta, as many as 100 members of the radical Islamic Defenders Front stormed into the office tower housing the Danish Embassy…, demanding an apology…another Muslim coalition, the Islamic Community Forum, issued a statement at one of Jakarta’s most prominent mosques demanding the death penalty for the cartoonists who drew the caricatures and others involved in their publication.
…
In London…several hundred Muslims gathered…at the London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park and marched to the Danish and French embassies, burning a Danish flag and chanting, “Denmark, you will pay.” Some chanted, “Jihad! Jihad!” and held up placards that read, “Learn the lesson from 9/11.”
…
The Daily Telegraph…said it had chosen not to publish the cartoons while defending the “right to offend within the law.” “We prefer not to cause gratuitous offence to some of our readers, a policy we also apply, for example, to pictures of graphic nudity or violence,” the newspaper said.
What is interesting here is the cowardice of the Daily Telegraph, and the disingenuousness of its rationale. Since when do Western newspapers refrain from publishing items that “cause gratuitous offence to some of [their] readers”? Perhaps they were only defending the “right to offend” within Islamic law.
The Daily Telegraph’s decision not to publish these caricatures is quite different from its decision not to include nudity for two reasons:
Nudity is something that publishers may freely choose to include. Anyone can go to a newsstand and see publications with nudity. If the Daily Telegraph refrains from showing nudity, this is a marketing decision, not a response to death threats.
Muslim outrage essentially demands special treatment that is not given to any other religion. They are using fear to extort “respect” from others.
The Daily Telegraph’s response makes one wonder how it would have responded to threats from the Germans over caricatures of Hitler during the build-up to World War II, or how they would have responded to threats from the Soviets over caricatures of Stalin. Is anger all it takes to stifle the free press? If so, the West is in deep trouble.
Even more troubling was the self-censorship recommended by Britain’s Jack Straw and America’s Kurtis Cooper. Administratively, how would they propose to make sure that publications print nothing that would offend Muslims? Their words imply that Islamic scholars should have veto power over the content of publications. This would hand Muslims a power not given to any other religion, or even to the U.S. government. Would negative press about events in the Middle East, or about Islamic religious leaders, also offend Muslims?
In the days that followed, much of the world was caught in a whirl-wind of catastrophe:
Violence Spreads Over Muhammad Caricatures
By Zeina Karam, ABC News International, February 5, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Thousands of Muslims rampaged Sunday in Beirut, setting fire to the Danish Embassy, burning Danish flags and lobbing stones at a Maronite Catholic church…
…
The Danish foreign minister said: “enough is enough.”… ”Now it has become more than a case about the drawings. Now there are forces that want a confrontation between our cultures,” …
…
The trouble threatened to rile sectarian tensions in Beirut when protesters began stoning St. Maroun Church, one of the city’s main Maronite Catholic churches, and property in Ashrafieh, a Christian area…
Lebanon’s Justice Minister Charles Rizk, a Christian, urged leaders to help end the violence. “What is the guilt of the citizens of Ashrafieh of caricatures that were published in Denmark? This sabotage should stop”…
In the Afghan city of Mihtarlam, some 3,000 demonstrators burned a Danish flag and demanded that the editors at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy…
…
In Iraq, about 1,000 Sunni Muslims demonstrated outside a mosque in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi. A giant banner read: “Iraq must end political, diplomatic, cultural and economic relations with the European countries that supported the Danish insult against Prophet Muhammad and all Muslims.”
Another 1,000 supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rallied in Amarah, denouncing Denmark, Israel and the United States and demanding that Danish and Norwegian diplomats be expelled.
…
Caricature clash with NATO troops turns deadly
MSNBC News Services, February 7, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO peacekeepers and Afghan police exchanged fire with protesters who attacked a NATO base Tuesday in the second straight day of violent demonstrations…over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Four protesters were killed and dozens wounded a day after four other Afghans died in a similar protest.
…
In Iran, protesters attacked the Norwegian Embassy with stones and Molotov cocktails. The Austrian Embassy was similarly attacked on Monday.
…
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the West’s publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian elections last month…
Afghans, NATO soldiers hurt
In Afghanistan, NATO troops…and police fired on hundreds of protesters outside the base in Maymana after demonstrators shot at them and threw grenades. The protesters also burned an armored vehicle, a U.N. car and guard posts…
…
In the Afghan capital of Kabul, police used batons to beat stone-throwing protesters outside the Danish diplomatic mission office and near the offices of the World Bank on Tuesday…
…
More than 3,000 protesters threw stones at government buildings and an Italian peacekeeping base in the western city of Heart…
About 5,000 people clashed with police in Pulikhumri town, north of Kabul…
…
Incidents elsewhere
Pakistan: Protests in Peshawar and North Waziristan each drew some 5,000 people…In Peshawar, Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the province’s top elected official who led the rally, demanded the cartoonists “be punished like a terrorist.”
…
Indonesia: Danish citizens were advised to leave Indonesia, where rowdy protests were held in at least four cities Tuesday…
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Diplomatic impacts
…
On Monday, Iran announced it cut all trade ties with Denmark because of the cartoons. Iran imports some $280 million worth of goods a year from Denmark.
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country’s independent press.
Rasmussen’s reasoning, which any believer in Free Democracy and Freedom of Speech would accept, was violently opposed in the Islamic world.
To see how Muslims continued to punish all of Denmark for the actions of a mid-sized independent newspaper, and how the U.S. and other Western nations suffered collateral damage, continue reading:
Massive cartoon protest in Beirut
By CNN Beirut Bureau Chief Brent Sadler, CNN Producer Syed Mohsin Naqvi and journalist Tom Coghlan, Thursday, February 9, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon – About half a million Muslims turned a Beirut religious ceremony into a peaceful protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed…
…“At your service, oh Mohammed, at your service, oh Prophet of God,” the crowds chanted with fists raised. “Death to America, Death to Israel”
…
“Today, we are defending the dignity of our prophet with a…demonstration,” Reuters quoted [Hezbollah leader] Nasrallah as telling the crowds.
“But let George Bush and the arrogant world know that if we have to…we will defend our prophet with our blood, not our voices.” …“We are a nation that can’t forgive, be silent or ease up when they insult our prophet and our sacred values,” Nasrallah said.
…
On Wednesday, Rice accused Iran and Syria of inciting Muslim anger and violent protests over the cartoons of Mohammed – drawing the ire of Syria’s U.S. ambassador and an Iranian vice president.
The above article ended with the following disclaimer:
CNN is not showing the negative caricatures of the likeness of the Prophet Mohammed because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself.
Hmmm. Is that the kind of reasoning that uncovered the Watergate scandal? It does not seem likely, given that Watergate was exposed through the brave actions of two reporters who not only added fuel to the controversy, they sparked it. If those reporters had buckled in the face of threats, the Nixon White House would have gotten away with its crimes. Obviously, cowardice struck CNN, just as it struck the Daily Telegraph. In light of the threats made against other news media, their disclaimer is essentially saying: “We’ll be quiet! Just don’t hurt us!” It is remarkable to think that the press is more afraid of Islam than it was a President of the United States.
A few days later, the House of Submission ratcheted up its vengeance with an international boycott, to make Denmark an example for the rest of the world to fear:
Mideast boycott a ‘nightmare’ for Danish firms
By Kevin Sullivan, The Washington Post, February 11, 2006
COPENHAGEN – …“It took us 40 years to build up our business in the Middle East, and five days to bring it to a total stop,” said Astrid Nielsen, spokeswoman for the Danish company here. She said suspending operations at the Riyadh plant, the company’s regional base, and a near-total boycott of the company’s products, have cost Arla about $1.7 million a day since Jan. 28.
The boycott of Danish goods, propelled by Muslim leaders and imams preaching in mosques, has brought exports of Danish products to the Middle East and North Africa to a virtual standstill. It has scuttled a flow of goods to the region that was worth about $1 billion in the first 10 months of 2005…
…
…Rasmussen…has repeatedly expressed regrets that Muslims have been offended by the cartoons of Muhammad, while saying he cannot apologize for what was printed in a private newspaper. “You can’t hold a whole nation responsible for what is published in a free and independent newspaper,” Rasmussen said…
…
…the al-Qiswani Supermarket in the West Bank town of Beit Hanina…prominently displayed posters [saying] “If you love the Prophet, join us in boycotting Danish products”…The store’s owner, Abed Qiswani…said “…The problem these European countries have now is with the Islamic giant…they should think about who they mess with.”
…
Rasmussen said dairy industry officials had hoped that Prime Minister Rasmussen’s televised comments offering regrets for the offense caused to Muslims would improve the situation. “But so far that has had no impact,” he said…
…
Pedersen said the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which first published the Muhammad cartoons, “should have been more careful.” “Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, but you can’t cry ‘Fire! Fire!’ in a cinema,” …
And so, the leader of Denmark was compelled to ask the world’s Muslims for mercy, for a crime that neither he nor his government committed, but to no avail. Even more pathetic was the lament of a Danish citizen who equated the cartoons to shouthing “Fire!” in a theater. Cartoons are nothing of the sort. They are satire – humor – which was unfortunately at the expense of a group of very dangerous and hostile people, who proved the caricatures correct by beating the Danes into submission.
On the same day, the following report came in:
Denmark pulls diplomats from Muslim states
Associated Press, MSNBC News, February 11, 2006
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Denmark has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of a Danish newspaper’s publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad…
…
The small Scandinavian country is shell-shocked by the wave of anti-Danish protests, some of them violent, that have spread like wildfire across the Muslim world. Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the cartoons, apologized for offending Muslims but stood by its decision to print the drawings, citing the freedom of speech.
And so, Denmark’s little newspaper, with its staff and contributors threatened by death, and with the sufferings of its homeland hanging around its neck, submitted to Islam’s demand while trying to maintain a shred of dignity, with a fig leaf of principle. Does anyone imagine that they will ever print another cartoon of Muhammad?
But this is not the end of the story – we’re only halfway through the month! Read on to see the other smack-downs Denmark suffered, as well as the House of Islam’s self inflicted wounds, followed by the redirection of hostility from Denmark to the entire West, particularly the United States, Israel, and Christians in general:
3 killed as Pakistan cartoon protests escalate
Associated Press, MSNBC News, February 15, 2006
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Gunfire and rioting erupted Wednesday as tens of thousands of people took to the streets in several Pakistani cities during the country’s third consecutive day of violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons. Three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy.
More than 70,000 people flooded the streets of the northwestern city of Peshawar…The massive crowd went on a rampage, torching businesses and fighting police…A bus terminal operated by South Korea’s Sammi Corp. was torched…
Protesters burned a KFC restaurant, three movie theaters and the offices of the main mobile phone company in the country. A Norwegian mobile phone company’s offices were also ransacked…
…
Intelligence officials say members of outlawed Islamic militant groups have joined the protests, and may be inciting violence to undermine the pro-Western government of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
…Many chanted “Death to Denmark!” and “Hang those who drew the insulting cartoons! ”
…
Anger in Malaysia, Indonesia
…hundreds of Muslim protesters ripped apart and burned Danish flags Wednesday in a rally at the Danish honorary consulate in Manila, the Philippines.
…
Indonesia’s importers association also announced a boycott of Danish goods until the Danish government apologizes for the cartoons.
…
Libyans burn Italy consulate in cartoon protest
MSNBC staff and news service reports, February 18, 2006
TRIPOLI, Libya – …protesters set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and clashed with police hours after an Islamic cleric in Pakistan offered a $1 million reward for killing one of the cartoonists.
Libyan security officials said 11 protesters were killed or wounded in the clashes in Benghazi.
…
Thousands rally in London
More than 10,000 angry people protested in central London Saturday against the cartoons that have infuriated many in the Muslim world.
“Free speech, cheap insults,” read one demonstrator’s placard. “How dare you insult the blessed Prophet Muhammad?” asked another.
…
Reward on cartoonist’s head
…
Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi, prayer leader at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque in the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar, announced the mosque and the Jamia Ashrafia religious school he leads would give a $25,000 reward and a car for killing the cartoonist who drew the prophet caricatures — considered blasphemous…
He also said a local jewelers’ association would give $1 million…
…
“This is a unanimous decision by all imams (prayer leaders) of Islam that whoever insults the prophets deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize.”
…
The cartoonists have gone underground and lived under police protection since the conflict started escalating last year…
…
Muslims assault U.S. Embassy in Indonesia
Associated Press, MSNBC News, February 19, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday…
…In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.
…
Christians are targets
Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Quran, Islam’s holy book.
That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago.
In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading “We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet.”
‘We are fighting America’
…
…“They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism … and all those things are engineered by the United States,” said Maksuni, who only uses one name.
“We are fighting America fiercely this time,” he said. “And we also are fighting Denmark.”
As anti-Christian violence erupted throughout the House of Submission, the Catholic Church finally realized that their initial support for Muslims was rewarded only with bloodshed. Chastened, they admitted that they had made a mistake when they tried to reach out to Muslims:
Vatican to Muslims: practice what you preach
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor, Reuters, ABC News, February 23, 2006
PARIS (Reuters) – After backing calls by Muslims for respect for their religion in the Mohammad cartoons row, the Vatican is now urging Islamic countries to reciprocate by showing more tolerance toward their Christian minorities.
Roman Catholic leaders at first said Muslims were right to be outraged when Western newspapers reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet …
…the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.
Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria…At least 146 Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.
“If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us,” Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican’s Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome.
…
Iraqi Christians say they were well treated under Saddam Hussein’s secular policies, but believers have been killed, churches burned and women forced to wear Muslim garb since Islamic groups gained sway after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
…
“Enough now with this turning the other cheek! It’s our duty to protect ourselves,” Monsignor Velasio De Paolis, secretary of the Vatican’s supreme court, thundered in the daily La Stampa. Jesus told his followers to “turn the other cheek” when struck.
“The West has had relations with the Arab countries for half a century, mostly for oil, and has not been able to get the slightest concession on human rights,” he said…
Bizarrely, the most tragic victims in this debacle were Nigerian Christians:
At Least 15 Die in Nigeria Cartoon Protest
By NJADVARA MUSA, Associated Press Writer, February 19, 2006
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria – Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches on Saturday, killing at least 15 people in the deadliest confrontation yet in the whirlwind of Muslim anger over the drawings.
…[A] reporter saw mobs of Muslim protesters swarm through the city center with machetes, sticks and iron rods. One group threw a tire around a man, poured gas on him and set him ablaze.
…
Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage…
“Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters” …Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.
…
Kano lawmakers also called on the state’s 5 million people to boycott Danish goods.
…
With Saturday’s deaths, at least 45 people have been killed in protests across the Muslim world…
…
U.S. Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes said U.S. newspapers generally did not reprint the caricatures “because they recognize they are deeply offensive, even blasphemous to the precious convictions of our Muslim friends and neighbors.”
In Cairo…Grand Imam Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, of al-Azhar University, the world’s highest Sunni Muslim seat of learning…said the Danish prime minister must apologize for the drawings and further demanded that the world’s religious leaders meet to write a law that “condemns insulting any religion, including the Holy Scriptures and the prophets.” He said the United Nations should impose the law on all countries.
In other words, if the world gave in to Tantawi’s demand, the United Nations would impose a law on every person in every country, saying that they shall not say anything that a Muslim might consider insulting to Islam. Under such a law, religion-based crimes and oppressions could be committed without fear of criticism, and you would be barred from reading this series.
For an entire month, the world reeled from a crisis caused by some cartoons published in a mid-sized independent Danish newspaper. This episode can leave little doubt as to whether Islam stands for “peace” or “submission.”
As to status of free speech in the United States, the makers of South Park left no doubt:
‘South Park’ aims at censors, hits Bush, Jesus
Thursday, April 13, 2006, Associated Press, CNN
NEW YORK (AP) – Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Mohammed, the creators of “South Park” skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon’s most recent episode.
The comedy – in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians – instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.
…
Parker and Stone were angered when told by Comedy Central several weeks ago that they could not run an image of Mohammed…
The network’s decision was made over concerns for public safety, the person said.
…
Parker and Stone…built [a script] around the incident. In Wednesday’s episode, the character Kyle is shown trying to persuade a Fox network executive to air an uncensored “Family Guy” even though it had an image of Mohammed.
“Either it’s all OK, or none of it is,” Kyle said. “Do the right thing.”
The executive decides to strike a blow for free speech and agrees to show it. But at the point where Mohammed is to be seen, the screen is filled with the message: “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.”
It is followed shortly by the images of Christ, Bush and the flag.
This article goes on to discuss how the Catholic League was offended by the image of Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag. Those who were offended, though, missed South Park’s point: They could display those offensive images without endangering anyone.
Given South Park’s track record of irreverence toward all religions, from Christianity to Judaism to Scientology, this hypocritical “respect” for Islam reveals Comedy Central’s true motivation. As with the leaders of the Free World and the news media, its motivation was fear. In the face of fear, all of Comedy Central’s pretended political incorrectness withered and submitted.
Sadly, those who freely antagonize peaceful religions and governments, but remain fearfully silent about Islam, may one day discover that they have unwittingly undermined the institutions that respected them and strengthened a religion that threatens them.
This leads us to a question: Which laws do we live by? Are we living by the laws of the United States, which respects Free Speech, or are we living by the laws of Shari’ah? Do we really want to tell Islamic terrorists that we disrespect people who respect our freedoms, but willingly submit to those who threaten us?
REFERENCES FOR SECTION 10:
[1] Cartoon furor began quietly, by Kevin Sullivan, The Washington Post, February 8, 2006.
[2] Cartoon furor began quietly, by Kevin Sullivan, The Washington Post, February 8, 2006.
[3] Islam: A Very Short Introduction, by Malise Ruthven, Oxford University Press, 2000, Chapter 2, section entitled Sira (Biography), page 34.
[4] Similar hadiths can be found in Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 56, Number 731 and Volume 8, Book 73, Numbers 171 & 174, Sahih Muslim, Book 31, Numbers 6074, 6079, 6080, & 6081, and Sunan Abu Dawood, Book 41, Number 4997.
[5] Similar hadiths can be found in Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 4, Number 241, Book 9, Number 499, and Volume 5, Book 58, Number 193.
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