Saturday, February 04, 2006

Controversial Cartoons



Police keep watch as thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims take to the streets in Dhaka.



Palestinians show their anger at the cartoons by walking over a Danish flag in front of a mosque.



A Jordanian Muslim holds up the Koran in the capital Amman.



Palestinian protesters burn a French flag during a demonstration.



Pakistanis burn Danish, Norwegian and French flags during a rally in Lahore.



Muslims in Indonesia tear up the Danish flag.



Supporters of Pakistan's Islamic alliance Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal chant slogans during a rally in Karachi.

Source

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salam,

i'm a muslim & i do find the cartoon offensive. Still for muslims, even if one is outraged, the way to express it cannot follow the western style "freedom of expression". as the Quran states Allah do not condone unfair injury. Patience, is to be determined for the believers. (refer Quran, 3:186)

As their deeds are being written, so do ours. i hope we doin't spoil our deeds.

Shafi Said said...

Nisa, Your right there is way to express anger and let your frustrations out, but again there is a very fine line between the "Freedom of expression" banners they keep shoving down our throats and insulting one's religion. The Freedom of speech act is a meticulously thought-about and an effective tactic only used to accomodate them whenever they deem necessary!

Masha-Allah Thousands, if not hundreds of thousand, muslims world-wide have protested against the defamatory caricatures. Now it's raising concerns among them!

SleepDepraved said...

After discussing this hot topic with many muslims I am still left with my first conclusion. The first reaction of boycotting products and educating as to why the depictions of the Prophet (SAW) was inconsiderate to muslims was the better way to tackle this issue. I do not think we accomplish much by exhibiting violent tendancies. Misconceptions of Islam are further being proven by the further burning of flags and calls for violence.

True, freedom of speech/expression is the ruse they use but we can use the same freedom to plead our case. Our Prophet (SAW) went through being ostracized by Qurash to being ridiculed to being thrown stones upon. Hold fast to your faith and let no one bend you unto the path of violence to defend your faith. Your strength is being tested and surely Allah is a witness and verily will he defend his religion as he sees fit.

Ps:- Anger never solved anything (momentary), meticulous planning (long term) against future attacks are a better way of dealing with this situation.

Shafi Said said...

"True, freedom of speech/expression is the ruse they use but we can use the same freedom to plead our case"

...We can't SD. When a Muslim person tries to use that "Freedom of Speech" trick they turn things around and give it a new name - Inciting Racial hatred! Thats why now they are calling for all the protestors in London to be arrested. Why? because they held banners such as "Massacre those who insult Islam"

The way the Holy Prophet and his comapanions dealt with hardships was quite different to ours because they were blessed with patience and steadfastness. We are not - rather we have less and less Eeman and violence seems the only window visible to our short-sighted brain!

SleepDepraved said...

"Massacre those who insult Islam"
"Europe will pay Bin Laden is on his way"

Come now Shafi, what do the above phrases bring to mind if not violence and death? You have to separate two things in the arguement. The laws that bind us (Islam) and the law that binds a government (constitution).

Islamically you cannot even advocate violence. Not to reinterate but there are three methods that r prescribed to muslims when they see something wrong. Use your pen,your mouth then your heart (not sure if I got the first two in order).

The laws of England were written by man thus can be amended. The laws of God cannot. My point here is you can seek to change the boundaries of an existing law thats y they have amendments. Here we go back to long term planning concept I was talking about earlier. Again violence is never ever a solution (at least in my books).

I guess if the above doesn't ring true then we have to agree to disagree. :)

Shafi Said said...

SD,

The wordings of the hadeeth you mentioned are

[i]"Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart - and that is the weakest of faith. "[/i]

There is an indication of obligation here upon us to change what the general consensus of Ulama consider Evil. So, Isn't the depiction of the Holy Prophet in those defamatory cartoons evil?

It also seems like the Muslims themselves are divided on this issue of condoning violence. The anger aroused by those caricatures, eventually turned to violence and generally wide-spread - From Somali, South Africa, almost the entire Middle East and the west! Some say Kill those who slander the prophet, while some take less violent perspective.

I recently came across a post by Ahmad Humeid in his blog Wondering how the Prophet might have responded to the cartoons.. Which i think is worth reading!

SleepDepraved said...

Good read Shafi. He models a solution that is in tune with what I was saying. Glad to see not everyone is hoodwinked into burning of flags and violence.

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