ISLAMIC ANGER AGAINST PUBLICATION OF CARTOONS GROWS
Dishonor Muhammad and Risk
Execution
By Jeremy Reynalds
Saturday, February 04, 2006
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) -- Gunmen from Islamic Jihad and Fatah
announced their intention yesterday of attacking churches in Gaza in
protest against the cartoons of Muhammad published in Denmark last
September.
There has been a groundswell of protest over the appearance of these
cartoons. This anger was demonstrated on a radical Islamic Internet
forum recently, where rulings by Islamic scholars were referred to,
stating that the punishment for anyone who dishonors the prophet is
execution (www.as-sahwah.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=977&sid=0e79eec82420c6f20bf6cb24a9064f35).
According to Britain’s MediaWatchwatch, (www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/?p=339)
another Norwegian newspaper, Dagbladet, has also published the cartoons
as a gesture of support. And Mediawatchwatch added that Danish Muslim
leaders who have been touring the world explaining how offensive the
cartoons are have actually added three cartoons to the original twelve:
one depicting Mohammed as a paedophile demon
(http://ekstrabladet.dk/grafik/nettet/tegninger40.jpg), one of him with
the snout of a pig, and another of a praying Muslim being sodomized by
a dog. The origin of the extra three cartoons is unknown
Then referring to the publication of the original cartoons, one person
wrote in a Hamas Internet forum
(www.alqassam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3931), “ ... We cannot sit by
and let such things like this continue. Our enemies see us as weak and
divided; what they don't realize is something like this will unite
every Muslim Worldwide. We are caught between a rock and a hard
place....time to start throwing rocks (stones).”
This same writer ends many of her on line communications like this
(www.alqassam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3926&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=18),
“Those who resist Allah and His Messenger will be humbled to dust, as
were those before them: for We have already sent down clear signs. And
the unbelievers (will have) a humiliating penalty” (Subhana Allah).
The Barnabas Fund (an organization providing assistance for the
persecuted church; online at www.barnabasfund.org) and various media
have been reporting that the growing movement of Muslim protest around
the world since the cartoons appeared has gained strength this week, as
the cartoons were republished in six other European countries and
Jordan.
Amidst economic boycotts, demonstrations outside embassies, burning of
the Danish flag and calls for a “Day of Anger,” the Barnabas Fund
reported that Christian minorities in Muslim countries have begun to be
targeted. The threats to Palestinian church buildings follow attacks on
Iraqi Christian students and bombs outside Iraqi churches last Sunday.
These attacks were seen as retaliation for the Danish cartoons, not
least because of recent explicit fatwas in Iraq to expel Christians
“from streets, schools and institutions” because of events in Denmark.
MUSLIM FEELINGS VS. NON-MUSLIM LIVES
King Abdullah of Jordan addressed the National Prayer Breakfast
Leadership Luncheon in Washington recently. The king is generally
considered a moderate voice in the Muslim world. He condemned Sunday’s
bombing of the Iraqi churches, but went on to criticize the publication
of the caricatures of Muhammad.
On the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press (AP) reported that tens of
thousands of angry Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning
the Danish flag and calling for vengeance Friday against European
countries.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department criticized the drawings,
calling them, the AP reported, “offensive to the beliefs of Muslims.”
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
However, Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of the Barnabas
Fund, speaking in a news release asked, “Why should the hurting of
Muslim feelings be equated with the injury and destruction of
non-Muslim persons and property? This gross injustice has gone
unremarked. Christian minorities in Muslim countries strive continually
to demonstrate that they are loyal citizens of their homelands, yet
over and over again they are punished for the deeds of people they do
not know in ‘Christian’ countries far away. They are desperately
vulnerable, knowing that few would dare to come to their aid or to seek
to bring their attackers to justice.”
And speaking in a news release, Zionist Organization of America
National President Morton A. Klein said, “There is a deafening silence
around the world about the constant incitement to hatred of Jews,
Judaism and the Jewish state of Israel in the official
government-controlled media of much of the Arab and Muslim worlds,
especially in the societies that produce this venomous hate material.
We have now witnessed the hypocrisy of how, on one hand, the Arab and
Muslim worlds protest vociferously about a single series of offensive
cartoon depictions of Mohammed, calling for action at the highest
levels, threatening boycotts and demanding apologies yet, on the other
hand, say nothing and do nothing about how their own societies are
awash with Jew-hatred, including viciously anti-Semitic cartoons.”
The ZOA news release cited examples of a number of anti-Semitic
cartoons. They included a short list of cartoons appearing in the last
three years in the major Palestinian Authority (PA) newspaper, Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida.
- Jan. 7, 2006 – An evil-looking caricature of a Jew
depicted wreaking havoc beneath the Temple Mount and thus threatening
the Dome of the Rock above.
- Sep. 3, 2005 - Text: "Israel" penetrates Pakistan –
Israel in scare quotes, depicted as devious vermin trapping Pakistan in
to its orbit.
- Apr. 10, 2005 – A Magen David shape is depicted turning
the Dome of the Rock and an Arab in front of it in a prison.
- Feb. 5, 2005 - An Israeli soldier depicted as a Nazi,
complete with helmet, shaking a blood-soaked hand with a clean-handed
Palestinian.
- Dec. 10, 2004 – An Israeli flag, flying from the devil's
three-pronged spear and with a corner of its Magen David symbol
transformed into a blood-soaked claw, wrapped like a coil around an
injured dove of peace.
- Dec. 1, 2004 – Text: ‘The search for terror is still
ongoing’ – A figure representing the UN is seen wasting his time
looking with a magnifying glass for terrorism while ignoring the figure
of a monstrous ape with a caricature of Ariel Sharon's face as the
devil.”
Klein added, “The list of cartoons provided above that demonize Jews in
the crudest ways is merely a selection from a much longer list of
examples provided by Palestinian Media Watch. Some examples we did not
list include depictions of Israel as a rat, a Satanic figure, lice and
as an octopus. It is clear that we are not dealing here with something
that is merely offensive or even merely racist, but a particularly
Nazi-like type of demonization and dehumanization that normally appears
in the Western world today only in the publications of far right-wing
hate groups and is frighteningly reminiscent of the infamous Nazi
publication, Der Stuermer.”
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
While recognizing the importance of freedom of the press and
expression, U.S. State Department press officer Janelle Hironimus said
these rights must be coupled with press responsibility.
“Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable,”
the AP reported Hironimus said. “We call for tolerance and respect for
all communities and for their religious beliefs and practices.”
The caricatures, including one depicting the Muslim prophet wearing a
turban fashioned into a bomb, were reprinted in papers in Norwegian,
French, German and Jordanian. The AP reported that the drawings were
republished after Muslims decried the images as insulting to their
prophet. Dutch-language newspapers in Belgium and two Italian
right-wing papers reprinted the drawings Friday.
The AP reported that Islamic law, based on clerics’ interpretation of
the Quran and the sayings of the prophet (as shown above), forbids
depictions of the Prophet Muhammad and other major religious figures
even positive ones to prevent idolatry. Shiite Muslim clerics differ in
that they allow images of their greatest saint, Ali, the prophet's
son-in-law, though not Muhammad.
Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance
writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's
largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction.
He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New
Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in
Los Angeles. He has five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com. Tel: (505)
877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of
Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.
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