ISLAMIC ANGER AGAINST PUBLICATION OF CARTOONS GROWS
By Jeremy Reynalds (02/04/06)
Dishonor Muhammad and Risk Execution 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 12: 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.
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