Drawings of Mohammed

[Chava]

I don't know who of you are familliar with the situation, but some of you must have heard by now.
In September, a danish newspaper published twelve drawings of the prophet Mohammed. Satirical drawings, amoungst others where he had a bomb in his turban.
Since then, the situation has taken dramatic proportions, and even as I write this, there are demonstrations in Egypt, and palistinians and others are burning the danish flag, chanting "Denmark, Islam will be your grave".
Being danish, I'm horrified. I'm disgusted that these pictures were released without considerations for the muslim society, it is not permitted to depict the prophet.
In any case, suddenly, in the course of a few months, the situation has gone from unrecognised to being a large scale anti-danish protest. And even now, several organisations have named Denmark as their future goal for terrorism.
And the most frightening thing? The danes have started to repent, and are now threatening with a boycot of all muslim goods to answer the arab boycot of danish goods. and some danish teenagers are trying to organise a public burning of Qu'arans; which is ridiculous and distatsefull, not to mention illigal, and the police will stop them.
Why has the danish government not done anything? They say they cannot hamper freedom of speech:

What do you think? and please be objective!

[Amra]

Peace to you. First of all, I would like to thank you for speaking in this manner about the issue. Not many people have been able to keep their head calm because of this. I am a muslim, and the idea of portraying our Prophet a.s in this manner is disgusting, and cannot be tolerated. There should and must be some kind of limits when it comes to freedom of speech and press. I don't know what the newspaper could have expected when it portrayed a Prophet as a suicide bomber, :confused: especially when it is strictly forbidden in our religion to depict Prophets and/or images of God in any way. I support the boycott and whatever peacful ways there can be used to stop and supress this. It is unfortunate that many people who do not agree with this, such as you, have become victims of it.

[Chava]

The problem with restraing freedom of speech is that that in itself is a contradiction. You cannot only be free to speak about somethings.
But yes, this situation is completely out of hand.

[Amra]

No freedom is absolute. If your freedom of speech will cause distress and harm to others, then it should be restrained. You don't have the right to shout fire in the middle of a crowd just for the fun of it, because your actioni will affect other people, and possible get them hurt.
Freedom of speech cannot be used to justify disrespect shown in this way. We seriously have to consider what the intention of these drawings were before we can judge it. Did they represent something useful that the human kind should know? Something important that will affect our lives? Our future? Something that had to be told regardless of consequences? No! It was just a simple insult on the most importat person in the muslim religion. Why allow such things when the consequences should have been known? If we had any kind of respect for each others values, we wouldn't even need to be restrained in any way, but unfortunately we don't.

[Jewels83]

Well, The stuation is surely getting bigger and bigger every single day. I mean we just went to the supermarket and a whole fridge for dairy products was empty because people wouldnt buy Danish products anymore. Super markets do not import them and they put up signs of boycotting and encouraging every one to do so. I heard that a few Christians as well will be boycotting. And I'm talking about Egypt only and i can imagine what the rest of the Islamic world would do which will soon have a direct impact on your economy.

Your governemnt as far as i know is very democratic and that's why it wouldn't apologize for something It is not responsible for; it is the role of the newspaper. But it would be for the benefit of the country to announce an official apology or i don't know may be give some incentives to the newspaper to do so itself. Is this a Christian newspaper?
Whether it is a christian newspaper or not, Muslims are now attributing this to Christianity in general.

[Amra]

Whether it is a christian newspaper or not, Muslims are now attributing this to Christianity in general.

Muslims respect all Prophets. It is not only forbidden to depict Mohammed a.s, but any other Prophet of God. There is no muslim in the world that would make fun of Jesus a.s, or MOses a.s or any other Prophet. I suppose Christians wouldn't do something like that because they know the importance of Prophethood and deities, although, unfortunately, many Christian countries have allowed Jesus a.s to be shown in degrading ways through various different ways. If the Christians had stood against this practice in the beginning and supressed it, it could have been stopped probably, but now, it seems, anyone can make fun of Jesus a.s and get away with it. Very unfortunate.

[Chava]

The news paper is a neutral one it has no religious stand or anything. the pictures were released merely to provoke. It was stupid, and an action without much thought.
Nonetheless, i don't think there is any way one can restrain fredom of speech, because it is one of the most vluable things the democrativ societies own. and it isn't possible to create some exceptions for it, compared to others. in the danish society, people can say whatever they want, and deal with the consequences by themselves. If someone feels personnaly insulted, they are welcome to take the other party into court as a matter of honour.
That's how it is.

Yes the dansih economy is already feeling the consequences. Originally, 13 arab diplomats requested a meeting with the Prime minister, to ask him to reprimand the newspaper in question. However, he refused, saying that there was no way he could do that, because in Denmark, unlike many muslim and arab countries, the press is completely out of government control, and the idea of their intuding is practically against our human rights, as far as we can see it. so that is a no go solution.
However, i think it was foolish of him not to have a dialog with the diplomats, so that this could have been solved in October, and there would have been an end.

[miss tenderness]

hello every one
its an awful mistake what that paper has done,apparently they dnt knw what they r comitting,we should all respect each other 's belief whoever we are.

[Jewels83]

I'm surprised at what newspapers do to get read or sell more. Aren't there better issues to talk about such as war, poverty, famine etc.?It is very insulting to Muslims..and i can see why...I don't think that for the sake of entertainment people would go about technically "cursing" at other religions.

According to all religions' standards and teachings; its immoral to disrespect other religions or beleifs and to use it for entertainmnet puposes..
I'm glad for the position your taking and after reading your post more carefully i got shoked at the fact that the Danish are now going on riots. I mean who should go on riots? ANd its not like the governemnet has prevented them from releasing those pictures..And its not like the governmnet is apologzing..
Good thing you brought that subject up...

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Publishing those pictures was crass and insensitive at best; deliberately provocative at worst. But it was the fault of the newspaper, it's editors and the artist. To blame the whole country for the actions of a few is ridiculous. The Danish government did not prevent the publication because they do not vet newspapers in advance in Denmark, nor censor them. Be content that this would never happen in a country like China, where they are a lot stricter on what gets published.

In burning Danish flags, banning Danish goods and over-reacting in such a ludicrous way, the islamic states are reinforcing the very stereotypes that are depicted in these cartoons. Counter-productivity at full throttle.

I understand that any depiction of allah or mohammed is forbidden in the Qu'ran - but so are many things - to muslims. Those responsible are not muslims. They are almost certainly not strict christians either.

They have chosen to exercise their right to free speech in an offensive manner and should be roundly condemned for it - but in a civilised way. Similar cartoons of christ and other religious figures have appeared in print for years. These have met with mixed reactions but nothing like the furore that these inane cartoons have caused.

Ignoring them would have meant that they were viewed (and promptly forgotten) by a few Danes. Causing all of this fuss means that they are shared with the world and likely to be remembered for years to come. Accept that some people will make fun of your beliefs - it's going to happen whether you do or not - and treat them with the contempt that they deserve. Start shouting and screaming and you help your cause none, but that of the bigots and racists plenty!

XC

[Whifflingpin]

There is absolutely no reason why any non-Muslim should feel in any way bound by Muslim rules about depiction of prophets, or anything else - unless in a Muslim country where Muslim law is part of the law of the land.

There is no subject whatever that is outside the scope of satire - nor should there be. Satire is merely a method of forcing us to think about things.

Equally, I can understand that Muslims may be deeply angered by the satire. Burning Danish flags seems to me an entirely appropriate response to the insult. It has a sort of symbolic equivalence that should bring home to people the enormity of the insult.

But boycotts? Chanting slogans of death? They are totally out of proportion; as Xamonas Chegwe suggests, these merely demonstrate the validity of the message carried in the cartoons.

[Amra]

"There is absolutely no reason why any non-Muslim should feel in any way bound by Muslim rules about depiction of prophets, or anything else - unless in a Muslim country where Muslim law is part of the law of the land."

WE live in a global society, and we have to be sensitive of certain issues is we are to coexist with each other. Every society has its value systems, and they could be completely different than what you view as right, but ignoring those differences can lead to grave problems. What if a muslim country published a cartoon depicting the victims of 9/11? What if the cartoon showed the people flying off the buildings, burning, crying, and it made fun of them? What if the cartoon laughed at the tragedy? Do you think no one would react? What if someone living in the USA ran an article glorifying Osama Bin Laden as a hero? Do you think that would be protected with freedom of speech? Certainly not. WE have to understand that every right is relative, and it is limited by the rights of other people, their values, cultures and social norms that determine what they deem acceptable and what not acceptable.


"But boycotts? Chanting slogans of death? They are totally out of proportion; as Xamonas Chegwe suggests, these merely demonstrate the validity of the message carried in the cartoons."

Again, our views are certainly different and we are going to react based on them. For example, to me it is incomprehensible that anyone would dare ridiculing the Prophet a.s., or any other Prophet. To you, this seems an issue of satire and freedom of speech. ON the other hand, it may seem incomprehensible to you that muslims reacted like that, but to me, this is completely appropriate, because I know how holy certain things are looked at. You may think that it is worth dying to fight for your right to free speech, whereas to me, it is worth dying for protecting what is holy to us. Because of these differences, and because we live in a global society, we have to understand that our actions will provoke consequences other than what we would expect. Therefore, we have to look at the value system of the other side that we are attacking/provoking/critisizing to see what response our actions will have, and not base those actions on our own value system that may be totally different.

[Doctor Boogaloo]

Who speaks for Islam? Bin laden? Hamas? The beheaders and kidnappers and terrorists? The President of Iran who wishes to drive Israel into the sea? The butchers of commuters in England and Spain? Yeah... lately, it seems the Prophet might just have a bomb tucked into a turban.
As unfortunate (in oh, so many ways) as this cartoon controversy is, it illustrates what a lot of western communities have come to believe.
I find any unblinking, unquestioning belief a danger to human life.
And this is no laughing matter.

[Gurrato Alaien]

I don't know who of you are familliar with the situation, but some of you must have heard by now.
In September, a danish newspaper published twelve drawings of the prophet Mohammed. Satirical drawings, amoungst others where he had a bomb in his turban.
Since then, the situation has taken dramatic proportions, and even as I write this, there are demonstrations in Egypt, and palistinians and others are burning the danish flag, chanting "Denmark, Islam will be your grave".
Being danish, I'm horrified. I'm disgusted that these pictures were released without considerations for the muslim society, it is not permitted to depict the prophet.
In any case, suddenly, in the course of a few months, the situation has gone from unrecognised to being a large scale anti-danish protest. And even now, several organisations have named Denmark as their future goal for terrorism.
And the most frightening thing? The danes have started to repent, and are now threatening with a boycot of all muslim goods to answer the arab boycot of danish goods. and some danish teenagers are trying to organise a public burning of Qu'arans; which is ridiculous and distatsefull, not to mention illigal, and the police will stop them.
Why has the danish government not done anything? They say they cannot hamper freedom of speech:

What do you think? and please be objective!

Peace be upon you brother,
Actually I think that was intentionally, how cans Danish government
Say they cannot hamper freedom of speech, I wonder if they can do same regarding the holocaust for Jews as example or anything concerning Jews or Christianity

I think such deeds create the terrorism and don’t blame who defending their religion, after that they would say why we became goal to terrorism.

I myself support the boycott.

Peace

[Scheherazade]

Since discussion of current politics is not allowed on this Forum, this thread will be now closed.