Time to Stop Printing the Mohammad Cartoons
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Religion, The World“Freedom of expression must be exercised in a spirit of responsibility.�
French President Jacques Chirac said that as he urged French newspapers to stop publishing Mohammad cartoons. I have to agree. To continue to print these cartoons is just unneeded provocation. We’ve made our point. Our culture is clearly and decisively superior to that of radical Islam.
Of course, we knew that already. To argue otherwise is to blatantly ignore radical Islam’s love of violence, oppression of women, suppression of free speech and imperialistic aims. The only thing this cartoon imbroglio has proven is that radical Muslims have a surprisingly large collection of Danish flags available for burning.
The whole event borders on the farcical, except there’s nothing amusing about death and violence. Still, the idea that people would riot and demand our deaths over cartoons is beyond ridiculous. Jerry Falwell, one of the most right-wing and intolerant Christians in America, was the subject of an incredibly crude parody in Hustler Magazine, but all he did was sue. Could you imagine if right-wing Christians had taken to the streets, burned buildings, attempted to murder police and called for the beheading of Larry Flynt and every other non-Falwell supporter?
Such a scenario is ludicrous. And so is, in many ways, the radical Muslim response to these Mohammad cartoons. That is, I imagine, why newspapers keep publishing them. At this point it’s not a bold stand for free speech, it’s done for dark amusement�the thrill of being able to enrage an entire group over something as benign as a cartoon.
But people are dying. And while I am a rabid supporter of free speech, the right to publish something does not mean it is right to publish it. Western publications need to stop the provocation so this whole event can simmer down. We’ve won the argument. Radical Islam has once-again been exposed as the insufferably violent, dangerously explosive culture that it is.
Put down the cartoons. Show that we not only love freedom but that we also have the wisdom to wield it responsibly.
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February 8th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I will do no such thing on my blog, which would be self-censorship. Arab Muslims are enslaving blacks in Sudan and Mauritania in the 21st century, on behalf of Islam and do racist cartoons/music/commentary about us in their press (not to mention what they do about Jews and Christians), and I’m supposed to get upset about tame cartoons in a Danish newspaper and elsewhere? Ain’t happening. If Muslims only got this upset about slavery or terrorism, there would be progress.
I will continue to show these cartoons so my readers know just how ridiculous the fuss is in the (mostly Arab) Muslim world, and how Islam is an intolerant, uncivilized, and violent religion….whether it is about subjugation of blacks or tame Danish cartoons.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
What point is there in continuing to run the cartoons? We know the dog is rabid…why keep throwing water at it?
We don’t need to prove we’re better. That’s obvious. And there are much better, much stronger ways to fight this culture. The cartoons had their purpose. But their time has passed. Let’s get back to confronting the radical Muslims directly rather than just insulting them.
And, just in case it wasn’t clear, I place 100% of the fault on the radical Muslims, not the cartoonists or those who run the cartoons. And I will continue to do so. I just think there’s no point in continuing such provocation at this stage.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
I think we should welcome our Muslim overlords. After all, the protests over the cartoons are not so much because they are derogatory, but rather that Islamic law forbids any depiction of the prophet.
We can’t risk violating any other Islamic laws that Muslims might interpret as an offense to their religion, else they might act violently. Start dressing your women like garbage bags and stop the construction of all new churches or synagogs. Don’t forget to pay your Jaizya this morning and be sure to adorn your Zunar if you go out today!
February 8th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Jimmy, come on, you know that’s not at all what I’m saying. Don’t pretend like I’m advocating some bow-down to radical Islam. This whole thing is about cartoons. Doodles. Are we going to win this war with doodles?
Being the mature culture here and having the responsibility to say “enough is enough” is not giving in or giving up. It’s acknowledging we won and moving on to the fights that have more substance than what some Danish cartoonist drew.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:33 pm
I can think of one reason to continue to publish the cartoons. There are many people who have not yet seen the cartoons, and as such, do not have a full understanding over what set off this controversy in the first place. In order for people to become educated on the event, and in turn educated on the actions and reactions of radical Islam, they must have the full litany of information available to them.
February 8th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Just curious Alan, do you have any position on the depiction of Mohammed in the U.S. Supreme Court building?
If you believe the cartoons are rubbing the Islamists’ noses in it, does the same hold true of the SCOTUS depiction of Mohammed (which has been in place for a good deal longer, and I might add without any violent protests from Muslims)?
February 8th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Alan Stewart Carl: “Time To Stop Printing The Moha
The moderate blogger agrees with French President Jacques Chirac that media should stop publishing the controversial Mohammad cartoons: “To continue to print these cartoons is just unneeded provocation. WeÂ’ve made our point. Our culture is clearly an…
February 8th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Alan, I know, I know… thats just my style =P
My point is that something innocent like a depiction of the prophet (even a flattering one) is verbotten in islamic law, and that is the prime reason for the uprising. It was the challenge that the Danes made to the Islamic world saying: “we will not abide by your sacred rituals which we find archaine” that caused muslims to take offense.
There was a very poignant sense of defiance by the Posten especially since the Van-Gogh murder, as well as stories of honor-killings and burqa-clad women in Holland and Denmark.
In 50 years, Europe will be nearly half muslim; will there be attempts to impose other islamic laws on the whole of the population then? We see Tony Blair trying to pass “anti-blasphemy” laws. what about “female decency laws?” If Europeans act in defiance of other Islamic laws in the future Eurabia, will there be violence in response? Should Europeans cave in and say “ok i’ll stop, just calm down?”
February 8th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
I’m of mixed mind. I don’t think it’s civil to do something that unnecessarially offends people, just because you can. At the same time, the vast majority of the people I’ve talked to have heard of the cartoons, but haven’t actually seen them. It is important for people to understand what these people are getting so worked up over, and that it’s actually pretty tame stuff.
February 8th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
I think an argument could be made that if we know re-publishing the cartoons is going to cause death and destruction, shouldn’t we stop. I don’t really agree with this argument, but it’s out there.
Personally, I do agree that they should still be published because I know of a lot of people who have not seen these pictures and therefore may make erroneous assumptions about them. Also, don’t they want to intimidate and scare us into doing as they ask? I don’t think we should respond to this kind of negative reinforcement.
February 8th, 2006 at 4:27 pm
I think the Mohammad depiction in the Supreme Court should be taken down immediately!!
No. Hell no. Of course I don’t think that. Nor do I think the cartoons should be taken off of websites or anything like that. I just don’t think the European press needs to keep printing them in each new edition.
It won’t solve anything and everything that needed to be proven has been proven. Jimmy is very right that there will be a conflict within Europe as more and more of those nations become Islamic. This event proved how deep that conflict will be. But there is no real need to prolong this specifc conflict. It’s run its course. There are bigger conflicts ahead.
February 8th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
Ah, well, it’s a reasonable and enlightened and humane thing to say, Alan, and I hope no one thinks less of you for saying it. But the story’s bigger than that now, and I’m afraid Pandora’s Box can’t be repacked. The images themselves are not just the spark of the incident. They are part of the story. Especially because there are two versions of the cartoons: The one we see and the ones being passed around in the Islamic world, which include some truly scurrilous images, apparently generated by Westerners, but in no way part of the package of cartoons that’s been published here.
And, as an aside, couldn’t you make the same argument about the images of the abuse at Abu Ghraib?
February 8th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Callimachus is right; this is so not about a few cartoons. This is about Islamic imperialism, an attempt by Muslims to tell Danes what they can and cannot print in their own newspapers in their own country. It is especially telling that the insitigators are Muslim residents of denmark. it is telling that so amny moderate Muslims in Europe are starting to speak – they understand that a few mild cartoons are not the issue.
But Europe s not going to be half Muslim by whatever year. Straight line extrapolations are always bunk. People get rich and stop having so many kids, people drop old customs and identities and religions, people get pogromed – all kinds of things can happen.
February 8th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
I don’t think Alan’s point of self-censorship to avoid further deaths is an invalid one. There is “the soft bigotry of low expectations” here, justifiably so, since these radical barbarians are 100% wrong, yet are still going to be barbarians. If you are a hot chick you have every right to wear a leather mini-skirt into a biker bar, and its not your fault if you get raped…but you still might get raped anyway!
However; a few points though:
1) in regard to Abu graib, that was a news story about something American sodiers themeselves did to Muslims, published while the soldiers were in harms way in Iraq & Afghanistan. Also, the military lost strategic advantages in fighting the war (for example, insurgents might now be to afraid to surrender) because of the pictures. Therefore it was irresponsible for the CBS to release those photos.
2) No one in Denmark anticipated this response over silly cartoons, and any re-publication is to inform the public what all the noise is about. The cat’s already out of the bag.
3) The muslim outrage is not about any news being reported by the Posten, it is over the reporting itself; the right to print what is regarded as blasphemy.
I don’t think this issue is going away anytime soon. The radicals won’t be satisfied until Orwellian (or Mohammedian) legislation is passed throughout the west. Others will continue to rouse the rabble until the cartoonists are “brought to justice” Theo Van-Gogh style. Riots in France, the jihad in Indonesia, ethnic cleansing of non-arabs in Sudan, there is always some sort of clash wherever Islam meets the west, or the rest.
Perhaps these innocuous cartoons are a blessing? Imagine the backlash if mosques are burned and Muslim women are killed by some fed up Neo-Nazis in future Germany. Maybe we should draw a line in the sand now, stand up for our civilization and stop capitulating to angry muslims in the wake of their violence.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Alan… This cartoon thing… This is a good example of our enemies using the MSM against us. I for one wouldn’t say stop printing a cartoon of any religion. But I will say that the MSM… the whole world over… needs to take a long hard look at everything they print these days. This is getting to be a very– very dangerous world we live in. If one knows they’re going to help our enemies by printing something… feed the fire if you will… why do it???
AubreyJ………
February 9th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Just found this, if true, very interesting.
February 9th, 2006 at 10:24 am
So let me get this straight, the line to follow is:
Danes print cartoon which offends someone.
Said offended persons go on rampage like 5 year olds, burning, destroying, and making death threats.
Danes must now repeal cartoon because “freedom of exspression” doesn’t matter as much as being pathetic panty waists who kowtow to violence.
I wonder, the next time liberals post an anti-Christian cartoon, if I get enough people to burn, destroy, rant, rave, and make death threats will the pantywaists in the media kowtow to my group’s violence?
Talk about emasculation, the media has been so feminized that it will compromise its own rights because the persons offended haven’t evolved into civilized human beings yet.
The biggest irony is such a point is made by the author, but it seems to me that all you have to do to stop cartoonists from printing about you is to be an uncivilized loutish ideological brute.
I say let these nutbars get outraged, they were killing us before the cartoons were printed and had every intention of doing so beforehand. I say the more we print these cartoons the more we show that this is no mere “tiny minority” of Muslims and that Islam itself is inherently corrupt. Don’t YOU find it interesting that after 9/11 there were no pro-American Muslim protests decrying the violence, but the otherwise irrelevant DENMARK prints a CARTOON and you’ve got violence in the streets?
My question is: Where’s the outrage?
February 9th, 2006 at 10:59 am
“Danes must now repeal cartoon…” Who said that? All he is saying here is enough is enough already: time to simmer down. What is wrong with that? And lets try not to now demonize American muslims too who, as far as I can tell, have not reacted with any violence whatsoever. That is, unless you want to lock them all up in camps until this “war” is over in, oh, say, 100 years?
February 9th, 2006 at 11:31 am
[...] Yesterday I wrote that publications should stop running the Mohammad cartoons. This was met with a lot of disagreement both here at Donklephant and elsewhere. The arguments were strong and it was enough to make me question the wisdom of my position. But after more thought, I simply can’t change my mind. Although I clearly need to clarify. [...]
February 9th, 2006 at 11:49 am
The problem is that he is telling the wrong side to simmer down. I don’t think Alan is advocating self-censorship for anything more than a pragmatic sense to end the violence quickly; however, I feel that type of thinking just plays into the hands of islamists and liberal apologists. Our culture expects so little from muslims and demands nothing from them.
On the one hand, we see any group exotic brown people as the “noble savage” who are instinctively prone to archaine customs and primitive barbarism as if they belong in some National Geographic documentary.
On the other hand, the collective post-colonial guilt of the west, coupled with a liberal marxist mindset that reduces all conflicts to haves vs. have-nots, prevents the middle class white westerner or jew to criticise such acts of barbarity out of fear of being “culturally insensitive”
Maybe we should just stop infantalising Muslims and hold fast to a demand that they respect our values of free speech and stop the death-threats and embassy burnings. In exchange, we will accept their right to peacefully preach their racist, morally bankrupt, death-cult religion of Islam in our neck of the woods.
February 10th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Hmmm.
So are you saying that you would give up an essential liberty for a little temporary security?
February 10th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
[...] In my two-part series where I argued Western media should stop running the Mohammad cartoons (here and [...]
February 17th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
I’m so sick of Immams, Mullahs and the whole bunch of religious zealots. I was watching CNN the other day and the commentator could hardly read from laughing at the statement issued by one of those crazy Immams ” We are tired of the west portraying muslim men as terrorists, and if the west keeps it up we will send our terrorist to kill you.” Anyone say Islam is a peacefull religion? Maybe we should give these people what they want. Pull all our technologies, businesses, aid, people, medicines, food, and money from their countries. Within a coulple of years the sands of time will cover them up to their necks. But, It’s our own media that is mostly to blame by giving those nuts a forum to spout off. I truely believe that if you gave the choice to any of the normal people living in those countries the chance to move to the United States. They wouldn’t be able to pack up the camel fast enough. I feel sad for them because they are repressed by these religious wackos. Personally, If someone drew a cartoon of Jesus busting up a market place with the comment under it: “I thought this was the line for the X-box”. I’d be laughing my ass off. They need to lighten up over a cartoon. They’re supposed to be funny.
February 22nd, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I have read Jimmy the Dhimmi’s comments about Bikers (mbbiu) raping people in all bikers Most Holy Places (biker bars/may beer be inside us) with a combination of horror and outrage.
Perhaps you have forgotten that bikers (mbbiu) number in the billions across the planet and that we take such lifestylism seriously.
We demand that you retract your allegation, provide free Jack Daniels (mjdbiu) to any poverty stricken bikers (mbbiu) you encounter and pass legislation in each of your countries forcing women to expose their breasts (suyt) as The OneHarleyDavidson (may my butt be upon it) intended.
We hope that you will follow the above suggestions, as bikers (mbbiu) are normally the most peaceful of TheOneHarleyDavidson’s (mmbbui) creations, but we will fight to protect our beliefs if we must.
Don’t make us take a primary chain to ya’.
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:49 pm
My your ass be upon us and might you teach Muslim clerics around the world the true meaning of anti-hygiene and lice ridden, dusty beards.
March 2nd, 2006 at 3:39 am
Please refer to Mr. Paul’s comments dated 17th Feb which certainly shows his state of mental sickness regarding Islam and its followers! I think so Mr. paul is afraid of the pace at which Islam is spreading in America and elsewhere…
Mr. Paul your sick comments regarding Muslim clerics won’t make any impression on all those people (all over the world) who want to seek the right path… Islam is the true relegion, you stop the American terrorist activities in IRAQ, Afghanistan and elsewhere on the name of liberation and so called american freedom, this world will become a lot safer place to live in…Islamic countries don’t posses the WMD’s, the real WMD is Islam itself (Its true message that Christanity, HINDUISM, BUDDHISM AND JEWS all lack) that’s why it is spreading thick and fast, No muslim country has these daisy cutters and Atom bombs that US have, and remember it was US not Osama Bin laden who bombed Japan and killed so many innocent people…if Osama Bin Laden kills innocent Civilians he must be condemded but what about America whose policies are liable for killing so many Innocent Iraqi childern by applying sanctions on import of medicines etc…???(This is only one example of the cruel american policies toward Muslims and developing countries) On one hand we have a person who kill people on the other we have a country that wipes out the cities and districts and is still regarded as world saviour???Japan attacked the Military installations in 2nd world war (Pearl Harbor) and America in return destroyed the whole city killing huge scores of people and till date people are suffering coz… of the radiation after effects now being transformed into the generations to follow…
You talk about printing the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) we say they should’nt have been printed in any case…and in future if cartoons of any prophet is published you will see the same reaction from Muslims…If you don’t respect your own prophet, its your problem but even then we will stand against such wrong doings as we respect them all and Dear Mr. Paul thats why Islam is spreading fast because it does not preaches hatred…and it asks for respecting all its preachers sent upon earth by the creator of this world to show us the right path…you accept it or reject it…???It depends on you
I pray to Allah to show us all the right path and all the Prophets must be respected…
March 10th, 2006 at 1:08 am
It is easy to sense your sincerety, piousness, and love of Allah, Talha Ejaz!
That said, who cares?
You state: “You talk about printing the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) we say they should’nt have been printed in any case…and in future if cartoons of any prophet is published you will see the same reaction from Muslims…If you don’t respect your own prophet, its your problem but even then we will stand against such wrong doings as we respect them all”
You threaten that if we (in our countries) again print something your cult doesn’t like you’ll once again act like a combination of small children and rabid dogs, burning down your own buildings and cars, killing a boatload of your own people, all while yelling seriously amusing slogans like “2 4 6 8, who will we beheadinate – nonbelievers, nonbelievers! Go Mustapha!”
Again, who cares?
We don’t bitch much about your folk verbally bashing judism and christianity daily in your news and mosques, hell we don’t bitch much at your daily beheading of jews, christians, other sect members, and pretty much anyone else you don’t like – after all, it’s your country your doing it in. So what makes you think we’ll let you tell us what to do in our country based on your beliefs?
Your religion wouldn’t be growing much at all anywhere but prisons if there weren’t so many places in the world where there were no police or military willing to stop your folk from converting by use of the gun and blade.
Which ain’t really conversion, Fred, it’s intimidation. Doesn’t work as well in places where everyone is armed. In India, you burn people in train cars, and then cry when they do it to you. As in Somolia, as in Nigeria, as in…
If Allah is indeed the true God, he must cry bitter tears over what his chosen have become, hardscrabble wanna-be’s with no honor as a people who make war gleefully on children and noncombatants, while running screaming from the soldiers.
Eventually, he might well turn his eye to the rest of us as a way of being rid of you, and unlike you guys seeking a bribe even from God (the virgins) we’ll fight free just because it’s God asking and because the rest of the world is just so damn tired of listening to you.
Do what you want in your countries, we’ll do what we want in ours.
Or Not. And again, I ask, Who Cares?
March 10th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Hi! Dark Rider
Your comments for sure portray your mindset and the hatred that encompasses within your brain for Muslims…
YES! Certainly printing & publishing the cartoons of the last prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) will do no harm to you (At least in this world). As far as burning down ones own country’s buildings and assets is concerned it shouldn’t have happened but when you probe into the matter, you will only find out that the people involved in these incidents, who damaged others property were either govt. own agents or people committing wrongful acts to fulfill their own materialist desires, why don’t u talk about the peaceful and most disciplined protests held in Turkey etc. you only see one side of the picture but what about the other side? I said no prophet should be disgraced and as far as Muslims are concerned we respect all the prophets and it’s the part of our faith that Jesus Christ will return back to this world that’s why we also believe in safeguarding the sanctity of all the prophets.
A whole lot of baseless acquisition with no conclusive evidence to suggest that Islam spread by sword…? I don’t know in which jail Mr. Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) and Michael Jackson was imprisoned which forced them to embrace Islam or may be it was some Al-Qaeda military men who forced them to do so…???
We seek forgiveness for all human beings and pray to Almighty Allah (God) to show all of us the right path, good and bad people are part and parcel of every group, can you please tell me which Indian train we burnt? What about the atrocities unleashed on the Muslims of Gujarat and elsewhere in the largest democracy of India or what about those 70,000 Muslims martyred in Indian held Kashmir and till date more then 700,000 Indian troops are still present to suppress the legitimate freedom struggle of Kashmiri people, if you think its terrorism to free your own land then (Mangal Pandey) was the biggest terrorist now portrayed as a hero in the Indian books. If the west is so much concerned about all these human right violation why does it not compel India to arrange a free and fair plebiscite as per UN rulings and under their supervision???
You talk of free press, but when Al-Jazeera shows the brutality of the allied forces, you talk about banning its transmission; you bomb its offices in Afghanistan and kill their journalists.
God is well aware of our condition, but what about yours??? The highest crime rates can only be witnessed in Europe and America where raping women is considered some sort of ritual I guess??? God forbid if it happens in any Muslim country a lot of hue and cry is made out of it, because it’s a rarity in our society and hence it gets highlighted but for the west it’s just a normal thing…
I admit we are not the same force that we used to be 200 years back, every nation has its ups and down, now its Americas turn because it’s the law of the nature… you can’t change it…If Muslims start following all the instructions as mentioned in FURQAN (Al-Quran)… the whole scenario for the Muslims will change, free the people of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir etc… and give them the right to live…no one wants to take his own life or someone else life, because life is precious either it is of a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim or let it be anyone else…but it’s the circumstances that compels one to do so if he is not granted his rights…
Islam stands for peace, its door full of blessings are always open for all the humanity to embrace, but it’s for us to walk towards that door and entrench ourselve in this sea of peace, love and humanity.
I pray for your well being and that GOD may show you the right path as you know nothing…
March 13th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Hey Talha Ejaz,
You hit the nail right on the head that Islam is the true religion, and there in lies the problem. If you want to practice Islam in the privacy of your own home or Mosque, I could care less. It’s when the fundalmentalist Muslims take their warped sense of Islam and attempt to convert the world or die, then I take offense. If I want to practice my religion in the privacy of my own home or church, or for that matter if I want to worship earthworms or raccoons in the privacy of my own home or hollow tree, that’s my business as long as I don’t try to force it on others. The powers that be in Islam should get their own house in order for they cannot decide which sect of Islam is the right one. If the US would pull out of Iraq right now, civil war would immediately break out and Muslim would be killing Muslim by the Mosque full. (That’s right, they are already doing it). What was the 8 year Iraq- Iran war all about. Neither side gained more that 25 miles of territory yet they killed their Muslim breatheren by the thousands. Nobody said the US was perfect, and we killed our share of people, but you show me a Islamic country that allows the freedom for anyone to get up on a soap box and spew any kind of crap they want in the name of any religion they choose. Religion as a whole has been from its inseption the bane on human kind. More people over the ages have suffered and died in the name of religion. The Crusades were no picnic for anyone, neither was the inquisition. Forgive and forget. Look what happened in Bosnia. Both side brought up issues from 800 years ago.
You my friend are probably practicing Islam as it should be, as a peaceful, law abiding member. Someone should be letting Osama and his crazy bunch know what you do. They must have taken a left at the holy water because from my perspective they need to be hunted down like a pack of wild dogs. Also, why don’t I see Islam pitching in when it comes to natural disasters. Why didn’t we see any Muslims living in the United States react to the tower disasters. Do you think Osama cared if there were any Muslims in those towers? Why didn’t he warn them not to go to work that day. Muslims need to get their own house in order before they spread out. You talk about rape in the US, at least if a woman is raped here she can prosecute and throw the bum in jail. Let her try that in afganistan, and she’ll be ducking from the stones. Islam needs to adapt to the times. You can’t do that to any woman. As for Micheal Jackson, come on, I’m surprised you would even let that wacked-out sicko into Islam, let alone advertise it like he should be a role model.
I said all along that the US did the wrong thing in Iraq. We should have approached Saddam as an ally instead of a foe. He didn’t put up with terrorists or religious nuts because they were a threat to his power. Isreal can take care of itself and that would have been off limits to him. The other thing I find amussing about Islam is that there is no such thing as compromise. Why can’t they reconize Isreal as a country and co-exist. Isreal was on the track of granting Palistine there own territory, so what do the Palistinians do, elect a terrorist group to run the country.
One other thing before I go. If the Islamic countries do not want to have anything to do with the US, then don’t accept US aid, food, medicine, science, technology or any other items that come from here. I don’t know where you live, but if it’s in the US, and you feel that we are so terrible, then move to one of those Allah forsaken countries because that is your right. I doubt if you’ll be packing your bags anytime soon.
March 15th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Hello! PAUL
Your comments are interesting and thought provoking for many people living across the globe; these issues are certainly highlighted by the believers of other religion to malign the image of Islam and Muslims.
If you see a person falling of the cliff what would be your first reaction? Certainly its your social, moral and human obligation to help the other person out or else leave him to fall of the cliff…now a Muslim believer has the same obligation that is to pass on the message of Islam but even before this his main responsibility is to become that Muslim as desired by the holy scriptures (Holy Quran) and Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H)…if one is successful in doing all this people around him will certainly give more thought to his sayings and his actions, this was the case 1400 years ago in the Arab world when Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) by his modesty and honesty won the hearts of the world’s most worst (ignorant and socially undesirable) people of that time. Now the key thing was the character not the sword…Islam which is considered as the world’s largest revolution that totally changed the whole Arab world and its adjoining areas, caused only 1500 casualties in total on both the sides…think about some of the modern day revolutions? Which was more peaceful? As far as portraying Michael Jackson is concerned, that was in reply to a comment made earlier on this forum…his conversion was not brought by a sword but it was the true message of Islam that convinced Michael Jackson to revert to Islam.
Religion has nothing to do with the people who kill each other to attain their on sinister desires on the name of religion…When you talk about democracy which means Majority is authority then you should respect the people’s opinion and if Palestinians voted for Hamas who are fighting against the Israeli armed forces unending oppression because they think PLO cannot defend Palestinian people. It’s the people’s decision and we all know why they opted for HAMAS.
Which side has lost more lives during this conflict? Who has the better technology? Whose economy is in better shape? With all these things who would like to fight an enemy which they know is more powerful then them? What double standards Americans have set for the world…if US bombs Hiroshima, that is right because the world is at danger but if Israeli forces kill innocent children and does not expect people to retaliate then I guess they are living in fools paradise…if one fights for his justified freedom because he is a Muslim he’s termed as a Terrorist??? I am not defending Osama and his comrades but where was the American public when CIA was supporting and funding him to fight against USSR, AL-QAEDA is an organization formed by the Americans to help them fulfill their own agenda…how come with all the technology at American disposal, can’t locate Osama but they can figure out natural resources buried in great depths…may be they should look for him in Pentagon building…
As far as Muslim sects are concerned, difference of opinion is not a new thing, I guess you should better look out for the bloody battles fought amongst the Christians (Catholics and the Protestants).
If a believer is at mistake this should not necessarily indicate the weakness of the religion but of the followers own shortcomings that he/she should try to rectify.
Now who supported SADDAM in the IRAN-IRQ conflict? Who gave rise to all the hatred and who fueled the whole situation?
Islam has no criteria for recognizing someone and rejecting someone, it only draws a line between the believers and the non-believers…if a Muslim commits a suicide does it mean that Islam asks its followers to commit suicide…???
Why confine religion to ones own house, mosque or church, when in Muslim countries the missionaries under the 40/40 program are trying to reach out the Muslim population (Refer to Times Magazine previous issues) they are so scared of Islam spreading so fast while most of its believers are in difficult times, what if the condition of Muslim countries start improving…
I don’t live in US and have no such in plans in near future to migrate to US; as far as Aid is concerned we don’t ask you to send any… and US Govt. only send it where desirable for its own agenda…what about the million children who suffered because of US sanctions on IRAQ, where was the American aid when Afghanistan got its freedom form occupied Russian forces…till date how many people are dying in Africa, while America is spending Billions on developing new weapons of Mass destruction , who has all these Daisy cutters, IRAN or US, for whom they keep building these weapons, why can’t they stop south Korea from Nuclear capability while IRAN seems to be a threat…why America killed millions in Vietnam? Why America can’t stop killings in Kashmir by Indian occupied forces but it can in East Timor?
We Muslims care about the lives of other and we expect the same in return from others… and when this does not happen then people like Osama take advantage of the situation to imply his own agenda…now think as to whose policies are benefiting him the most…THINK ABOUT IT!
March 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
Continued from above…(Conclusion)
Last but not the least as PAUL rightly says that “Muslims need to get their own house in order before they spread outâ€Â? and that will only be made possible if intrusion and intervention in Muslim country’s politics is stopped by the outside forces, all these puppet regimes would get toppled, the true voice of the inhabitants of Muslim countries would start emerging, the whole scenario would change and certainly it would not be according to the wishes of America or its allies…and this is the last thing that America wants… Today Muslims are killing Muslims in IRAQ (Shia-Sunni) but why this is not happening in other Muslim countries after all SHIA-SUUNI are living peacefully in some other Muslim countries, some thing is wrong somewhere… (WE CALL THIS THE CONSPIRACY THEORY)…give people of IRAQ the choice of freedom to choose freely and wisely what they wish for and the things will settle down…America wanted SADDAM he’s out…now it’s the time to empower IRAQI people…the sooner its done the better it is.