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Danish Cartoon on Islam's Prophet Recipe
for Disaster
By Latheef Farook February 12, 2006
It is no secret that Muslims all over the world were seething with anger at the worldwide hate campaign unleashed against them under the guise of fighting war on terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11.
Those in the Middle East and other Muslim countries are also angry with their own rulers who struck under the table deals with the West, turning a blind eye to the US-led Western nations in their designs to control Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine where killing Muslims have become a daily occurrence, though the Western media virtually ignored their plight.
The atmosphere has been so tense all over the world during the past few years that all what was needed was a spark to inflame the situation further dividing the Muslims and Christians who have lived in peace and harmony for centuries.
The spark ignited Sept. 30 2005 , when the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published a cartoon insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammed. The Islamic Organization in Denmark peacefully asked the newspaper to stop publishing such cartoons. Dismissing these appeals, the daily continued to publish, one after the other, twelve such cartoons, knowing very well that it would antagonize and enrage 1.4 billions Muslims all over the world.
The Islamic Organization took up the matter with the Danish government which simply ignored them and supported the daily.
But the reprinting of these provocative cartoons in Norway last month, followed by dailies in France, Germany, Italy and Spain this month, led to waves of protests and a boycott of Danish goods which later spread like wildfire all over the Muslim world burning Danish, Norwegian and Swedish embassies causing death and destruction. Several Muslim nations even recalled their ambassadors from Denmark .
The EU response was to blackmail the Muslim countries with stern reminders that they are under treaty obligations to protect foreign embassies. European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said, “Calls for boycotts or for restraints on the freedom of the press are completely unacceptable.” In other words what Frattini meant was that “Muslims should choose capitalism over Islam”.
While the rage continued to intensify, the editor of the Danish daily said “sorry” but, defended the right to free press to publish them. Denmark 's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen who disapproved the caricatures insisted that he could not apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.
In the midst of all this, some columnists defending their right to have fun at a cost of a religious leader, even suggesting that Muslims in Denmark and other countries in Europe could leave if they could not approve of such humor. In other words, they wanted the Muslims to be a party to ridicule their own Prophet in the name of “free media”.
The question is whether these politicians and journalists in the West have the courage to insist on their much talked about media freedom when it comes to Jews and their holocaust which some consider as a myth cleverly exploited by the international Jewry to win world sympathy to create Israel in Palestine .
Unfortunately for them, despite all their proud claims, the Western media is not even free to insist on freedom of speech on matters dealing with Jews and the holocaust. The iron grip of the international Jewry on Europe has been so great that in many European countries such as Germany , France , Austria , Switzerland , Belgium , the Czech Republic , Lithuania , Poland and Slovakia , there are holocaust denial laws in force making it a criminal offence to deny the Holocaust. So much so, that many European counties wouldn't even allow an anti-Semitic book, however accurate it may be, to be published. In fact, last November, Austrian authorities refused bail to British historian David Irving who was subjected to holocaust denial charges for denying the existence of gas chambers in Auschwitz in two speeches he gave in Austria more than a decade and a half ago in 1989. He also argued that the scale of extermination was exaggerated; an offence which, if found guilty, carries a ten-year jail sentence.
If this is how the Jewish political rights were protected, the inevitable question is why the Western media, preaching multi-culturalism, cannot learn to respect other religions and cultures. As rightly pointed out by Terry Davis, the head of leading human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe: "all freedoms, including the freedom of speech, come with responsibility”.
This is the disgusting double standard the West has set for the rest of the world, especially Muslims.
As pointed out by American-based Palestinian freelance writer Remi Kanazi, imagine a cartoon of Jesus, with his pants down, smiling, raping a little boy. The caption above it reads “Got Catholicism?” Or how about a picture of a Rabbi with blood dripping from his mouth after bludgeoning a small Palestinian boy with a knife shaped like the Star of David—the caption reads “The Devil's Chosen Ones.” Do you honestly think that any media outlets including BBC or any media in Copenhagen would pick up these cartoons? The outrage would begin instantly and advertisers would pullout. Yet, those in Denmark and their supporters around Europe call it freedom of speech to have a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed.
This is the plight of the Western media.
What did the Western media do when the United Nations, a mere tool of Western powers, imposed sanctions which killed more than 500,000 children in Iraq justified by former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright as an exercise worthy to achieve their political goal? Where are the pictures of raped and killed women and men who were tortured and killed only because they happen to be Iraqis? Where was the Western media when the US troops, using banned napalm bombs, indiscriminately burnt and killed fasting Iraqi men and women and children in the Iraqi city of Fallujah . Perhaps two paragraphs in page six.
Where is the free press coverage concerning the daily Israeli killings of Palestinians whose lands were grabbed to settle Jews with US tax payers' money and European support? Where are the reports and pictures of unfortunate American soldiers returning home in coffins from Iraq ? What is the plight of their loved ones?
Governments won't allow the media to highlight these aspects fearing backlash. Where is journalistic honesty?
The West, in general, and their leaders in particular, excepting a few, never respected the feelings of Muslims. They treat Muslims with contempt and rush to honour a Muslim who would criticise Islam out of sheer ignorance. The warm reception given to Salman Rushdie who wrote “The Satanic Verses” at the White House by former President George Bush and the way the Indian media hailed the Bangladeshi Muslim outcast Taslima Nasreen as a celebrity, were two classic examples.
This egotistic and somewhat sadistic anti-Muslim mindset needs to change in the larger interest of humanity and it is time, while war mongers talk of the “clash of civilisation”, reasonable people from all faiths initiate a dialogue of civilisation to bring about understanding and harmony among peoples of different faith.
In this respect, Europe, which picked up a great deal from Islamic civilisation to develop what they now proudly call the Western civilisation could learn something from the Muslim world even today; and that is the rich Muslim tradition of respecting and not insulting other religions or other religious leaders something no Muslim ever did in their more than 14-century old history of Islam. If the west could emulate this tradition, the world will be a better place for all.
Therefore, instead of defending the double standard and hypocrisy that alienates Muslims and desecrates Islam under the guise of free speech, the West should include all religions in applying their freedom speech. All the Muslims ask from these trouble-creators is to leave them alone to live their own life in peace and harmony with others. But, unfortunately, Muslims feel beleaguered and hunted.
With the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, people all over the world were happy that wars and bloodshed would end and the world would be a better place to live. But it was a short-lived dream. Because invisible but powerful forces such as weapons manufacturers, oil companies, corporate conglomerates and other financially oligarchy which make and unmake governments and political leaders, had a different agenda.
They needed conflicts to thrive. They replaced Communism with Islam and began a fierce campaign to demonize Muslims to implement their political, economic and military designs. They dug out long forgotten conflicts in places such as Bosnia , Kosovo , Algeria , Somalia , Palestine , Afghanistan and Iraq and the media was made part of the Western war machine to spread lies and prepare the world to justify their designs.
The question is: What Next? Iran ? Where will this end? And what will be the impact on humanity as a whole?
Isn't it time for righteous people from all religions to come together to face these evil designs against humanity?
- Ends
(Source: Sunday Times - 02/12/2006) |
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