Who is mocking Islam

THE HAGUE, 20060218 -- The international Islamic community shows itself from its best side once again. Danish embassies are set on fire and company's in which fathers and mothers earn money for their families, are threatened to go bankrupt. Because one Danish newspaper had distasteful cartoons drawn about the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to make 'news' and to provoke.


According to some Moslems the prophet would be offended because of this and so Moslems have to defend the honour and venerability of the prophet, by burning down embassies and boycott Danish products as a bunch of fanatics.

There is a beautiful story about the prophet Moses (peace be with him) and a shepherd who prayed to God and said: Oh my dear God, if You come to me I will put oil in Your hair and comb it, I will wash to Your feet and give You milk to drink. Then Moses became angry, according to Islam God has no feet and He drinks no milk. Then God addressed Moses (peace be with him) admonishingly. "Oh Moses, do not come between Me and how My servant sees Me." (1)
Or in holy saying transmitted by the prophet Mohammed (peace and benedictions be upon him) God says: "I am such as my servant thinks that I am". (2)

The cartoonists of these cartoons have presented the prophet, as they think of him. If they had thought that the prophet was a loving and merciful person, they would have become Muslem. But why do they think that the prophet of Islam was no loving person? It is, perhaps, because some Moslems in their behaviour and in glossing over and exalting violence against the innocent absolutely give no reason at all to think positively about the "mercy of worlds, the prophet Mohammed"?

Therefore who is mocking Islam? Are they not the Muhammad and the Ahmads holding a beer in one hand and in the other hand the Quran with which they beat people and humiliate them? Whereas they trample on Islam with hand and feet themselves and ridicule it by their own behaviour?

The prohibition to depict Mohammed, God, people or animals the prophet applies exclusively to Moslems. Non-Moslems, can do whatever they want to within their own non-Islamic secularised society and within the frameworks of their own laws. The Quran prohibits people to be forced to become Moslem. Therefore there is freedom of religion and automatically freedom not to believe and even freedom to have aversion to the prophet of Islam. This is an inalienable right that has been given to people in the Quran for over 1,400 years.

However having rights, for example in traffic, the right to be given way, not always means that it is wise to take way with violence. Wise participants in traffic take or give way and do not enforce their way. It is also a right to drive with maximum speed on a high way. Sensible drivers however adapt their speed to (weather) conditions.

The same is also applicable to fundamental rights as freedom expression. It is our right to insult people (except for the Royal House and minister Rita Verdonk according to the DA). Is it thus wise to demand and exercise this right in each and every situation?

Still I believe that this must be possible. But then we must also all together accept that one is entitled to a negative feedback to persons, newspapers or countries that hurt or offend others. He who throws up a ball from a glass cupboard must understand that there will not only be mud slinging. And that more extreme feedback can lead to disrupting the harmony and peace in a society.

Summarizing, I think it would be desirable if media carefully use and weigh the right of freedom of expression to hurt others, only because they can. Some media so far always fail to counterbalance people who saw hate like Van Gogh, Wilders, Hirsi Ali and Moslem extremists too by giving them a stage to express there personal and not dealt with traumatisms by ventilating their gut feelings.

But I would also like to advice Moslems to simply buy Danish products again, because there are lots of Danes as well who are not happy with these childish provocations and bad taste of these cartoonists, but they are paying for the consequences. While it's not their fault.

Quran:
And the true servants of the Gracious God are those who walk on the earth humbly and when the ignorant address them, they avoid them gracefully by saying, 'Peace!' (25:64)


(1) story of Jalal al-Din Rumi (Masnawi)
(2) hadith Qudsi transmitted by Abu Huraira