The world around us continues to ask for peaceful protests in response to the Blasphemous cartoons published a few months back. From the gloomy day of 9/11 the Muslim community has continued to take accusations for a good five years sitting quietly taking punches and have generally adopted an apologetic attitude even for an action that IS NOT a part of a peaceful religion. Please do not equate or generalize the radical approach of a select few individuals as Islamic, they are the extreme end of our religion which sadly is NOT Islam.
When these cartoons come forth, we have now been forced to scream Enough is Enough, and have come onto the streets in protest, call it a boiling-over of all the anger built up over these five years finally let loose. We don’t mean harm, and I on behalf of all Muslims sincerly apologize for the actions of a radical few who have resorted to rioting and vandalism but in the same breath as followers of Islam we will do our part to inform the world of the grave offense against our beliefs. Muslims, like followers of other religions, are extremely emotional when it comes to disfiguring a religious their idols. Especially when the Editor-in-Chief of Jyllands-Posten talked so boldly when there was no pressure back in October confidently defending his publication.
[Editor-in-Chief, Carsten Juste]‘…The newspaper urged cartoonists to send in drawings of the prophet, after an author complained that nobody dared to illustrate his book on Muhammad. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Muhammad.’
The cartoons had been a journalistic project to find out how many cartoonists refrained from drawing the prophet out of fear. ‘We live in a democracy,’ he said ‘That’s why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to. Satire is accepted in this country, and you can make caricatures. Religion shouldn’t set any barriers on that sort of expression. This doesn’t mean that we wish to insult any Muslims.’ — Little Green Footballs – Oct 12th 2005 & RedTV – Oct 17, 2005
……Its important to read the entire statement very carefully, his publication received a complaint from an author, that nobody dared to illustrate the authors book on Muhammad. The author claimed that illustrators feared that extremist Muslims would find it sacrilegious to break the Islamic ban on depicting Muhammad. Juste, the editor in chief, was well aware of this dilemma but continued to set up a competition to find illustrators willing to mock Prophet Muhammad in an illustration, his actions and later the printing of the 12 blasphemous illustrations can’t be termed as a naive mistake on his part due to oversight but instead a well thought out aggression against the peaceful religion of Islam.
Juste and his newspaper have now issued a public apology which to many seem like a mere half-hearted face saving letter, akin to committing murder in broad daylight and then sending a simple “too bad – I’m sorry” condolence letter. For him to even indicate that “the cartoons had been a Journalistic Project” …is making a mockery of our religion and is Simply unacceptable.
Many ask, Why are the Muslims so vociferous? I don’t justify the rioting around the world but when you irritate a persons religious beliefs, he/she usually tends to react in a very unpredictable manner. Amongst the thousands of muslims a select few reacted poorly. The world should now warn idiots like the Danish publication to think twice and hard before ever repeating such a mistake.
One also will tend to wonder what it takes to wake the world up from the February slumber, it only requires a few burning buildings and a number of riots and boom the issue is a global incident. Back in September 2005 this images barely raised an eye brow but after all the news breaking incidents the issue is now the headlines of all major news channels around the world. One thing is for sure the Muslims are offended beyond words, will this be an excuse to lead the world into the invasion of Iran? I like many now have to keep our fingers crossed, one excuse for another.
Sorry to the People of Norway and Denmark by the Arab world for all the unrest created by the rioting
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