If only the masses would get this and react in a constructive way..all for the boycott.

I completely agree.
I don’t know why anyone would jump you!?

Why don’t Muslims follow the example of our Prophet, the same person they are claiming to defend?

The Prophet Muhammad was called a liar, a magician and a poet, yet he did nothing to his accuser. He just said “lakum deenukum wa liya deen.”
“You have your beliefs and I have mine.”

The Muslim riots all over the world 2 years only furthered those Writers’ points. They claimed Islam taught violence, and there you have it, Muslims acting like animals in the streets. They fell for the trap.
Now some guys get arrested for wanting to kill one of the cartoonists.

Muslims also have to realize that freedom of speech is a good thing. If there were no freedom of speech, the Prophet Muhammad would never have been able to preach. In fact, all through out Islam’s history, Islam’s enemies have been trying to silence the true message of Islam. We have to fight for the freedom of speech especially in Muslim countries. Even if that means that some people will insult us, our Prophet or our lord.

Let Allah deal with them!

What if your name is ‘Danish”?

I actually did a post a while back called “Reactive Dawah” in regards to ignoring these issues. Great to see others have caught on! :)

One newspaper in Sweden published the cartoons the other day. The editor-in-chief wrote an explanation of why he felt it was right to publish them. He died of a heart attack the exact same day.

Very well-said AnonyMouse. Agree with you totally.

Now if only we could get those protesters in the Middle East to agree :(

I’m so disappointed with this post.

Its obvious that crazy rioting and burning down properties is counter-productive, but AnonyMouse i’m wondering, are you suggesting that our approach to the Danes should be “business as usual”? That we should show no displeasure at all?

The idea that we should leave these scoundrels to insult Rasulullah and that we abandon any idea of meeting this insult without a response, no, that we also encourage others to have no response is not right at all!

I cannot agree with this post. It is obligatory to defend the honor of the Prophet. You are under obligation to defend the Prophet (SAWS). In fact the Ulama of our past have written that if people from a particular land were to insult any of the Sahabah it is obligatory on the people of that land to defend those companions, may Allah be pleased with them. So what about the Prophet SAWS? We should be asking what is the hukm Shari on this issue first and foremost, and we know what the ulama have said.

Besides, when does it ever work in life that an oppressor stops oppression because he is ignored? This is totally against human experience. This strategy of not giving them any attention is not right. Nobody respects weakness. It simply emboldens them.No hostile Kaafir will ever care if you ignore him, they are determined enemies. We know what will make them think twice.

And let us be honest, if somebody had drawn derogatory cartoons of our mother or father suggesting they were pedophiles, terrorists or even less than that..we would not think twice about defending them, no matter how many times those cartoons were reprinted. But would we even think about silence as a strategy?

We must use all our media to defend our Prophet.

May Allah reward the author for her good intentions, but I really think this post was wrong.

I completely agree with your suggestion to not do anything.

I remember when the first cartoons came out, our local MSA had a special meeting for how to handle the situation and what our unified reaction on campus should be. I was getting so frustrated because we spent 45 minutes talking about how to defend ourselves from American media, and how to present Muslims as people who aren’t terrorists, blah blah blah. It was turning into a PR meeting for Islam.

At the end of the meeting, I finally got up and said I didn’t care what the Danish people thought about the Prophet (SAW) because nothing they could say or do would ever change who he (SAW) really was.

A detailed article with more information for readers to understand this situation and how muslims should react was written by Abdul Sattar here http://abdulsattar.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/notes-on-the-cartoon-controversy/

I thought it would help people who are interested in more depth article with opinion and suggestion based on Quran & Sunnah.

On the comparison between insulting Muhammed and an insult to one’s parents: the matter is completely different. If someone drew a cartoon against my mother I could write a letter (as Ammar suggests) or if the cartoon was false and damaging I could help her sue under libel laws. The difference is only a living person can be slandered or libeled. My mother still lives (thank G-D); but Muhammed is no more, he can’t BE slandered or libeled.

This post is only a publicity stunt and it in fact is giving publicity to that Danish garbage.

I am not opposed to boycotting in principle, but the idea of boycotting everything Danish because of one, or a few, newspapers is unjust and tribalistic. I have never supported that. If you want to boycott, find out exactly how these papers are financed, and target the sources of money. If they use advertising, target the companies that buy ad space. If they are connected to some social or political groups, figure out how you can put pressure on them. There are also ways that you can defend the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, without directly responding to the cartoons and giving them undeserved attention. Unfortunately, many who are claiming to defend “honor” are only showing how tragically simple-minded Muslims can be.

There have been worse insults against the Prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, in recent years but they were not fed to the mob and have now faded into obscurity. Muslims did not publish these cartoons, but Muslims made them famous. I remember when the crisis broke and several brothers were actually forwarding them around (disseminating them free of charge) to show how offensive they are. What is the ruling on that?

There ought to be laws aqainst insulting other faiths. Any nation that wants to have peaceful, cordial relations with others should enact such laws. Their lack of will to enact such laws speaks volumes. I think a sustained boycott is in order. All Muslim led countries should abide by it, otherwise their people will feel that nothing is being done in response and will want to take action themselves.

As a Muslim, I’m tired of getting kicked around. If someone insults my mother, I’ll punch his mouth. I’m not going to write a letter. Unless he wants to be in perpetual conflict with me, he must find better ways to exercise his “freedom of expression.” And that’s my mother, mind you.

To everyone who is criticizing Anonymouse:

You may be interested to know the reason that they decided to republish the cartoons:

A Muslim made a death threat against one of the cartoonists and was arrested. In a show of solidarity and support for the cartoonist, they republished…..

Amad wrote

Ultimately, our goal is to turn the general masses against the editors, because as minorities, that is the best strategy.

Yaa amad, and how exactly do you plan on doing that, by doing absolutely nothing and keeping silent even when the media mocks the prophet saw?

But I understand where your coming from. Things look a lot better if you have your head in the sand like an ostrich. Just hoping for things to get better on their own.

Abu Alee:
If you go around burning things and breaking things, you are proving the cartoonists point.
They draw these cartoons to express their feelings that Muslims are Violent. Then you go around breaking things and burning flags, they say “see, look at Abu Alee, look how violent he is, that is exactly what we were saying in the cartoons.”
I urge you to reconsider your position because it is not a viable one and one that works against Islam.

and Daoud:

I wrote a five page paper for my Communications Law class on why there should be NO laws against blasphemy. I have the right to disrespect anyones religion. My refusal to do so when I have the right, is what makes me a true Muslim.

Heres a question:
Not doing something haram when you can’t do it (ie its illegal) you may get a reward.

However, Not doing something haram when you CAN do it (ex. drink alcohol in USA) you get double the reward.

So to summarize.
Would you rather have someone not insult you because they can’t?
OR
Would you rather have someone not insult you because they respect you or your point of view?

I pick the Latter!

Ammar

Having observed the reactions of a wide array of Muslims – Western, Middle Eastern, rich, poor and so on – it seems almost obvious that as a generalization the people reacting loudest and most aggressively to the cartoons are people who otherwise seem unconcerned with their religion in their day to day lives. The cartoons are simply a way, it seems, to to some PR on an individual level, professing ‘profound’ love for the Prophet (SAW) for all to see. For example, in Saudi the boycott took effect, with stores removing Danish products – and of course many products claimed to be Danish – from the shelves. This being the case why do I still see cars commanding a boycott of Danish products if everyone is already doing so? Showing off? This answer seems rather obvious. Also, why such a pronounced response to cartoons? There are many other examples of our religion being openly derided which drew little or no response from the Muslim public. Case in point, the article that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly several years ago by Toby Lester about the ‘history of the Quran’ clearly stating that the Quran is not preserved and launching an attack from this angle using alleged evidences. This article drew only three responses – a lecture by Jamal Badawi at MIT, a small bookby JIMAS and an in depth book by ‘Athami – and I heard no mention of the issue other than that. To clarify my point, why did we hear of the cartoons months and we hear of almost no other attacks on our religion? It seems politics has a lot to do with it, along with a number marginal Muslims trying to appear as pious in the public eye. Also, why did we only hear of the cartoons months after they were initially published?

Amad
actually I wont recommend such view

it will leave one’s behind open (in boxing jargon that is easy to attack)
—-

ignore?
thats a very defeatist thing to do..

am sure there are better and more constructive ways to be thought of than to simply ignore!

This is how the Danish were “punished” last time around when talks of boycotts was en vogue:
————————————————–
Danish goods back on Saudi shelves
source: http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=21784

Arla products were back on the shelves of Saudi supermarkets after an Islamic group called for end to the boycott of the Danish dairy producer.

The boycott was sparked by Denmark’s publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Finn Hansen, executive manager of Arla Foods, said: “We’re delighted that our largest Saudi customers have decided to lift the boycott.”

The company said its products were now selling in 3,000 shops and supermarkets in the Middle East, and that 31 of its largest retailers in Saudi Arabia had promised to resume sales of Arla goods on Saturday.

However, Arla products were not available on Thursday in two big Jordanian supermarkets nor on the shelves of Kuwaiti state co-operatives.

Saudi stores began restocking Arla products after the International Committee for the Support of the Prophet gave the company the green light and praised the measures it had taken to distance itself from the Prophet Muhammad caricatures that provoked demonstrations and riots in January and February.

Arla had published newspaper advertisements condemning the publication of the cartoons and pledged to fund projects helping disabled children and cancer patients in the Middle East.

Common understanding

Soliman Albuthi, spokesman for the International Committee for the Support of the Prophet, which is based in Washington, said: “We must differentiate between those who insulted us and those who stood by us.”

The group said its recommendation to end the boycott on Arla would help Danish Muslims who had suffered discrimination in a backlash because of the boycott campaign.

It also referred to the conference of Muslim scholars in Bahrain last month that expressed appreciation for Arla’s “bold stance”, saying “it was a good start for opening a dialogue with this organisation to establish a common ground to reach a common understanding”.

In Bahrain on Thursday, a local spokesman for the group, Adel Al-Maawdah, said the end of the boycott was “a clear message that we had no intention to harm Western interests, and that our concern and anger were directed against the offensive cartoons”.

Boycott still on

Al-Maawdah, who is also a cleric and member of parliament, said that the boycott had been lifted only against Arla. “This company apologised to Muslims and sponsored humanitarian projects for the needy,” he said.

Albuthi suggested that the group would consider lifting the boycott against other Danish companies if they made the right moves.

Arla estimates that it has lost as much as $65 million because of the boycott, which began in January. The company produces milk, powdered milk, cheese and butter.

My apologies to all I hurt

All though I do wonder how antiblasphemy laws encourage peaceful, cordial relations with one another. The majority of muslim countries in the middle east and southeast asia have antiblasphemy laws on the books. I would say that their relations with members of religious minorities in their countries are anything but “cordial”

The only way to have peaceful, cordial relations is for everyone to be able to speak their mind and state how they feel. If that means being petty enough to insult another’s religion publicly than so be it. We are not 2 year olds who need to throw temper tantrums every time we have been insulted. We are adults and God gave almost all of us functioning brains. Maybe we should try using them sometime. Wow, what a revolutionary thought.

“any comments that quote historical incidents, but do not share proper references, proper historic contextual discussion, and the views of scholars regarding those statements, then we have to err on the side of not expressing the views”

… especially so when the editor of this blog is on the other side of the argument?????

“or have certain other historical reasons that do not perhaps apply anymore…” and are you in a position to say categorically that they don’t apply anymore?

Ammar you said “I wrote a five page paper for my Communications Law class on why there should be NO laws against blasphemy” which made me wonder what you have to say about the ayah: “Revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance” [6:108] which is a stark prohibition of blasphemy.

What an absolute joke.

So in fact my comments WERE censored. Why not be straight with me?

I despair.

The historical incidents Amad was talking about are well known hadeeth and statements of Abu Bakr found in the authentic ahadeeth.

I would love to quote them above with references but of course they will also be censored.

The brother implied that I quoted them out of context which is a lie as I was simply quoting them to establish the Asl of this issue, which no sunni scholar would disagree with.

Furthermore, you claim that my comment was censored by you due to not providing references and context from a scholar. I doubt it as even in this very thread you have allowed someone to misquote a hadeeth which from memory is weak but you allow it on here, with no context ..why?

Why? Firstly, because you seem to make rules up as you go along.

Secondly, because you seem to have no problems with uncontextualized and unreferenced hadeeth which support what you or another poster are trying to say.

If you are going to discuss an issue allow the people you are discussing with make points, especially when they are trying to establish things from Quran and Sunnah, something which was lacking in the post itself and in most of the comments. If you cannot do that, then don’t write anything.

Quit telling us we have a right to disagree, you did not give us that right brother.

Personally, I don’t think these “historical incidents” were deleted for any of the reasons stated by Amad. If I had uncontextually quoted hadeeth there was nothing stopping him clarifying the proper context from scholars.

Its really defeatism and cowardice which explains a lot of what is going on here….

Respect for other cultures and faiths is basic. Those people frame this as an issue of freedom of expression–I wonder that they teach their children. Do they actually tell them that it’s okay to insult other people’s religion? Would they hold a sign outside their home with a a sign isulting others’ faith? Not if they want peaceful relations with their neighbors. Such behavior would not be tolerated at a school, for example. Why? Because it is important to maintain respect and comraderie, so that sudents can focus on learning, etc. It should be no different than in the rest of society.

Why do we always insist of blaming and judging the agrieved parties on how they react? We blame the rioters and not police brutality, the slave revolt and not the plantation owner, the resistance and not the occupation.

Wallahi NO ONE really knew much of the cartoons being reprinted until PEOPLE like you guys say IGNORE cartoons.

If you are to ignore then ignore! Stop fanning the smoke saying…we don’t care about the smoke.

Amad

Nowhere have I stated we should riot, nowhere have I stated we should demolish buildings, nowhere have I said create havoc. Why are you misrepresenting me in such a way? Why are you trying to create an impression in peoples minds that my censored comments were somehow related to any of the above?

Why do you dodge all my questions and comments and try to create an impression of my comments and views which simply have no basis in reality?

So whatever you maintain is irrelevant as either you have totally and inexplicably misunderstood my censored comments or you have understood them but choose to make out that I am calling for a misapplication of them.

For the benefit of those brothers and sisters who were not able to read my comments which were censored , I can assure you that despite Amads best efforts to portray me as a violent reactionary, espousing violent views without understanding the context of the hadeeth, that none of this is true, walhumdulillah.

As I made very clear when i quoted those ahadeeth, i was doing it to establish the asl. I quoted those ahadeeth to reply to another comment which stated that the Prophet SAWS did not approve of violence to those who insult him, and my point was that this was not true and here are the ahadeeth to prove it. End of story.

So how does time and place have anything do do with it? Who is calling for anyone killing anyone? How on Earth can you make that out from my reply to the sister?

As to my plan of action. Oh brother, I commented on a post which was saying to the Muslims ” Be silent”. And I commented thats not the way to go. That does not mean I have a violent plan of action, just because I disagree.

Your plan does indeed “Suck”. You have a bit of a nerve asking me what my plan is now, after you have portrayed me so wrongly.

Frankly, I don’t trust you to leave my comments the way I wrote them, and I’m very sorry to say that.

And I have no interest in attacking anyone. Certainly not MM. I am just defending myself from your misrepresentation. If I feel you or something is wrong I will say so, why so defensive?

Khair, Insha’allah, I intend to write about it on http://www.as-sahwah.com. soon. If anyone is really interested on an alternative POA.

“Dear brother, please quote the entire sentence: “then we have to err on the side of not expressing the views, esp. if they feed the anti-Muslim hysteria“. Quelling the tide of Islamophobia is an important objective of this side. We cannot feed it”

My apologies, I did not intentionally quote you partially. I copied that quote from another post. Even still, I think that you have to allow people to speak in their own voices. If they mislead, then correct them. Who knows, it might be you that is in error, but we won’t even get a chance to find out if you censor them. Maybe their mistake is a common misconception and by responsing to them toehrs can learn from it.

Anyway, may Allah reward your good intentions.

As-salaamu ‘alaikum,

JazakumAllahu khairan for readers’ and commenters’ patience with us (however straind that paitence may have gotten! :) )… and though I realize that this may have irritated some (many? :S), I pray that you’ll forgive us and continue to visit from MM and benefit from what we have to offer, insha’Allah.

-Mouse

No one said your post was to draw attention. It inadvertently draws attention to BLOG by skimming over something so insignificant as the reprinting of the cartoons that no one knew about.

And yes, I gotta give it to MM. We hear you day in day out regarding your Wala & Bara from so called extreme activities and don’t we all declare our innocence from it.

Bring the zing back to MM where stimulating topics such as masturbation or doritos are brought forth!

to Kashif:

Maybe I should have clarified my comment: I wrote a five page paper on why there should be no law against Blashphemy IN THE USA.
The reasons are many, but mainly, it would be very difficult to police, and who would be defining blasphemy laws.

To Dario:
I think you are generalizing quite a bit when you talk about Muslim countries oppressing religious minorities. I know of many Muslim countries where minorities live in peace and are respected and represented.

Ammar

“NOtice I did not say ‘All’ muslim countries. That would be generalizing”

Condemning “muslim countries” without qualification IS generalizing.

very good post, i totally agree with u..no need to let someone manipulate or provoke you. keep your faith in heart and leave things to Allah

I’m all for a nice and quiet boycott. I’m fed up of hearing about Denmark and Europe’s Nazi scum.

Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki gave a good talk about those who defame the Prophet Salallhu alaihi wasallam here: