Saturday, February 11, 2006

Manipulation of Muslims





The reaction of the Muslim World to the cartoons came as a shock to me.

Prophet Muhammad has been insulted in cartoons, and the damage has been done, however more than 99% of Muslims did not see the cartoons and refuse to see them but want all actions to be taken against those who published them.

After the Danish cartoons were published, many newspapers across Europe, America and New Zealand published the cartoons and other similar ones. The offical university daily newspaper here in Tucson published a cartoon showing Prophet Muhammad in a disrespectful manner. The danish newspaper apologized, however Denmark is the only country that Muslims want to boycot. Why?

Why not France?
Why not Spain?
Why not America again?

If people were to follow the same principals, more than 15 countries should be on the list now.
Why aren't Muslims boycotting these countries? Why Denmark and not other countries?

Since 9/11, Islam and the image of Islam and Prophet Muhammad have been insulted hundreds if not thousands of times. I have seen and heard a lot jokes about the Prophet in many aspects that I wouldn't even mention here because of their offensive nature. Just the least of examples is a complete episode of South Park where the Prophet was shaped as a cartoon and i assumed that would truly offensive, yet I have not seen any action from any Muslim community.

Do Muslims living away from the West really think that those cartoons are the worst offence of the first one aginst Islam? Have they been so much isolated from the West or are they being manipulated by some people who give them the green light when to protest and when not to.

Aren't many journalist drawing more cartoons and using more offensive language these days as a reaction to the what happened in the Muslim world? How do you expect them to stop? Will Muslims keep boycotting countries all over the world till the end of this world?

Many people claim that the campaign was a victory. The victory they see is not having cartoonists publishing offensive cartoons of the Prophet. Now here you can step back for a while and remember that in case that happened, they won't be insulting the Prophet because of threats to their economy and safety of their embassies, but not out of their respect to Islam or the Prophet. If you call this a victory you got a problem.

Besides, don't forget God. God for Muslims and all believers is more important than the Prophet but he was and will always be insulted day and night. Truth hurts.

13 comments:

Natalia said...

Well, considering the actions of Al Sheehan, perhaps Muslims should be boycotting Jordan now? ;)

Madi said...

I agree with you hareega, I just wonder what's your source about 99% of Muslims didn't see the cartoons?

I'm with peaceful boycotting without stupid violent protests.

Anonymous said...

Exactly .. exactly
I have been asking this question from the very beginning .. is this what we want? a forced apology? do they understand why they are being forced to apologize? all they know is that they are threatened to be killed and their embassies are being burned because they spoke their minds .. not because they insulted the profit .. a different scale of principles is being used here and no point will be reached ever ..
they apologized, but apparently this is not enough for the protestors .. so what is it going to be now????

Anonymous said...

Hello ,Thanks for your comment.

What you said is so true , but you know what , the pathetic thing is that you can hardly find ears in nobody! It's just people want to protest and probably curse others and burn the whole place to the ground.. The prophet Mohammad said: man ta3alam loghat qawm amena sharrahom.. I believe we should go for that rather than a global boycott.

RYN: Come on, I didn't chicken out when i went there , it's just because I didn't have anything to eat for the past 18 hours or so else than coffee and nicotine.. ba3dein ma7sobak rayeg (lucky me)

PS: would you please tell me how did you come across my fairy tales? I'm curious to know :P

Hareega said...

natalia, that's a legitimate question. I think Muslims carried the boycot because it was affordable. They didn't lose anything but the Danes did and that what makes people feel they have won. Once France and other european countries published the cartoons, nobody can claim it a victory now.

JAd... maybe 99% is an exaggertion, but i would say that at least the majority of those who decided to boycot or who went into the streets have not seen the cartoons at the moment they decided to.
So Jad following the same principal of voycotting will you boycot all the countries that publish the cartoons including the US??

Khalidah my only concren about what is happening now is how will The Islamic World react when further insults will take place in the future. Will they boycot the "boycottable" only?

I don't want the world to avoid insulting us because of fear.

hey Fadi K. thanx for visitng. But was your reply directed to me? It doesn't look like it lol

Anonymous said...

7aragtne!!!

Yes, the first part is a comment on the topic you blogged about and the second is a reply to your note that you left in my blog :)

check below:
http://fk450.jeeran.com/archive/2006/2/20437.html#comments

Anonymous said...

:) no one will understand !

Anonymous said...

o sorry fadi ma entabhtesh !

i clicked on ur name here and it connected me to ur blog :)

Ole said...

Well, 99% of all muslims want all action taken? Where did you get that number from? It's just like when the fundamentalistic immams portray Norwegians as a whole society sitting laughing over the cartoons. Most Norwegians don't read the small magazine which published the drawings half a year ago. They got maybe 50 readers or less.

The problem now is that fundamentalists on both sides are controlling the debate. And to promote christian fundamentalists, who want to reinstate the blasphemical pharagraph in Norway, as prime defenders of freedom of expreccion is just wrong in so many ways. Just as wrong as the fundamentalistic muslims to expect the Norwegian government to give an excuse when a magazine in Norway use this freedom.

But your question is legitimate, why does this drawing cause such an opproar? Mainly because of the media attention it has recieved, but I also believe it's a reaction to all the other offensive material which have been published to stigmatise muslims. E.g. when the Americans burned the Koran was just as bad or even worse, but you have to be stupid to attack the American embassy. Then its better to take out the rage on the small ones as Norway or Denmark.

But as long as the fundamentalists on both sides are given media attention the conflict will escalate so it's on time to give some attention to more reasonable voices in society and not focus on action. Even though action gives better pics in the media.

For a longer comment check out:

http://kingkills.blogspot.com/2006/02/allah-akhbar.html

yadondon said...

I second Jad's opinion.

Hareega why not France, America or Spain ?Its because their governments immediately apologized on behalf of their people and the newspapers which published the cartoons.

Hareega said...

so yadondon if France and Sapin didn't apoligize would Muslims be boycotting their products now? I don't think so.

yadondon said...

what is it that you think?

Anonymous said...

Dear Egypt are you now satisfied?

Today we can read in the Danish newspapers that the Egyptian government already in October 2005 has been very active in spreading lies against Denmark. They copied and distributed the book from the Danish imams containing the fake drawings which have never been published in Denmark. Furthermore they spread the nonsense that the Muslim religion was not acknowledged in Denmark, that the Muslims were forbidden to have a mosque and a burial place. The fact is that 19 different Muslim movements are acknowledged and that we have several mosques and burial places. The only thing is that until now the Muslims have not collected enough money for a new and better mosque.

Confronted with this the Egyptian ambassador yesterday has left Copenhagen and we will have to do without her….

Until now:
- demonstrators in Pakistan ask for a World War 3
- demonstrators in Pakistan want the drawers handed out for punishment (they will probably not survive), and they have offered a reward
- several people have died
- embassies have been burned
- people have claimed that all Danes should die
- a lot of Danish flags have been burned
- innocent Danish companies have been boycotted
- our Prime Minister has been symbolically shot and burned several times
- the world has become more unstable

And this is just because of cartoons for which the newspaper long time ago have apologized. I wonder if the Egyptian government now is satisfied.

I went to Egypt last year and had a marvellous trip while sailing on the Nile and admiring Tut Ank Amon’s remains in Cairo. Now Danes are no longer safe or welcome in Egypt but I hope that other people from the western countries dare to visit the country. Because to Egypt tourism is crucial to their economy. I can only wish you a good trip…

By the way: the Americans saved the Abu Simbel temple from being flooded by Lake Nasser. The Italians saved The Filae Temple by moving it to a new and higher island, the Polish have rebuilt the temple of Hatshepsut, the Frenchman Champollion decoded the hieroglyphs, the British excavated Tut Ank Amon’s and so on. So I hope that at least people from these countries will be welcome in Egypt.

Best Regards from Denmark