How Do we Understand the Offense Against Muhammad, The Noblest of Allah’s Creations ([1])

The Globalization of Offending the Other:

A Danish newspaper has published some cartoons which mock and insult the character of the Seal of the Prophets, the Master of Allah’s Messengers, and the Noblest of all His creations Muhammad (Prayers of Allah upon him and upon his household), then other newspapers and magazines followed suit in several other European countries. Things went as far as an American company announcing that it would print those cartoons on T-shirts and sell them!

 The problem was further exacerbated by the Danish PM’s arrogance in his refusal to apologize for the offense, citing “freedom of expression”. This is the freedom which western countries turned into a modern day holy idol, worshipped as a weapon which destroys all that is truly sacred in human life, and undermining all of the sublime values which humanity lived by since time immemorial. This is part of the movement of “globalization” which, as far as the west is concerned, is little more than dissolving all constancy in moral, religious, and social values and breaking them down into merely “individualistic convictions”. This would make all world populations spiritually and intellectually empty, and thus easy to manipulate and manage to the direction they would want. This is the purpose for which “civil society organizations” which act under many façades to lead communities in that direction.

If your enemy stabs you in the back, know that you are in the lead:

Previously, the westerners did offend the Holy Quran, the Honorable Ka’ba, and to virtually all the blessed Islamic rituals, and today we find them desecrating the image of the Noble Prophet Muhammad. This is despite the fact that the faith that they uphold did bring tidings of our Prophet’s arrival and he was mentioned with the utmost veneration in their holy books, so why did this happen?

1- They are worried from the spread of Islam. Islam is now at their very backyard, statistics point out to an increase of westerners who turn into Muslim, especially women. The new followers of the religion have found in it the noble, free, happy life which eluded them earlier. Some governments, or at least some intellectual circles in the west, may think that the distortion of the Prophet of Islam’s image would alienate their community from following him, or from trying to find out more about him.

2- The weakness of the governments in Islamic countries and their surrender before the western projects. This subservience made western countries indifferent to the feelings of the Muslim communities. We even saw the (Muslim!) president of Afghanistan taking the Danish PM’s side in the peak of this crisis, justifying this offence with the “sacred right’ to freedom of expression which the west enjoys and which is way beyond our feeble understanding! Then the president repeated some shy words in which he demanded the respect of religious symbols! Such weak defeatists are the ones who encouraged western tyranny and intellectual non-entities to attack our religion.

It is worth mentioning here that the chief editor of an American newspaper known for his zealous defense of the Jews and their issues reflected this first and foremost Muslim shortcoming when he was asked: Are you Jewish or of Jewish descent? He said: No. He was then asked: Is your newspapers sponsored by Jewish organizations or individuals? He also said: No. He was then asked: Then why do you support the Jews so zealously although Muslim causes are often as just if not more so? He said: Because whenever I write something positive about Muslims and their causes no one thanks me or supports my position, not even by a phone call or an e-mail. When I attack Muslims I find them equally indifferent. On the other hand, when I support a Jewish cause, thousands would praise my work, while if I offend them thousands would express their displeasure and unhappiness. Simply put: My interest is with the Jews.

This is the state of the rulers of the Muslim countries: their feelings are dead, their ardor is gone, and their zeal is extinguished. They are blinded by their love of this world, and their desire to remain in power.

3- Muslim before anyone else offended and insulted Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam (Prayers of Allah and His Peace upon him and the members of his household) when they distorted his teachings and displayed them in this miserable way. When all the news emerging about Muslims show the murder of innocent women and children, the blowing up of houses of worship, the destruction of homelands for no reason except resentment of all other human beings and only as a means of the identity crisis left by the weakness of the Islamic countries and under the banners of Islam, then this would present a free and precious gift to the enemies of our great religion. People can only know the Prophet of Islam (Prayers of Allah and His Peace upon him and the members of his household) through the actions of the followers of his message no matter if they truly follow him or not. How could they find offending his noble character difficult when the crimes those ignorant, bigoted fools commit do a far greater damage to his message than any other offense.

4- The international Zionist movement is attempting to drive a wedge between the Muslim east and the Christian west to weaken both sides through this confrontation, and so that the main players of that movement would be continue their project aiming at the control of the world’s assets. This movement drives its agents on both sides to further ignite this conflict.

We have to point out here that this Danish newspaper itself was about to publish cartoons which are offensive to Jesus Christ (Peace upon him) in 2003, but the editor in chief then refused to publish them and wrote a notice to the artist pointing out that the drawings would be offensive to many people. Why is the case of Islam different than this one?

International Zionism’s Project:

The project of the international Zionist is a long-term strategic one, and we do not rule out the possibility that one of their goals when they try to dive this wedge between the Muslim east and the Christian west is to prevent the western Christians from following the Movement of the Promised Mahdi (May Allah hasten his noble appearance) according to what the noble Traditions point out in that respect.

The symbols of international hubris have joint their efforts in support of that movement. For example, American President Bush expressed his discontent with the reactions of the Muslim world, and called on the governments of the Islamic countries to stop these reactions. An American company printed and sold those cartoons on T-shirts. An Italian minister spread the use of those shirts. The European Union threatened the countries which boycotted Danish products and considered itself targeted by that boycott. The European parliament convened to express its solidarity with Denmark, and the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy arrived to Cairo and convened with the Sheikh of Al-Azhar to handle the crisis, but does not even hint at an apology for the offense. This is not to mention the fact that other newspapers and magazines in several European countries returned to publish those offensive cartoons! Could this stormy campaign be only for the sake of “freedom of expression”?

Our duty as a civilized nation:

In light of highlighting the things which we’ve discussed earlier, we can define our duty through several steps:

1- Muslims must come to the awareness that their behavior and attitudes reflect on Islam itself, either positively or negatively. You cannot separate the theory from the practice in an ideology, you can only come to know it through the attitudes and moralities of its followers. The Muslims must be accurate in reflecting Islam’s pure image as Imam As-Sadiq (Peace upon him) advised us when he said: “Be silent callers unto us”, and said: “Be in a way which we can adorn ourselves with, not a shame on us”. This is particularly true of our times when technology turned the world into “one village”, if not one room actually. You can find the details of this idea in the “Good Example” search topic.

2- The Islamic communities should take the initiative from the hands of its governments. The people must impose their will on those defeatists. We already saw that the movement of the people already forced several heads of governments and senior government officials to go out in the protests under the popular pressure. The European leaderships have already moved to pacify the situation, while the Islamic nations presented the UN General Assembly with a resolution signed by 57 nations and which forbids the offense to religious beliefs and symbols.

3- Muslims must unite and embrace the issues which are common between them. There are plenty of such issues, and one of them is their love for their Prophet (Prayers of Allah and His Peace upon him and his household). It was truly a beautiful sight when all Iraqis in all of their cities rose in support of their noble Prophet (Prayers of Allah and His Peace upon him and his household) and left behind all the differences and divisions which sectarians, profiteers, and bigots try to plant between them.

4- The Muslims must diagnose who their enemies are accurately. We must not be like a bull in the arena, concerned with nothing except the red cloth without taking heed of the real adversary: the man with the long sword who stabs the life out the bull until it dies. The enemy is not the Christians, so there is little point of what some did when they attempted to blow up churches and assaulted the innocent in Lebanon and Iraq. The enemy is the arrogant ones who wish to rob the world of its wealth and enslave its populations for their own interests and bring woe to those who disobey them, may Allah destroy them.

5- The continuation of the dialogue of civilizations, and presenting the objective equivalent presented by Islam.

There are several publications which enrich those points and research well into them, and they must be well studied.

6- Applying pressure on the offenders where it truly hurts them and through the language they understand: money. One aspect of this is boycotting their goods, we have seen how they lost their minds when people actually used this sharp weapon. Another is exposing the crimes of our enemies through the media so that populations would turn away from them. A third is a call to establish a museum to expose the falsity of the so-called Nazi holocaust.

May Allah accept us all in the group of His loved ones, Muhammad and the members of his pure and good household, and among those who support them with his own soul, with his tongue, actions, attitude, and Praise is to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and His prayers are upon Muhammad and the pure, good members of his household.