Pakistanis come together to condemn
anti-Quran film, blasphemous cartoons
March 8, 2008
Religious groups organized rallies
across Pakistan to condemn Dutch anti-Quran
film and blasphemous cartoons and
demanded of the government to break
diplomatic ties with Dutch government.
There was also shutter down in the
Pakistani port city of Karachi as
protest against the anti-Islam film
and blasphemous cartoons. Major
markets were closed and traffic was
thin on roads.
Speakers at rallies asked the
Pakistani and Islamic nations to expel
the Dutch ambassadors from their
capitals.
Demonstrators burnt Dutch national
flags at several places and chanted
slogans against European governments,
which have failed to stop anti-Quran
film and blasphemous cartoons.
Religious leaders told demonstrations
that the anti-Quran film and
blasphemous cartoons have
intentionally hurt the feelings of
over one billion Muslims across the
world.
Like other parts of the country,
Jamaat-e-Islami staged several protest
rallies in the capital Islamabad.
Jamaat chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed
addressed rallies outside the capital
biggest Faisal Mosque and at the
city's main Aabpara market.
Qazi Hussain said the government has
not adopted bold stand about the very
sensitive issue, adding that all
Islamic countries must take serious
note of anti-Islam campaign in Western
countries.
He condemned the notion of press
freedom to allow western media to
defame Islam and its Prophet Muhammad
(Peace Be Upon Him).
Talking about the Zionist aggression
in Palestine, the Jamaat leader said
the people in Gaza are subjected to
cruel and inhuman bombings and TV
channels across the world are showing
dead bodies of Palestinian children.
He said there are one and half billion
Muslims in the world but they are
oppressed in many areas and their
resources being taken by Western
nations.
He said Palestine belongs to the
people of Palestine but Zionists from
80 countries were brought from across
the world and settled in the occupied
land.
He demanded convening of special OIC
conference to adopt a law to protect
the honor of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Islamic groups staged rallies in all
major cities including Karachi,
Hyderabad, Sukkur, Lahore, Multan,
Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta,
Peshawar and many others.
Speakers urged Pakistan and all
Islamic government to boycott products
of countries where blasphemous
cartoons are published and anti-Islam
film is screened.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten
originally published the 12 cartoons
last September, and they were
republished in European news media in
the last month.
A Dutch politician has also made an
anti-Quran film, using derogatory
scenes and remarks about Islam.
Prophet Unites Media
Some 40 Jordanian media outlets are
joining hands in a campaign to protest
the reprinting of a controversial
cartoon of prophet Muhammad (peace and
blessings be upon him) in Danish
newspapers.
"We will stand united and firm to
fight Christian Zionists who seek to
harm the image of Islam under the
pretext of defending the freedom of
expression," Zakaria Sheikh, the
editor of the weekly Fact
International, told Agence France-Presse
(AFP) on Sunday, February 24.
"They are in fact violating this
freedom. They use the media to
implement their scheme, and we will
use the same means to counter them."
The Jordanian media outlets, including
newspapers and websites, will run a
series of articles and editorials from
Wednesday against "attempts to distort
Islam's image." Many of the
articles are expected to press for the
expulsion of the Danish ambassador as
well as boycott of Danish products.
Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the
president of the International Union
for Muslim Scholars, has called for
activating the boycott of Danish
products. Muslims worldwide
boycotted Danish products after the
mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten
commissioned and published
controversial cartoons of the prophet
in 2005.
Denmark's leading dairy company Arla
Foods, one of the hardest hit, issued
at the time a strong condemnation of
the cartoon and appealed to Arabs and
Muslims to end their boycott of its
products.
Criminalizing
blasphemy
The Jordanian campaign, "The Messenger
of God Unites Us," will call for
legislations banning such actions.
"The campaign will also demand laws
that criminalize and ban blaspheming
Islam and the prophet," Sheikh said.
Following the 2005 cartoon crisis the
Organization of Islamic Conference and
the Arab League sought a UN
resolution, backed by possible
sanctions, to protect religions
against blasphemy. Muslim, Christian
and Jewish clerics pressed in 2006 for
United Nations action to ban blasphemy
and offenses to religious symbols.
Protests against the Scandinavian
country have raged across the Muslim
world since Danish dailies reprinted
the controversial drawing.
Demonstrators took to the streets in
Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Egypt, and
the Gaza Strip to condemn the move.
The Pakistani government has ordered
local Internet service providers to
block access to the popular Youtube
website for posting the cartoons.
Sudan is executing its plans to expel
Danish organizations, snub officials
and boycott products in protest at the
republishing of the cartoon. Khartoum
is also setting up a committee to
defend Prophet Muhammad against smear
campaigns. The body, called Sudan
Forum for Defending the Prophet,
features government officials and
civil society representatives.
Over a million Sudanese people are
gathering together protesting against
against Denmark’s blasphemy on
Wednesday in a government-approved
rally demonstrating against the evil
cartoon publication in Danish racist
newspapers satirising the God’s
Apostle, Prophet Muhammad.
"Down, down, Denmark," condemning the
growing crowd at the Shuhada Square in
downtown Khartoum, where President
Omar al-Bashir and other top officials
were to address the gathering from the
Republican Palace.
The square was closed for traffic as
hundreds of buses and trucks brought
in protesters, who included women and
students, from far-flung areas around
the capital to downtown Khartoum.
Nearby roads were also blocked and
traffic slowed elsewhere in the city.
Republishing of one of the 12 drawings
of a man said to be the Prophet
Muhammad that caused global Muslim
killings two years ago by Danish
racist newspaper Jyllands-Posten and
arrests of one Danish citizen of
Moroccan descent and two Tunisians for allegations of planning to
murder 73-year-old racist cartoonist
Kurt Westergaard are nothing but
heinous sins that must not go
unpunished.
Following the 2005 crisis, Muslims in
Denmark and worldwide took many
initiatives to remove widely
circulated stereotypes about Islam in
the West. Danish Muslims established
the European Committee for Honoring
the Prophet, a grouping of 27 Danish
Muslim organizations, to raise
awareness about the merits and
characteristics of the Prophet.
Sudan was one of the nations where
large protests were held against
Denmark in 2006 when 12 cartoons
depicting Prophet Muhammad and Islam
were first published. In riots that
followed around the Muslim world,
dozens of people were killed and
several Danish embassies were
attacked, while Danish goods -
including dairy products - were
boycotted.
The
Africans, and Asians for that matter,
cannot believe in free speech when
they see it stand for the freedom to
propagate bigotry and racism. No
wonder the Africans have found, many
of West’s democratic ideals candy
wrappers for imperialistic interests
in the West. The Africans, seeing what
democracies can cost them within weeks
in countries like Kenya and Nigeria,
don’t only find the idea that the war
against Iraq was a war for democracy
is now laughable, they have discovered
it’s a trap from the very people who
traded slavery and colonization on
their soils.
