 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
Forum | Quran | Türkçe | Feedback | |
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Cartoons of Muhammad, a Messenger of Peace! Why not?Reformist Muslims Solicits Your Cartoons and Drawings about Muhammad and Islam.
As islamic reformers and progressive muslims, we believe that people should have legal right to express their opinion or dissent without fear of governments or mobs. In that regard, we applaud the people of Denmark for not censoring their media. History has proven that truth and justice cannot flourish in an environment of suppression and oppression. Though the cartoonists depicted and insulted our beloved prophet Muhammad, a figure that we consider dearer to us than our fathers and mothers, we stand by the rights of cartoonists to express their views.
Though we defend their freedom of expression fully, we morally condemn the ignorant and perhaps malicious act of those cartoonists and the European media that published them. The Danish newspaper that started the cartoon controversy later apologized the Muslim World:
However, in another editorial article, Carsten Jaste, the editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper admitted that their publication of the infamous cartoons had nothing to do with their initial excuse of testing the limits of tolerance and freedom of expression. We learn that cartoonists are not permitted to tickle the bellies of Christians and Jews, Crusaders and Zionists:
The defense of the cartoons was lame too. For instance:
Had the cartoonists and the editors opened their eyes and connected the dots between the tens of thousands of tortured, injured, and killed Iraqi civilians and the lies of a Crusader-in-chief supported by Evangelical churches, they would perhaps have decided to draw the cartoon of Jesus with 666 bombs in his hair and beard! Anyone who has the knowledge of the New Testament would not hesitate to distinguish between the warmongering Crusaders and Jesus, the "Prince of Peace." Similarly, anyone who has the knowledge of the Quran would not hesitate to distinguish between the terrorist Jihadis and Muhammad, the "Messenger of Peace."
The European media did not only insult one of the prophets, they also distorted the history of a great revolutionary leader who was a model peacemaker and defender of the rights of the oppressed; slaves, and women. In contrast to how the warmongering Crusaders and Jihadis wish to portray, Muhammad was not a man of violence but a man of reason and peace. Numerous verses of the Quran and critical study of history will reveal that the portrait of Muhammad depicted in Sunni or Shiite hearsay books is fictional. A fiction created by the propagandists of rulers of Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties to justify their atrocities and aggression! He and his supporters were threatened and tortured in Mecca for their criticism of their corrupt and unjust theocratic system. They were forced to leave everything behind and immigrate to Yathrib (today's Medina). There they established a peaceful city state, a federal secular democracy, among its multi-religious diverse citizens. Nevertheless, the Meccan oligarchy did not leave them alone to enjoy peace and freedom; they organized several major war campaigns against the coalition of Muslims, Christians, Jews and Pagans united under the leadership of Muhammad. In all the wars, including Uhud, Badr, and Handaq, the monotheist reformers fought for self-defense. They even dug trenches around the city to defend themselves from aggressive religious coalition led by Meccan oligarchs. Muhammad's message that promoted reason, freedom, peace, justice, unity of children of Adam, appreciation of diversity, rights of women and slaves, and social consciousness soon received acceptance by masses in the land. Yet, after ten years in exile, when finally Muhammad and his supporters returned to Mecca as victors, he declared amnesty for all those oppressors and warmongers who inflicted on them great suffering, who maimed and murdered many of their comrades, all because they questioned the teachings and culture they inherited from their parents. However, guided by the teachings of Quran, Muhammad chose forgiveness and peace; he did not punish any of his bloody enemies. After all, he was one of the many messengers of islam, peace and submission to God alone.
Not only those cartoons distorted the truth and committed injustice against one of the greatest men in history, those cartoons unfairly stereotyped all Muslims as terrorists and barbarians. Promotion of xenophobic messages in Christendom might lead to another atrocity in human history. If we compare the massacres, wars, and atrocities committed in history by those who claim to be Muslims to those who claim to be Christians, we will find that those who give lip service to Christianity are more barbarians than those who give lip service to Islam. The wars, covert operations, occupations and destruction of countries, the use of atomic bombs on civilians, use of proxy corrupt and oppressive regimes, weapon industry and its global trade… Christendom and churches, in general, have been supportive of colonialism, jingoistic or imperialistic aggressions. In the times of inter religious conflict, unfortunately the voice of peaceful and moderate Christians and Muslims is not heard. It is like a dejavu. Remember sixty years ago? Jews were considered the source of all evil by Germany, a country with a majority Christian population. Hitler's racist propaganda machine hypnotized many otherwise nice people. Now, as it seems, it is the turn of Muslims. There are enough ignorant and traumatized people among Muslims to justify the cunning propaganda machine that is working to establish moral justification for a new worldwide aggression.
The West possesses excessive deposit of atomic bombs and high tech weapons, enormous amount of greed to suck the resources of the entire earth, and troops of religious and political leaders who can demonstrate the miracle of promoting wars and atrocities while at the same time singing peace and freedom with smirks on their faces. On the other hand, the East possess oil and many other natural resources, enormous amount of ignorance, poverty and destitute, and troops of religious and political leaders who can mobilize masses and turn them to terrorists and suicide bombs. These are explosive ingredients for the clash of two so-called civilizations that might turn the planet earth to hell. It is time for peace-loving honest people, especially Christians, Jews and Muslims start acting for peace and dialogue.
Sunni and Shiite Protesters Serve their Detractors
The reaction of Sunni and Shiite masses around the world to the cartoon controversy has nothing to do with the precepts of Islam. The exaggerated reaction, the violent protests, the gun-touting mouth-foaming angry mobs underscores the fact that they do not care about the teaching of the Quran. Especially, the reaction of an Iranian Newspaper that announced a cartoon competition aiming to poke fun at the Holocaust, started a competition in a diabolic race. The so-called Muslim world has betrayed the principles of the islam and is oblivious of the realities of the world they live in. The extremist elements, however, are still a minority in the so-called Muslim world. The silent majority is still watching; but they need to speak up soon. Otherwise, they will share the pain and tragedies invited by the active and loud fools among them.
The angry and occasionally violent protests have only helped the agenda and propaganda of Evangelical warmongers who betray the message of peace and love delivered by Jesus, the son of Mary. The Evangelical crusaders hope to flood the Middle East with blood in order to prepare for the second coming of Messiah. Their bloody dreams have now overlapped with the interest of global powers. The angry crowds in the Middle East have sent this message to them: "You may insult other prophets and messengers of God. You may even insult God through your movies, books, and cartoons. We will ignore them. But, if you insult Prophet Muhammad, we will leave our homes and workplaces and fill the streets yelling, screaming, and even killing. You can easily push our buttons. The cost of irritating and agitating us for you is close to nothing; but you may make us jump and scream in anger for weeks in our dirty and dilapidated streets."
Through their irrational reactions, the so-called Muslim world lost the first round of the clash of civilizations. As a result, every psychopath loner, every animal-torturing freak, every spoiled loser, every troubled teenager, or every fame-seeker will fill the Internet with disparaging cartoons and images attributed to Muhammad. In their efforts to muzzle the powerful visual medium in this propaganda war, the rioters ensure that almost all visual material related to Muhammad in the media will be negative. This is called shooting oneself in the foot.
The primitive reaction of Sunni and Shiite population might ultimately accelerate their natural extinction from the face of earth. They are so disoriented by the clergy-made teachings, so regressed by upholding medieval Arab culture as God's religion, so traumatized by their corrupt and cruel governments, and so much hurt and humiliated by the occupation forces of the western civilization (in Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan…), they reflect the image of beasts in global political arena while they are in reality the victims of a powerful, cruel, and greedy global hegemony. For instance, the recent speeches by the Iranian leader Ahmadinejad have been so foolish they make the most absurd conspiracy theory a reasonable possibility. Is he an agent of the US-Inc?
The powerful coalition of multinational corporations, religious organizations and political groups that duped the US military into a destructive and cruel occupation in Iraq is now engaging in a psychological warfare to depict Muslims as barbarians. In order to justify the occupation of resource-rich lands, destruction of their infrastructure, and the killing and torturing their natives, they wish to agitate the extreme elements of the Islamic world so that they dehumanize that entire world in the eyes of others. After the fall of communism, the global hegemony decided to create another monster. The imperial policy of radicalizing Muslims is working well. Already the losing radical mullahs won the election in Iran. In Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt and Pakistan extremist religious groups are gaining more power.
In the hopes of hitting several birds with the same stone, the coalition of Crusaders, Neocons, Oil and Weapon industries invoke fear and tickle the jingoistic emotions of their nations. They hope to reach imperialistic goals of dominating a vast land in a strategic region; to Christianize the demoralized masses in the Muslim world; to depict them as barbarians and terrorists (the recent propaganda buzzword that somehow does not include state terrorism) deserving to be wiped out from the face of earth, and to distract the attention of their own citizens from their domestic failures and corruption. Those rowdy protesters, acting like wild cavemen, provide the best opportunity for the imperialist ambitions. Though they are unsophisticated trouble makers, they are gullible and petty criminals compared to their Western opponents who possess enormous destructive power, unlimited greed, and cunning propaganda for justifying their aggressive wars, their plundering of the resources of other countries and their killing and torturing of their civilians. The Western media especially searches and carefully picks the ugliest and angriest faces in the crowd to stereotype the entire Muslim population. It is not farfetched to expect the Western covert-operation personnel acting as agitators among the protesters.
Hypocrisy of Sunni and Shiite Clerics
On the other hand, the religious leaders of the reactionary protesters are acting with hypocrisy. When similar criticism or insults directed at Jesus or Moses they have no reaction, despite the fact that the Quran considers Jesus and Moses as selected messengers and prophets of God. It also asks Muslims not to discriminate among the messengers. When the Taliban destroyed the sculptures of Buddhist gods in Afghanistan, Sunni and Shiite masses around the world remained silent, and the religious ones celebrated the news.
Worse, in the Western world, cartoons are being published depicting God, occasionally with disrespectful humor. According to the Quran, only the depiction of God is blasphemous, since God does not look like anything His creatures can imagine. But, the Quran never approves the suppression of false and disrespectful religious or nonreligious opinions. How can a believer in the Quran, a follower of Muhammad, react to disparaging cartoons in a manner that contradicts the advise of the very book in which he professes to believe?
The only unforgivable sin, according the Quran is the sin of associating other partners/idols to God. God allows this biggest sin to be committed in this world. He fulfills his promise to test humans by giving them free choice. He condemns those who deprive others from exercising that freedom of choice. Who then, in the name of the same God, can force others from any expression of their belief or disbelief?
Billions of people, including Sunnis and Shiites, commit all kinds of idol-worship. For instance, they pray for the intercession of the prophet or saints, they prohibit many of God's blessings in the name of God, they deprive women of their God-given rights, they worship meteorites or black rocks, they ask help from graves of their religious idols, etc. Unfortunately, Sunni and Shiite clerics and their followers have sunk deep in the quagmire of ignorance and polytheism. The progressive teachings of Islam cannot be represented and defended by those who do not respect the message of the Quran. They are prophetically described by verse 25:30 of the Quran.
In verse 4:140, the Quran recommends us to protest passively those who indulge in mockery of our faith by leaving their presence. Furthermore, it recommends us not to cut our relationship with them; we should turn back in peace and continue our dialogue when they come to their senses and are able to engage in a rational discourse. What do the so-called Muslims do? They do the opposite. By demonstrating an aggressive and belligerent behavior, they oppose and disrespect God's instruction in their Holy Book, which they give only lip service. Interestingly, the aggressive and belligerent attitude and behavior is listed as characteristics of the enemies of Muhammad. How ironic that today's so-called Muslims demonstrate many of the traits of Muhammad's enemies. They have traded the Quran with fabricated hearsay stories (hadith books), sectarian jurisprudence, and fatwas.
If Muslims do really love Muhammad and respect him, they should have shown more negative reaction to the sources of hadith and sunna, such as Bukhari, Muslim, Ibni Hanbel, Abu Dawud, Tirmizi, Ibni Majeh, and Kafi, including numerous commentaries based on them, such as Ibni Kathir. In those and many other sectarian books, The Prophet Muhammad is falsely depicted as a torturing sadist, as a warmonger, as a tyrant, as a sex maniac, as a pedophile. Somehow, they are receptive to all the insults and defamation directed to Muhammad if they come in the form of a "holy hearsay" (holy hadith) story from a guy with a long Arabic name and beard who hypocritically praises Muhammad before spewing forth such vile statements. Muslims have become an irrational group that is described by verse 10:100.
Competition to Use Visual Media to Reflect the Truth about Muhammad and Quranic Islam
Two years ago, we started thinking about making a computer animation film about Muhammad's life. As a mental preparation for this project, we decided to organize a drawing competition. In October 2004, we posted an announcement at www.19.org and some Internet groups, for a Drawing Competition regarding Muhammad's portrait. Our announcement received only a few entries. We had multiple reasons and goals for that announcement. One goal was to expose and challenge the contradictory and hypocritical nature of traditional teachings. We cited the following reasons for that failed, perhaps untimely competition:
No one will worship the illustration if they are not already ignorant idolaters. Since the fact that people worship Jesus does not stop us from mentioning his name or drawing an imaginary illustration of him, the fact that people worship Muhammad's NAME should not stop us from mentioning his name or drawing his picture. As we learn from the Quran, the Prophet Solomon had pictures, statues and sculptures in his mansion (34:13).
We are announcing an award for a cartoon/portrait of Muhammad that would depict him accurately as a human being and a messenger of peace and progress. We will publish the winning portrait at www.19.org and in our upcoming "The Quran: A Reformist Translation." We may also publish many other submissions of high quality. We will use the income from the book to promote the message of the Islamic Reform movement.
Our next step will be to make a computer animated feature film about Muhammad's life. In that film, Muhammad will be represented by a human figure, not a camel, as in the movie, "The Message," where Anthony Quinn played Muhammad's uncle.
How to Contact and Some Suggestions for Competition on "Muhammad, a Messenger of Peace"
|