Did You Know That Islam Prohibits ANY Image Of Mohammed?

[omega minimo]

This was mentioned briefly on NBC news but seems to be largely missing from news and discussion of the reaction to the cartoons printed in Danish conservative papers.

If a religion prohibits ANY image of their holy figures, then that would factor in to the outrage over cartoons, wouldn't it? Folks saying "I don't think it's such a big deal" are unaware of the nature of the sparks that inflamed these events. (Intentionally? But that's another thread...........)

Here is an excellent discussion from NewsHour last week.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/jan-june06/cartoons_02-02.html

POLITICAL CARTOON CONTROVERSY

February 2, 2006
Political cartoons published in European newspapers depicting the Prophet Muhammad against Islamic law caused a controversy across the Muslim world. Following a background report, two guests discuss the reaction and opposition to these cartoons.

Beliefs under assault

JEFFREY BROWN: And with me to look at the growing tensions raised by this story are: Ahmed Younis, national director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which promotes civil rights for American Muslims; and Stephan Richter, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Globalist, an online daily that focuses on international politics and culture. He's a German citizen who's lived in the U.S. for 25 years.

<snip>

JEFFREY BROWN: And as best you can tell, does this strike Muslims across the board?


AHMED YOUNIS: Absolutely. This does not discriminate against anyone. Again, religiosity, how conservative or how liberal someone is, has nothing to do with this. This is the tradition that has been set by people who call themselves Muslims, regardless of how they live their life day to day. And the Prophet Muhammad set an example, for instance, in the Medina Constitution of comity between people of multiple faiths when he was the person that had the privilege and the leverage of power.

And really it is very interesting that people say this is an argument between the traditions of freedom of expression in the West, and the traditions of Islam and Muslims, when, in fact, one of the primary goals of the Sharia, the law of Muslims that is promulgated by individuals, is the protection of freedom of speech, the protection of the products of the mind, which is a blessing of God, but there is a difference between freedom of speech and the responsibility of speech, both by the speechmaker and by the authorities that are responsible for an amicable exchange between different members of a society.

A tradition of free expression
JEFFREY BROWN: Stephan Richter, you were able to talk to people in Denmark and in Europe. What do we know about the paper that started this and their reasons for doing it?


STEPHAN RICHTER: Well, there are really two stories. One is the one that you point to, the start and where we're at now. At the start, it was probably a gratuitous effort on the part of the Danish paper; it is a conservative paper, contrary to the good traditions of editorial cartooning, where you need to have some current action, I mean, the images shown about the prophet.

You know, some months ago, there were reasons to perhaps display them, but right now in a series of them, it is questionable cartooning because they just wanted to prove that it can be done, and the editors in various papers are saying, really, it is a domestic question because the conservative paper wanted to inflame some of the anti-immigrant sentiments in Denmark, of that paper of conservative parties, conservative papers and conservative parties, as anywhere in Europe on the progressive and conservative front are closely aligned.

So they wanted to do some cheap domestic gain, and in that context it was not a legitimate means of journalism; at the same time, compared to everything that you said very eloquently, there couldn't be bigger disagreement because the logic of your position, while you talk about benevolence and understanding and so in, is basically that one culture sets up a global standard under which anybody has to live.

:yoiks:
disclaimer: omega minimo does not pretend to know the whole story or defend the actions of any of the players. recent posts by folks blowing smoke without enough information prompted this offering.