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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...PHET04/TPStory/
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Muslim fury hits Britain
Controversy over cartoons depicting the Prophet only a symptom of wider issues, expert says
HAMIDA GHAFOUR
LONDON -- Protests against controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed spread to Britain yesterday, as angry Muslims took to the streets shouting "Freedom go to hell" or " Europe you will pay."
The controversy, which began when several European newspapers republished the satirical drawings, appears to pit Western traditions of free speech against a tenet of Islam that says images of the Prophet are strictly forbidden.
But some Islamic experts say the protests, which have spread across the Middle East, Africa and Europe in the past week, highlight the chasm between the West and the Muslim world.
Nadim Shehadi, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs for Chatham House, a think tank, said the protests are a unifying factor for Muslims, for whom it is the main topic of conversation.
"I was in Egypt and the news is all over the place," he said.
"Then, when I arrived in London, my taxi driver at the airport, who was an Afghan, told me that because the world of Islam was weak it was easy to attack. He said the Iranians were the only ones standing up to the West with their nuclear program.
"My point is basically forget about the cartoons. The atmosphere is tense because of what is happening in Iran, Iraq, Palestine and it is an excuse to express anger at those wider issues."
The 12 drawings, which include one of Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, were originally published in a Danish newspaper and have led to boycotts of Danish goods and to death threats against Europeans.
Glimpses of the drawings have been shown on the BBC and two other television channels but they have not been reprinted in the British press.
Mr. Shehadi's observations were borne out by some of the 200 to 300 protesters yesterday who gathered at the London Central mosque and marched to the Danish embassy. The men led and the women, most of whom were covered completely in black veils, followed several paces behind.
"This is not a protest, this is a warning," said Khalid Kelly, 39, an Irish national who converted to Islam five years ago.
"Stop murdering our women and children. We gave the same message before 9/11. We are now saying to insult our Prophet means death. We are being attacked and an attack against our Prophet will mean death."
Abu Jihad, 43, who was born in Pakistan, added that the cartoonist and the editors of the papers should be killed.
"It is very clear: Anyone who insults the Prophet must be beheaded. Remember van Gogh?" he said, referring to the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh who was murdered in 2004 for his controversial film about Islam.
"Whoever did it, bless him. Islam is peace but you see there will only be peace when Islam is implemented across the world. In the Prophet's time anyone who insulted the Prophet was beheaded. The same should happen now."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw praised the British media for not printing the cartoons, which he called "disrespectful."
"There is freedom of speech, we all respect that. But there is not any obligation to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory," he said.
There is also an element of mystery surrounding the drawings, which were first published last September in Jyllands-Posten, a major Danish newspaper.
The respected German broadsheet Der Spiegel reported that a delegation of Danish Muslims, angry that their protests were not taken seriously by the Danish paper, showed a dossier to religious leaders in Egypt in January.
They included three obscene images that were never published, including one of Mohammed as a pedophile and another as a pig. That may have caused far more damage than the original images, the paper said.
Yousif Al-Khoei, a director of the Al-Khoei Foundation, said the Internet is playing a large role in whipping up hysteria by spreading the news and playing to the fears of an audience that is suspicious that their religion and identity are under attack by the West.
"The whole concept of clash of civilizations . . . I fear the foundations have been laid and people are mentally prepared for it. There is a siege mentality and in the Middle East, conspiracy theories are always rife," Mr. Al-Khoei said.
It was a "personal insult" because Muslims hold the Prophet in higher esteem than their own parents or children, said Gul Mohammed, of the British Muslim Forum.
"There is a fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity: Christians, at this time, don't identify with the prophet Jesus where in Islam people love Mohammed more than anyone else."
One protester, Sara, who did not want to give her last name, said she fears extremist Muslim groups would use the controversy to gather more supporters.
"Even if people were against Osama bin Laden, they may support him now," she said, just as a man on a megaphone next to her shouted, "Long live bin Laden."
"See? That's what they are doing now." |
Wow.
Why does this scene remind me of Christians in medieval times?
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| quote: | Originally posted by chinamon
not true. i say "ugh"
but i am a tranny. |
| quote: | Originally posted by kotsy
lol colour me retarded |
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