Yet another illustration of our density
Blashpheming the Prophet Sallallahualaihi wa sallam will never be tolerated. Not by Muslims, not by me. Whenever any party or organization should be so reprehensive as to take to such acts, Muslims will, as they have shown time and time again, respond. It is powerful to see, alhumdulillah.
What is the problem? The problem is our stupidity, thats the problem. Muslims are meant to be just and fair to all parties involved, and there is absolutely NO precedent in our jurisprudential or political history that would condone vigilantism or terrorism. If any scholar says something to the contrary, I would question how he feels the right to contravene 1439 years of credible scholarship and history on the matter. It does not fly.
The Danish newspaper that pulished those caricatures was out of line, and from the sounds of it, violated the criminal code of their own nation. I personally have not been able to fully understand the comics myself, and as such, have not been able to contextualise it, which is imperative in coming to any judgements on the matter. To me though, that is the issue. Are we Muslims just jumping on this 'protest' bandwagon or have we justly assessed the scenario through the lens of justice and due process?
Think of me as being overly methodical or deliberate on matters? Forgive me, I am a law student. I am predisposed towards structure, procedure and ethics--EVERYTIME. No exceptions. Exceptions open the door to injustice. Exceptions to due process and methodological prosecution will mean the abondoment of the fundamental principles of justice and the rule of law. These are the very principles which, mind you, Muslims have played a MAJOR part in developing, if not founding. Example? An independent judiciary that holds the executive branch of a state accountible to the laws of the land is the cornerstone of ANY modern government that claims to be democratic. Who was the first statesmen to establish this? Umar ibn Khattab, second Caliph of Islam. Imam Ali (fourth Caliph of Islam and the last of the Rightly Guided) was also known to have lost a civil case against a Jew whom he felt was sure had stolen a possession of his. If these RULERS felt the need to follow the structure of the law, why are we any different?
That brings me to the issue of the comics. The Newspaper agency was wrong in publishing what they did in a manner they must have known would offend Muslims. To the extent of the political and demonstrational backlash, they reaped what they sew, no question. However, Libya wants an apology from the Danish government for the publication? Again, i don't have enough information of the political structure of Denmark, but i would imagine the state does not have anything to do with media agencies. I'm looking at it from my own frame of reference. Does the New York Times or Toronto Sun publishing an anti-Islamic article have anything to do with President Bush or the Prime Minister of Canada? No. Now Muslims are burning down Danish embassies around the world??? This is preposterous and TOTALLY outside the confines of our Islamic teachings and shari'ah no matter how you slice it. Now Iran is banning ALL Danish reporters from reporting in their country? What?? What is that, the 'Iranian final solution'? Lumping all reporters together, is that ANY different than lumping all Muslims together as terrorists? Where are our brains? Do we just put them on standby everytime something emotionally charged gets the best of us? That is EXACTLY why at times like this we NEED to defer to the proper procedure and structure and assess the situation critically, in order to protect ourselves and those we mean to assess from the atrocities of our sense of justice turning into reprisals and over-vindication.
Before I leave, let me do so with one question on the table. Did the Prophet Peace Be Upon him EVER EVER EVER act vindicatively or exact reprisals against anyone?
Thats what I thought. If we are going to DEFEND the Prophet (peace Be Upon Him), why don't we do it the way he would have defended himself, with justice and honour. The man fought in numerous campaigns, everytime on the front line, yet is reported to have never killed a soul....May the Absolute Peace and Blessings of God Be Upon him and may his teachings live forever. Ameen.
posted by Hydro Hussla at 3:47 PM
7 Comments:
Exactly! You know you will hear about the protest bandwagon at If at First Miscommunications. An issue that I never 'miscommunicate' about -- we the moz, need to speak up, yes... and alhamdulillah, we have. My question is though, what happens beyond the reaction. Why is that that time and time again, we just wait for the 'next time' we can react?! The irony of it all is perhaps that we ourselves are doing exactly what we claim 'they' are doing...lumping the masses in one big boat...and further not defending the honor of our Rasool (saw) in the way he (saw) taught us to.
4:55 PM
We need more lawyers. There's no contextualization MAN. CONTEXTUALIZATION OF ANYTHING MAN.
12:23 AM
I believe the problem goes further then just figuring out which side is at fault or wrong or had toast for breakfast that morning. Its come down to a showdown between West & East. Every major issue these days, generally speaking, boils down to this. The West, with its full government and media support (as demonstrated by the Danish government basically revoking the newspaper's so-called apology), and the East, where governments tend to use situations like these to distract the mostly illiterate proletariat from bigger issues at home, such as corrupt leadership and lack of social justice.
If we had true leaders, we'd have people whose example we could follow. If we had social justice, well, I dont need to elaborate on that one; one of the first things the Prophet (pbuh) did upon arriving in Medinah was set one up.
10:57 PM
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4:37 PM
Now Iran is banning ALL Danish reporters from reporting in their country? What?? What is that, the 'Iranian final solution'? Lumping all reporters together, is that ANY different than lumping all Muslims together as terrorists?
I disagree (and no, it's not because I'm Iranian). I disagree because your point would only be valid had the Iranian governement 'lumped together' all Western and European reporters and banned them all from reporting into Iran. That situation would then be comparable with your example of the western ideal of lumping all Muslims into the category of 'terrorist' regardless of their ethnicity, age, gender, or cultural background.
I agree with you that violence, public bashing and acts of vandalism are wrong in every Islamic way and are incredibly damaging to our already bruised image as Muslims. Banning Danish reporters from within its borders is a substantial and purely political (not to mention entirely peaceful) act that in its essence represents what the values of the Iranian people are, and how they will not tolerate, as no other Muslim nation will, any sort of insult or acts of degradation against Islam and our beloved Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).
I dont think that the state and the media are as seperate as you suggest. Although they each are individual entities, they however both operate within the same borders and the same people and are all answerable to Danish Law. I think we all agree that it is up to Denmark's government to make an international apology to all Muslims on behalf of its newspapers and reporters, and hence its people in regards to the issue. Wouldn't this be a representation of what THEY stand for? Unfortunately, however,it seems that the greatest talent of the western world is only to preach these values to all other nation and never to practice them.
Your writing btw, is very composed. :)
Salaam Salaam
4:42 PM
Thanks for the compliment Massey :)
As for the issue of whether or not the situation I cited was analogous, remember that when I say lumping together, I mean the monolithicisation of a group of people accross different denominations, regardless of how nuanced or heteroegenous those groups 'being lumped together' may actually be in reality. Banning ALL Danish reporters, regardless of what newspaper agency they belong to or their ideological values is analogous to this scenario and the one I mentioned. What if some left-wing pro-Islam Danish newspaper wanted to report a different angle on an issue within Iran (an Iranian Muslim perspective)? They would be prohibited from doing so simply on the basis of a supposed assosciation with another group of agents simply grounded in ONE overarching commonality -- being a Danish news agency. Importantly, the overarching similarity does NOT neccessarily speak to ANY other similarities or shared values between the groups between the groups being assosciated--much like 'being a Muslim' (overarching principle) does not presuppose ANY similarity between a terrorist who calls himself a Muslim and a respectable peace-loving Muslim -- or even generalising between Muslims of different nationalities and national interests.
1:30 PM
Excellent article Mujir (I'm a bit behind, I only read this one today).
Just a thought:
I think a sign of the Last Day is that fitna like this will occur and be widespread in the Muslim community. So not only is this stupid behaviour an illustration of our density .. but an illustration of our destiny as well.
5:42 PM
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