The Defiance
‘Cartoons Infused Muslims With a Spirit of Defiance’
Arab News
JEDDAH, 4 February 2006 — An influential imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah proclaimed a new spirit of defiance among Muslims after worldwide protests over cartoons denigrating the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in European newspapers.
“A great new spirit is flowing through the body of the Islamic Ummah... The world can no longer ignore this Ummah and its feelings,” Saleh Bin-Humaid said while delivering his Friday sermon.
“The nation has worked hard in support of its Prophet Muhammad in recent days. It is the right of every Muslim to show joy at this defense of our beloved Prophet,” he told hundreds of thousands of faithful who packed the Grand Mosque.
Bin-Humaid commended the leading role played by Saudi Arabia in campaigns protesting the provocative cartoons. The Kingdom withdrew its ambassador to Denmark, saying the government had not done enough to assuage anger over the cartoons published last September in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
Egyptian cleric Youssef Al-Qaradawi, told worshippers in Qatar: “The whole nation must be angry and rise up to show their anger... Anger is a must, we are not a nation of donkeys. We are a nation of lions.”
Washington yesterday condemned the caricatures. “These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims,” State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question.
“We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.”
Muslim outrage spread through Asia yesterday over the cartoons. In Indonesia, anger boiled over as up to 300 people went on the rampage in the lobby of a Jakarta building housing the Danish Embassy. The protesters from the Islamic Defenders Front smashed lamps, threw chairs, rotten eggs and tomatoes, and tore up the Danish flag.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai commended French newspaper France Soir for sacking its managing editor for reprinting the cartoons and urged other papers to do the same.
In neighboring Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf and the upper house of Parliament condemned the cartoons as blasphemous. The Parliament called on the government to consider economic and political actions to “prevent uncivilized behavior by the Danish daily and other European media against the Muslim faith.”
Flemish newspapers yesterday printed a slew of cartoons of the Prophet, including those published by Jyllands-Posten. “Right for Satire,” said a front-page headline in Het Nieuwsblad. An editorial in the newspaper called the outcry over the cartoons an attack on freedom of expression.
Another Dutch-language newspaper, Het Volk, printed drawings of the Prophet by leading Flemish cartoonists and quoted renowned Belgian philosopher Etienne Vermeersch as saying that Belgian papers should publish such caricatures every week “so that Muslims could get used to the idea.”
Arab News
JEDDAH, 4 February 2006 — An influential imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah proclaimed a new spirit of defiance among Muslims after worldwide protests over cartoons denigrating the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in European newspapers.
“A great new spirit is flowing through the body of the Islamic Ummah... The world can no longer ignore this Ummah and its feelings,” Saleh Bin-Humaid said while delivering his Friday sermon.
“The nation has worked hard in support of its Prophet Muhammad in recent days. It is the right of every Muslim to show joy at this defense of our beloved Prophet,” he told hundreds of thousands of faithful who packed the Grand Mosque.
Bin-Humaid commended the leading role played by Saudi Arabia in campaigns protesting the provocative cartoons. The Kingdom withdrew its ambassador to Denmark, saying the government had not done enough to assuage anger over the cartoons published last September in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper.
Egyptian cleric Youssef Al-Qaradawi, told worshippers in Qatar: “The whole nation must be angry and rise up to show their anger... Anger is a must, we are not a nation of donkeys. We are a nation of lions.”
Washington yesterday condemned the caricatures. “These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims,” State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question.
“We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.”
Muslim outrage spread through Asia yesterday over the cartoons. In Indonesia, anger boiled over as up to 300 people went on the rampage in the lobby of a Jakarta building housing the Danish Embassy. The protesters from the Islamic Defenders Front smashed lamps, threw chairs, rotten eggs and tomatoes, and tore up the Danish flag.
Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai commended French newspaper France Soir for sacking its managing editor for reprinting the cartoons and urged other papers to do the same.
In neighboring Pakistan, President Pervez Musharraf and the upper house of Parliament condemned the cartoons as blasphemous. The Parliament called on the government to consider economic and political actions to “prevent uncivilized behavior by the Danish daily and other European media against the Muslim faith.”
Flemish newspapers yesterday printed a slew of cartoons of the Prophet, including those published by Jyllands-Posten. “Right for Satire,” said a front-page headline in Het Nieuwsblad. An editorial in the newspaper called the outcry over the cartoons an attack on freedom of expression.
Another Dutch-language newspaper, Het Volk, printed drawings of the Prophet by leading Flemish cartoonists and quoted renowned Belgian philosopher Etienne Vermeersch as saying that Belgian papers should publish such caricatures every week “so that Muslims could get used to the idea.”
posted by hrights @ 11:50 AM
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