Daily Times

What a matter of agony and fury for the true believers of Islam. Islam is a religion that is based on the concept of Tauheed — the Oneness of Allah Almighty and Finality of the Prophet (PBUH). It is mandatory upon Muslims to love the Holy Prophet (PBUH) more than their own lives, wealth and family, and to make no compromise where the question of his respect and dignity arises. Turning a blind eye towards the deep, sacred sentiments that Muslims hold for their Holy Prophet (PBUH), the western community has once again tried to kindle violence and aggression among Muslims all across the world by introducing a modern version of blasphemy.

I simply do not understand what some people in the west are up to. Why do they not keep their hands off Muslims? Such sacrilegious acts have started from infamous literature and books since the 1980s, from Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses to the September 2005 printing of 12 cartoons by a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, and finally the recent blasphemous movie by Sam Bacile. A few western authors, scholars and media persons have acted ignorant and irreverent towards our Islamic beliefs and holy personalities and tried to propagate false Islamic ideas and misleading religious history. It has been done in various forms, whether in the form of books, The Jewel of Madina (2008) by Sherry Jones and the most recent one In the Shadow of the Sword (2012) by Tom Holland, or the screening of a controversial Channel 4 documentary film Islam: The Untold Story.

All these acts simply lead to agitation and violence among Muslims. It is just foul play by the west to receive publicity and sensitise common readers through books, films and TV programmes, which would have disappeared without much attention by the international community if they had written on less sensitive issues. As a reaction, we see public demonstrations, attacks on foreign embassies, diplomatic consulates, damage to government property (burning of buses, breaking of streetlights, electricity poles, etc) and targeting of diplomats/ambassadors. In the end, who should be actually blamed for starting the violent fire — the reactive Muslims or the initiator, the west? Why are Muslims then termed extremists or religious lunatics? Taking the example of Europe, the denial of the Holocaust is legally prohibited as it hurts Jewish sentiments. Why is the treatment of Muslims so discriminatory that after every few years their religious beliefs are tested, ignoring their feelings and sentiments?

Unfortunately, the Muslims around the globe are once again hosting public demonstrations in Tunis, Tripoli, Khartoum, Cairo, Jordan, Qatar, Tehran, London and Jerusalem. In South Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have strongly condemned this blasphemous act. The Afghanis have called on lawmakers to cancel the pact with the US, burning an effigy of President Obama in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, while Pakistan has erupted in protests. Hundreds of protestors rallied in front of the US Consulate in Karachi. Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam’s president, Ch Shujaat Hussain has demanded that the government summon the US ambassador to take serious notice of the issue, demand an action against the filmmakers and an apology from the US and website officials. He also called on the Muslim Ummah to evolve a unanimous strategy on the issue.

Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen called for the handover of Terry Jones, an American Christian pastor supporting the film, who has drawn protests in the past for burning the Holy Quran, and demanded Jones’ trial in a Sharia court. The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Jamiat-i-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) held protests in several cities including Peshawar, Karachi and Swat. Other organisations like the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT), Imamia Students Organisation (ISO) and Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) also organised protests and threatened to attack the US embassy and US consulates across the country if the Pakistani government did not protest against the film.

Apart from the reaction against all this violence, the western media is silent; no action has been taken. One must notice that the propaganda tool has been refined from books to cyber mode, although the objective remains the same, i.e. to instigate Muslims to violence and to portray them as religious fundamentalists and extremists in the eyes of the international community.

The writer works for IPRI