Dutch MP’s Anti- Quran Film: Is this the road to Integration?

Published on LookAsia and Asian News

By Majed Iqbal- It was on September 30, 2005, when the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten’s, published cartoons depicting the Prophet of Islam in an attempt to “test the level of tolerance of Muslims” living in Danish Society.

Two years on from the international furor created by these publications, a sequel with an even more loaded message to this issue is about to re-kindle another international situation.

Dutch lawmaker, MP Geert Wilders, who last summer called for the Quran to be banned in the Netherlands has now made a movie, entitled “Fitna”, to support his contention that the Koran inspires “intolerance, murder and terror.”

Wilders, leader of the Freedom Party had long threatened to release a film exhibiting, in his words, “the violent and fascist elements of the Muslim faith”.

Holland- Serious about Cohesion?

  Published on the Asian News Letters Section

By Maqsood Ahmed-  Fitna, a film directed by a Dutch Parliamentarian, Geert Wilders, and to be released shortly has openly called for the Quran to be banned and likens the Quran to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. All this is done in the name of “freedom of expression”.

At a time when the propaganda on Islam is on the rise, and Muslim community is being coerced to assimilate into the dominant culture, it is imperative we look deeply at the issue of community cohesion. This term “community cohesion” seeks to gel the community together on a set of “common values”.

Surely community cohesion must mean all cultures are respected for their values for greater harmony in our community. Yet, in the name of “freedom” Islam is mocked and insulted and Muslims are expected to buy into this “universal idea”.

Cartoon Controversy- The Man Behind the Message

 

A draft article written for the Rochdale committee for Islamic Affairs (RCIA) for submission to the Rochdale Observer Newspaper

What started off as a little local difficulty about community integration in Denmark following the publication of the famously controversial cartoons has now escalated into a worldwide chasm. It would be naive to suggest that the journalists involved did not know what they were getting themselves into. On the contrary, they knew that it would spark off some form of controversy, as the man who was in the spotlight was none other than the bearer of the Message of Islam, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). A man, whose influence covers over 1.3 billion people in the world today.

 

News stations have beamed in images to our living rooms of protests in the Muslim world; venting utter disgust at the freedom which allowed such an act to take place. The UK saw mass mobilisation of people, addressing the matter at hand in local communities, newspapers, media and organised demonstrations.

 

It may seem surprising for everyone. What’s the big deal? Don’t celebrities get ridiculed in the press at their antics, their love and sex lives exposed on the front sheets of the tabloids, footballers wives spilling out their venom against their husbands, politicians getting caught in sleazy deals. This is the way the world works doesn’t it? So why make an exception when Cartoons of the Prophet of Islam are published in Europe. Its as the Editor of the newspaper put it, “Caricatures are part of European Culture”. Britain’s own newspapers can testify to that too.

Rochdale Muslims unite against Cartoons Defaming Prophet of Islam

 

Official Statment From Rochdale Committee for Islamic Affairs

Muslims around the world have took to the streets protesting and boycotting Danish products following a series of satirical cartoons ridiculing the prophet Muhammad (saw). The Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s, has refused to meet the ambassadors of 11 Muslim countries to discuss censuring the Jyllands-Posten paper.

Carsten Juste, the editor of the newspaper, has apologized on but emphasizes that he apologizes for offending people, but not for publishing the cartoons. Muslim organisations have demanded an apology, but the editor has rejected this idea. He said “We live in a democracy. That’s why we can use all the journalistic methods we want to” he said.

The following points are what we would like the Muslims of Rochdale to observe

• The rank of the Prophet of Islam in the heart of a Muslim cannot be described in words. This love and admiration for him can only be tasted when a person enters the fold of Islam and works to emulate his actions. The publications have deeply offended Muslims throughout the whole of the world who share these sentiments.

•  The caricatures of the Prophet of Islam, is an insult and abuse about a people’s beliefs. Such behaviors are not the characteristics of a people who value tolerance and wish to create civilised societies.

•  Muslims have played a pivotal role in Europe for decades, living side by side, peacefully with all members of society, as this is their Islamic duty. The repeated publication in many European countries has not served to recognize this, but has worked to strike discord amongst communities and the 20 million Muslims residing in Europe .

• How can the publications be justified under the pre-text of entitlement to free speech but at the same time laws are being designed to curtail any discussion about illegal occupation of Muslim lands like Palestine and Iraq ? Muslims living in the west are highlighting these discrepancies

• Muslims of Rochdale will air their feelings within the framework of the law against such distasteful publications 

 Written and Submitted by Majed Iqbal on 8th Feb 2006