As Muslim Outcry Grows, Questions of Rights vs. Responsibilities Come To the Fold

CAIRO, February9 , 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – The European Union will consider a media code of conduct in an effort to avoid a repeat of violent protests over the publication of insulting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) by many European newspapers.

"The press will give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini told Daily Telegraph on Thursday, February9 .

"We can and we are ready to self-regulate that right."

Frattini said the charter would be drawn up by the European Commission and the European media outlets to help encourage the media to show "prudence" when covering religions.

Twelve cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, first published last September by Denmark's mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten and then reprinted by several European dailies, have caused an uproar in the Muslim world.

The drawings included portrayals of the Prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

Newspapers in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Poland, the United States, Japan, Norway, Malaysia, Australia, Jordan, Yemen, Ukraine and Fiji have so far reprinted some of the cartoons.

Newspapers which have published the cartoons claim they were exercising their right to freedom of speech.

Voluntary Code

Frattini said that the voluntary media code is meant to urge the media to respect all religious sanctities but would not offer privileged status to any specific faith.

He added that the code, however, would not have legal status.

The head of the EU executive body stressed that millions of Muslim in Europe felt humiliated by the Prophet cartoons.

A cohort of Muslim dignitaries and organizations are calling for the enactment of an international law banning the publication of any insults to religious symbols and values.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, the Muslim world's two main political bodies, are seeking a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions following the publication of provocative cartoons.

http://islamonline.net/English/News/2006-02/09/article01.shtml

Rent-A-Riot ABC’s
Amir Taheri


“A blessing from God”: So have Iran’s leaders, starting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, described the controversy over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed. A closer look at the row, however, shows that the whole rigmarole was launched by Sunni-Salafi groups in Europe and Asia, with Ahmadinejad and his Syrian vassal, President Bashar al-Assad, belatedly playing catch-up. God had nothing to do with it.

To see how the whole thing was manufactured to serve precise political ends, consider the chronology of events: The cartoons were published last September and, for more than three months, caused no ripples outside small groups of Salafi militants in Denmark.

In December, a group of Danish Muslim militants filled their suitcases with photocopies of the cartoons and embarked on a tour of Muslim capitals. They failed to get to Tehran: The Iranians, being Shi’ites, saw them as Sunni activists bent on mischief. But they managed to go to Cairo, Damascus and Beirut and, were allowed to send emissaries to Saudi Arabia.

The Danish Muslim group also did something dishonest—it added a number of far more derogatory cartoons of the Prophet to the 12 published by the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, and misled its interlocutors in Muslim capitals into believing that all had appeared in the Danish press.

In Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood told the Danish group that this was not the time to kick a fuss over the cartoons. The brotherhood was busy plotting its election strategy and pretending to be a “moderate” political party. The last thing it wanted was to be branded as a rabid anti-West force… The Danish militants also received a negative reply from Hamas, the Palestinian radical movement. Hamas was busy trying to win a general election and needed to reassure at least part of the Palestinian middle classes…

The emissaries found a more sympathetic audience in Qatar—where the satellite-TV channel Al Jazeera… specializes in inciting Muslims against the West and democracy in general. The channel’s chief Islamist televangelist, Yussuf al-Qaradawi…was all too keen to issue a “fatwa” to light the fuse. He then mobilized his network of Muslim Brotherhood militants in Europe to attack the cartoons and claim, falsely, that images were not allowed in Islam and that the Danish paper had violated “an absolute principle of The Only True Faith.”

Thus the call for Jihad received its supposed “theological” green light… As the first rent-a-mob crowds appeared on global TV screens, Ahmadinejad realized that here was a cow worth milking. For Denmark is set to assume the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council—at the very time that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to refer Iran to the Security Council and demand sanctions. What better, for Tehran's purposes, than to portray Denmark as “an enemy of Islam” and mobilize Muslim sympathy against the Security Council?

Syria was next to jump on the bandwagon, again for mercenary reasons. The [UN] wants Syrian President Bashar al-Assad…for questioning in the murder of Lebanon’s former premier, Rafiq al-Hariri… As with Iran’s nuclear program, the Syrian dossier will reach the Security Council under Danish presidency. To portray Denmark as “an enemy of the Prophet” would not be such a bad thing when the council…points the finger at Assad… as responsible for a series of political murders…

People watching TV news may think that the whole Muslim world is ablaze with righteous rage translated into “spontaneous demonstrations.” The truth is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims, even if offended by cartoons which they have not seen, have stayed away from the street shows put on by the radicals and the Iranian and Syrian security services.

The destruction of Danish and Norwegian embassies and consulates happened in only two places: Damascus and Beirut. Anyone who knows Syria would know that there are no spontaneous demonstrations in that dictatorship… And the Syrian government refused the Norwegian Embassy's request for additional police protection. It was clear that the Syrians wanted the embassies sacked.

The rent-a-mob attacks in Beirut were more cynical. The Syrian Ba’ath—which has been murdering, imprisoning or deporting Sunni-Salafi militants for years—was suddenly transformed from a radical secular and Socialist party into “the Vanguard of the Faith.” The mob that committed the atrocities in Beirut was bused from Syria and consisted of Muslim Brotherhood militants who are never allowed to demonstrate on their own account…

The Danish Muslim gang who lied by adding cartoons that had never been published has done more damage to the Prophet and to Islam than the 12 controversial cartoonists of Jyllands-Posten. The fight between Denmark and its detractors is not between the West and Islam. It is between democracy and a global fascist movement masquerading as religion.