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DEALING WITH VILE CARTOONS

 

Perversion in Europe?

Charlie Hebdo is a French satirical newspaper and its cartoons represent a certain, virulently racist brand of French xenophobia. What they publish are intentionally anti-Islam and  incredibly racist. They provoke France's incredibly marginalized, often attacked, Muslim immigrant community. As Vox said, white men punching down is not a recipe for good satire, and needs to be called out. Hook-nosed Muslim caricatures and turbaned wretches are published for no purpose beyond antagonizing Muslims in a country where Muslims are a poor and harassed minority. A community maligned by a growing ultra nationalist movement that has used liberal values like secularism and free speech to expout bigotry.

Blasphemous, mocking religious images cause pain in marginalized communities. The murders in Paris and the widening perverse conflict between extremists, Islamophobes, and provocateurs are happening in Europe awaiting a terrible outcome. Racist and Islamophobic attitudes are a huge problem in the everyday lives of Europe's Muslim population. Mainstream parties are co-opting Far right agendas. European Muslims are pushed between the actions of a tiny group of terrorists and the prejudicial response of the European majority.

Google, The Guardian and France's government has pledged millions of Euros for Charlie Hebdo. This encourages and promises cover for anti-Muslim backlash. But free speech is not supposed to have to cheer everything said. Racist cartoons should not be published. There has to be politeness and common human decency advocating intelligence, reason and civility. It is a matter of recognizing the morally correct path to tread and the prudent path to follow. The cartoons and the Danish ones that preceded it are hardly worthy as they offer little ideas of value, scoffing instead of debate, and nobody should have been killed over those cartoons.

How does the Muslim respond?

Many irresponsible societal leaders and many in the media continue to disrespect and ridicule Islam, Muslims and even the Prophet that seem to be intended only to hurt the feelings of the Muslims. No one can doubt that images and stereotypes presented in the media are very powerful. Those who engage in the practice of defaming Islam or the Prophet have claimed that they are simply exercising their rights of freedom of speech.  Within a certain Western framework, their argument is that law protects life and property but need not protect  feelings or personal dignity.

Many Non-Muslims feel that there is something unacceptable in Islam and it is be expected that they would have thoughts that Muslims would not share. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) himself debated with Non Muslims and even after discussions with the Prophet  himself they remained true to their own faiths. Thus, no one, Muslim or otherwise, should be surprised if a non-Muslim has a lesser opinion of Islam than a Muslim has.

Here it is vital to distinguish between defamation versus critique. The objection is not to non-Muslims expressing their view on Islam or its symbols if what they state is sincere and rational. In reality, such discussions are best for Islam and provide opportunities for Muslims to clarify, because, to this day, most of the people in the West have distorted views of Islam. This may reduce the tension and discord that exists between non-Muslims and Muslims. One can respond to rational arguments with an honest and straightforward rational discussion. However, there is no real response to something that is meant only to ridicule, insult or harm.

Jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr  said "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre. . ." and "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Morally as said by Jamaal al-Deen Zarabozo, it means My freedom of speech ends where your personal dignity begins.

Muslims are indeed upset and deeply distraught by the ridicule and mockery of their beloved Prophet (peace and blessings Allah be upon him). In a world of unbelief, many may not know how connected and how close the Muslim community and the faithful are  to their Prophet. Whenever the Prophet is slandered and insulted, the faithful are profoundly hurt and troubled. The faithful are then being made to apologise and atone by what are obviously hypocritical actions and of double standards. It is as if Islam and Muslims who have to be accountable and to pay for the terrible wars, insecurity and terrorism existing in the turbulent world today.

Ridicule, mockery and hatred of Islam's message and messengers are not new in human history. Some make mockery because they detest truth; some because of money and some because of politics  or other vested interests. The Qur'an says that the response of the Prophets was always patience. They faced off the challenges by increased devotion to Allah and they responded in calm, cool and calculated manner. Finally the enemies were defeated and truth prevailed.

As Allah the Almighty reassured the Prophet in the Qur'an, We do indeed know how thy heart is distressed at what they say. 15:97

In essence Allah says, We have spared you those who ridicule you. So do not take matters in your own hands, rather, God will take care of those who mock the Prophet  which is exactly the issue that we are dealing with today.

The Qur'an enjoins to dismiss the people of ignorance and not to give a lot of attention to them.  It asks not to engage with them in any conversation. On the other hand,  the Qur'an encourages to engage with the people of reason and to debate them if they have a different point of view:

Call people to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good teaching, and argue with them in the most courteous way [16:125]

Islam encourages debate and healthy arguments.  But people who mock a religions are not interested in engaging debate and so they resort to mockery.

Respect

Do not revile those they call on beside God, so they, in their hostility, revile God, without knowledge [6:108]

Reviling, insulting, or cursing other religions  is prohibited because in turn it is  causing  one's religion to be reviled, insulted or cursed.  No matter how much it is disagreed with them, one cannot mock, insult, or curse idols, idolaters, or idol-worship.  There are always consequences to these actions.  Just like one holds religious symbols very dear to one's hearts and consider them holy or untouchable, people of other faiths will feel the same towards their religious symbols, no matter how ridiculous those symbols may seem to be.  There should be mutual respect for religious symbols in order to live together in a civilized manner. People should respectfully disagree.

Like the people of ignorance in the past, today those who pride themselves to be civilized have lost this treasure trove of how to deal with each other's religious symbols and sacred things. It is important that Muslims respect their own religious symbols as well those of others and also keep reminding humanity about this noble etiquette.

Islam a Mercy and Blessing for Mankind

After studying the history of the Prophet's life, we come to the conclusion that if Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was alive today he would not respond to these mockery and defamation except in the same calm manner that he responded in the past. This is because of his great and noble personality. Surely the Prophet would not accept the reaction of agitated Muslims, who attempt to defend his honour, by causing the injury and killing of innocents and damaging property. (Mohamed Baianonie, Friday Sermon in Raleigh USA)

The mockery of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) does not lessen him in anyway from his noble position in the sight of Allah or the ummah. Allah Almighty is the One who raised him to his position and stature in this life and the Hereafter. The Prophet's name is oft repeated in the testimony of faith - Shahaddah. Blessings and salutations shower upon the Prophet whenever his name is mentioned.

The mockery of the Prophet is a test from Allah Almighty for Muslims. Will they react in the proper way by controlling emotions and anger, or will they overreact and commit mistakes?

The proper way would be to:-

• ·         Learn and study the personality and biography of the Prophet Muhammad, his sayings and actions, and  teach it to their children, to the Muslims, and non-Muslims.
• ·         Live their lives and make him the best example in all aspects of religious and worldly lives.
• ·         Strengthen belief in him and believe in what he conveyed  from his Lord and obey him in all his commands.
• ·         Truly love him deeply from their hearts; a love that is more special and stronger than love for wealth, self, families, and all other people.
• ·         Truly carry his message and convey it to all of mankind until it becomes a mercy for them as Allah Almighty wants it to be.
• ·         Truly honour him by invoking our prayers, blessings, and salutations on him.

Learning and Following the Footsteps of The Prophet from the Pages of his Biography

When the Quraysh in Mecca persecuted the Prophet, he sought assistance from the tribe of Thaqif. He was hopeful that they would accept Islam. He went to the hilltown of At-Ta'if and approached a group of the leaders. He sat down with them, and called them to Islam. However, they received him in a very disrespectful manner. Their harshness and ugly words took him utterly by surprise.

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then asked them, at very least, not to inform the Quraysh of his visit, but they refused. They then stirred up their slaves and children against him, and ordered them to curse and shout at him. They threw stones at him until his feet bled. The Prophet eventually reached a garden and after resting under a shade of a tree supplicated to Allah Almighty with great humility:

"O Allah it is to You that I bring my weakness, my helplessness, and my humiliation. O Most Merciful of the merciful, You are the Sustainer of those who are deemed weak, and You are my Sustainer. On whom but You shall I rely? On some distant personage who regards me with displeasure? Or on a foe to whom I have surrendered? So long as You are not displeased with me, then I have no cause for dismay. I take refuge in the light of Your face by which the darkness is illuminated, and in which both this world and the next are set aright. The well-being which You bestow upon me is too all encompassing for You to pour out Your wrath or displeasure upon me. To You I shall continue to turn until I have won Your favour, and there is no power or strength except in You."

The angel Gabriel appeared calling to the Prophet saying, "Allah Almighty has heard the words spoken to you by your people and the manner in which they responded to you. Moreover, He has sent you the angel of the mountains, for you to give him whatever command you so desire."

Then the angel of the mountains called out to the Prophet with a greeting of peace, saying, "O Muhammad, Allah has heard the words spoken to you by your people, and I am the angel of the mountains. You Lord has sent me to you, for you to give me whatever command you wish. What then do you command?  If you want me to bring the two great mountains of Mecca down upon them, I will do so."

But the Prophet said, "All I wish is for Allah to bring forth from their offspring those who worship Allah alone and associate no partners with Him."

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) always used to supplicate to Allah Almighty by saying, "O' Allah forgive my people because they do not know."

The response of Muslims is by educating and re-educating themselves, their children, Muslims, and non-Muslims about Islam and the true life of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him). It will be the greatest benefit to all mankind.

Sources:

Mohamed Baianonie, Friday Sermon, Islamic Center of Raleigh, NC

Anas Hlayhel,  muslimmatters.org

Jamaal al-Deen Zarabozo, islamicawakening.com

Dr Muzammil H. Siddiqi, ISOC Friday Sermon

SLATE

VOX

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Israel encourages frightened French Jews to make a move
("PRI," January 12, 2015)

If you want to immigrate to most foreign countries, you practically have to beg. You go to the embassy, fill out forms and hope to get lucky.

But for French Jews in Paris, less than a week after the attack on a kosher supermarket, it was the other way around.

Nine government representatives flew in from Israel, set up a public expo and tried to encourage Jews to move to the Jewish state. One of the representatives took out her cell phone and crunched the numbers for an elderly couple: How much money would Israel give them if they made the move? About $7,545 for the first year.

Irene Douieb, a Parisian woman in a flowing black fur coat, listens to the sales pitch, but she doesn't need much convincing. "I'm very worried about what's happening," she says. She's worried about her children and her grandchildren, and she wants them to go to Israel with her.

Douieb's worries are years in the making. In 2012, a French man of Algerian descent gunned down four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Another French national of Algerian descent is suspected of shooting four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last year.

2014 marked the first year that more Jews moved to Israel from France than from any other country — 7,000 of them. Israeli authorities are expecting another 10,000 from France this year.

"I'm telling the people that Israel is their home, and we would like them to come and live in Israel," says Shay Felber of the Jewish Agency, a semigovernmental organization that encourages Jewish immigration. Felber flew to Paris this week to meet with Jews here. "We're also telling them they should come to Israel because they choose to, not because they are afraid."

But there's no ignoring the fear after last week's attack, and Israeli officials have very publically responded to that fear — as if the attack happened on Israeli soil. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel's Mossad spy agency to assist French authorities in securing Jewish institutions in France, and the Jewish victims of the attack are all being brought to Israel for a state burial in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu also attended a vigil on Sunday in Paris at the Great Synagogue, which canceled Friday night services for the first time since the World War II.

Netanyahu told French Jews that Israel was their home, but the issue of what constitutes "home" is the core of the dilemma for Jews here. The crowds greeted Netanyahu at the synagogue by chanting his nickname, Bibi. But when he finished, the crowds broke out singing the Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

French Jews may love Israel, but they love France, too. Even when Jews leave France for the balmy climes of the Middle East, many still can't part with their fancy French fur coats. Myriam, a Parisian Jew whom I met outside the synagogue — she asked that we not use her last name out of fear — says she doesn't think she'll move to Israel. She loves her city and she loves her country.

But she admits something here has changed. "It's not like we will leave France," she says. "But in a certain way, France has left me. They've just left me."

Teaching Islam's 'Forgotten' Side as Germany Changes
Alison Smale ("The New York Times," January 9, 2015)

Münster, Germany — At a time of fear and loathing for Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe, Mouhanad Khorchide, professor of Islamic pedagogy at the venerable university in this town near the Dutch border, preaches and teaches a course of tolerance and understanding.

Even before the deadly terrorist attack this week in Paris, thousands of Germans were marching against what they fear is the "Islamization" of Europe. Across the Continent, populists have seized on Islam, and on Muslim immigrants, as the embodiment of their fears of change and a world in turmoil.

Since being awarded a professorship at the University of Münster in 2010, Mr. Khorchide (pronounced kor-SHEED) has emerged as part of Germany's effort to offer an alternative both to those who criticize and fear Islam and to Muslims seeking to practice their religion without extremes.

His courses are intended to groom some of the thousands of teachers needed as Germany's 16 states gradually shift to teaching Islam in primary and eventually secondary schools, putting it on par with the Christian and Jewish faiths.

That role in creating what Mr. Khorchide calls multiplicators, the teachers and social workers of the future, initially stirred fierce opposition from powerful German Muslim associations that, he said, were suspicious both of his teachings and of his very public persona.

He teaches, for instance, that "since the ninth century, the spirit of the Muslim world has been restrictive" — and that "the relationship between God and the individual is a loving one," which he said shocked Muslims "raised only to fear God." His book, published so far in Arabic and German and as an e-book in English, bears the title "Islam Is Mercy."

Mr. Khorchide has been interviewed several times by leading news outlets and has been visited and lauded by, among others, Germany's president and Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He said that visiting scholars from Cairo had told him: "We need you, not you us. For you are posing new questions and looking for new answers."

SOFT-SPOKEN at 43, favoring modish black attire, the professor slipped barely noticed into a lecture hall one recent morning. His ensuing discourse on Islamic law schools of the eighth and ninth centuries featured a questioning approach and simplicity of language still unusual in Germany's rather formal academia.

In an hourlong conversation afterward, he fluently dissected the position of Germany's estimated four million Muslims.

Most of them, if they study their religion at all, learn by rote at mosques or in private classes offered by imams often trained in Turkey or in Arab nations. Mr. Khorchide — a Palestinian who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Saudi Arabia before studying in Lebanon and Austria — tries to offer Muslims what he calls "an 'aha!' moment" in practicing their faith.

"Without shocking them, but taking them along, getting them into the boat to take part in this journey, so that they consider, 'How can I really understand Islam?'" he explained. "Here, they see: 'I can ask questions; in fact, I should ask questions. Just regurgitating what the professor says is not wanted.' "

Continue reading the main story

This questioning was something Mr. Khorchide discovered for himself once he enrolled at the University of Vienna to study medicine.

His father, an electrical engineer, and his mother, a teacher in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, instilled in their children that, as Palestinian refugees, they had to get a university education. "My mother always said, 'Your capital, it's your degree,' " he recalled.

With foreigners not permitted to enroll at Saudi universities, he said, his parents looked elsewhere, lighting on Germany. But "back then, it was not so easy to get a visa," he said, and so he and his brother went to Austria instead.

There, he said, he discovered that he "just was not interested at all in medicine."

"It was so uncreative, learning stuff in Latin by heart," he said. "You could not produce thoughts." He switched swiftly in 2000 to sociology and graduated with a master's degree in 2007. Simultaneously, he studied Islamic theology in Lebanon, graduating in 2004. He prepared Muslim students in Vienna to be teachers, then brought that skill to Münster.

IN his lecture, the long conversation and a telephone call after the shootings on Wednesday at the office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Mr. Khorchide was calm and optimistic, delivering insight with a Viennese lilt in his German.

He expressed fear that extremists on both sides would try to use the attack for their own ends. "The Muslim extremists will say, 'Oh, look how strong and mighty we are,' " he said, "while those who fear Islam will say, 'See, that is what Islam is, and what we were warning about all along.' "

He said he expected more attacks, but also more questioning from Muslims. "Such events force us to discuss openly about theological positions," he said. "It is too simple to say, 'No, no, that has nothing to do with Islam.' These people," he added of jihadists, "are referring to the Quran, and we must confront these passages in the Quran."

His students, he said, were angry after the Paris shootings. In part, they were upset with Muslim extremists seeking to please what they consider a false idol. But they were also resentful that now "they must justify themselves: 'We are peaceful,' " he said. "And this constant justifying and defending oneself is annoying."

Europe's populist current "whips up fears where no fears exist," Mr. Khorchide said. "For instance, the Islamization of Europe: Demographic data shows that this is a fantasy."

Furthermore, he noted, Muslim children born in Europe now tend to adopt its ways, the tiny minority who go off to fight in Iraq and Syria notwithstanding.

Most Muslims in Germany are working class, initially invited in the 1960s and 1970s as "guest laborers" who would one day go home. Many did not, and their families followed them here. And while for that first generation, " 'back home' still means Turkey or North Africa," Mr. Khorchide said, the second generation "is at home here" and expects to be treated as such.

But, he added, "the problem we still have here is 'we' and 'you': 'We Germans, and you Muslims.' "

In turn, young Muslims are identifying more strongly with their religion, Mr. Khorchide said, citing the growing number of young women wearing head scarves "as an act of solidarity with their sisters in faith," or the young men he met while doing research for his master's degree in Vienna.

"They would say, 'Islam is really important for me,' but they had just dealt drugs," he recalled. "They had a Quran in their backpack and said, 'With the Quran, I am strong.' But if you asked whether they had read it or knew what it contained, they said no."

"I call this a hollow religiosity," he added, like "the thin and fragile peel" of a fruit.

In Germany, Mr. Khorchide said, it is particularly easy for migrants to fail.

The education system streams pupils on after only four years in primary school. Many migrant children, lacking language skills, fall into basic secondary schools, with almost no shot at better schools or college. As a result, they feel cast out and worthless.

By contrast, extremist groups offer the meaning of serving God, even eventually by martyrdom, and a new power to decide over life and death by waging jihad, Mr. Khorchide said.

The extremists "make an alleged strength out of total impotence," he said.

In his fight with Germany's Muslim establishment, Mr. Khorchide won crucial backing in 2014 from three Christian theologians, who picked apart a Muslim critique and defended his writings.

"He tries to point to a side of Islam that has been forgotten," one of those theologians, the Roman Catholic academic Bernhard Uhde, who teaches at the University of Freiburg, said by telephone. "And that is the friendly, tolerant side."

Mr. Khorchide, who is married with a 15-year-old son, is hopeful. "I see that more and more Muslims are being enlightened about their own faith," he said. "I think that will lead to a changed picture of Islam."

Mississippi Lawmakers Want To Make The Bible The State Book
Emily Wagster Pettus ("The Huffington Post," January 13, 2015)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is the birthplace of William Faulkner, Richard Wright and recent U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey. However, some lawmakers say they want to look beyond the secular literary world and designate the Bible as the state book.

At least two bills are being filed during this state election year to make the holy book a state symbol.

One is from Republican Rep. Tracy Arnold of Booneville, who is the pastor of a nondenominational Christian church. The other is from Democratic Reps. Tom Miles of Forest and Michael Evans of Preston, who say they have promises of bipartisan support from more than 20 colleagues.

Miles told The Associated Press on Monday he's not trying to force religion — or even reading — on anyone.

"The Bible provides a good role model on how to treat people," Miles said. "They could read in there about love and compassion."

Lawmakers say designating the Bible as the state book would be completely symbolic and nobody would be required to read it. Furthermore, Miles' version would not specify a particular translation.

Mississippi lawmakers over the years have designated several other symbols, including the teddy bear as the state toy and milk as the state beverage. The teddy bear was named for President Theodore Roosevelt after he refused to shoot a bear tied to a tree while hunting in Mississippi.

In 2014, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed a law that adds "In God We Trust" to the state seal. Legislators also begin each work day with a prayer over the microphone at the front of the House and Senate chambers, frequently with references to Jesus.

It's unlikely the proposal will generate much opposition in the Legislature this election year, unless House and Senate leaders decide they don't want to spend time on symbols.

Larry Wells — whose late wife, Dean Faulkner Wells, was William Faulkner's niece — said Monday that if Mississippi lawmakers feel compelled to designate a state book, they should draw on the state's native talent.

"It's impossible to conceive of a state abandoning its literary heritage like that," said Wells, director of a small publishing house in Oxford, Yoknapatawpha Press. "What would Faulkner and (Eudora) Welty and Shelby Foote and Richard Wright think? I think they would collectively link arms and say, 'Go back to kindergarten, Legislature.'"

http://wwrn.org/articles/43709/