On Insulting Muslims

[El Weirdo]

Yet the point is correct that Muslims need to be able to handle these insults at the intellectual level because despite the anger, the ones paying for the instigation are mostly innocents or locals (property damaged, daily wages affected etc. of locals due to demonstrations that become violent burning, destroying facilities over anger in reaction to actions of some in a distant land) and the reality is that one cannot control what another says.

Im sure there are a few Hundred Million of muslims out of a Billion + who wud like to handle it with their intellect , but the sad part is there are many uneducated muslims , just like any other religion has its share of uneducated fools , who are rather influenced easily by `bollocks of a religious leader`and the western media is just in the waiting of the same... like the cat is always ready to pounce on a rat...

 

[Juice]

More than Jewish jokes or anti-semetism, it's the denial of the holocaust or saying the numbers of dead were fudged which will draw extreme reaction from the Jewish and the west altogether. You will get censored on the media, you will be labeled an extremist, a nazi lover, Muslim radical. Whichever race, religion, color you come from, you would be considered an extremist of that group if you question the holocaust.

I would even go as far as to say the denial of the holocaust is as offensive to the Jewish and those under their financial and social influence as a caricature of prophet Mohammed to muslims.

I have never questioned the holocaust....never thought it was holy...but never questioned it. Was born and lived in Germany...been to Dachau and Mauthausen (niether of which are the "death camps"....though unpleasent). I don't question that 6 million died...I just remember that 20 million Russians did too...and that fighting. I personaly think that they wanted to use jews as slaves...but the propoganda against them led to little being done to keep them alive. The sick and useless were gassed. Not so much a concerted effort to kill...as caring little for your fellow man. And I live in America...and don't follow the party line on the holocaust. Free speech. Known a few jews...they haven't tried to burn down my house for this. I am fully aware that the actions of a few shouldn't paint everyone....but this happens far more often in your culture (more than religion...not happening in Turkey...etc.). Why? And a real reason.

@ Develporeo...."My typo. I meant censured, not censored."
Are you really an English ESL? Most of my friends would not know the difference (of course...many would...but they are nerds)

 

[Supply&Demand]

The basic logic here is:

Muslims can mock all religions. but god forbid, any non-muslim/muslim should say anything about Islam or conduct of muslims, he or she would be lynched to death..

 

[Developereo]

@ Develporeo...."My typo. I meant censured, not censored."
Are you really an English ESL? Most of my friends would not know the difference (of course...many would...but they are nerds)

Some of the best English speakers I know are actually Swedish. In terms of accent, elocution and vocabulary, they would leave most native Anglophones in the dust.

In any case, censored is used much more commonly than censured, which is why I typed it subconsciously, even though I was thinking of the latter.

 

[REHAN NIAZI FALCON]

SEPTEMBER 12, 2012
On Insulting Muslims

This morning, in response to the news that people were killed because someone somewhere made a movie that supposedly insults our Prophet (PBUH), I wrote the following tweet:

I think we need more, not less cartoons and videos that “insult” Muslims. We need once and for all to be desensitized & grow thick skins​

As you might have imagined, I got a few, ehm, colorful responses, many of which by otherwise reasonable people who seemed to have missed the point of the tweet. Considering that this is a sensitive topic, I think the idea deserves a little bit of elaboration.

First, I want to make it clear that I don’t approve of the movie which, judging from the parts I saw online, appears to be tasteless and crass drivel. But the point is not whether the movie is good or bad, tasteless or poignant. The question we all need to ask ourselves as Muslims is: Do people who make movies/cartoons/art that “insult” Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) deserve to die?

To me, the answer to that question is an absolute, unqualified “No”. There are two reasons why every Muslim on this planet should share this opinion. One is based on principles and the other is pragmatic.

The principled position is clear: Nobody deserves to die because of something they said. And certainly nobody deserves to die because of something someone else said. It is true that freedom of speech can be abused, but killing people for their opinion (or silently approving of other people killing them) is not the mark of Islam, a religion which many of its adherents believe was built on persuasion, not subjugation.

The pragmatic reason is that your response is doing more harm to your religion than the “insult” itself. I would never have watched that movie If the angry mobs in Egypt and Libya didn’t kill people because of it. By being angry and killing people you are unwittingly exposing much more people to the object of your wrath.

Imagine you’re driving down the road, and some idiot on the street calls your mother a “*****”. There are two things you can do: You can ignore him and his insult will be lost in the urban noise and concrete jungle. Or, you can park your car, make a scene and kill the guy. This way you guarantee that you’ll be featured in the newspaper the day after, with a couple of reporters investigating whether or not your mom was really a *****, and a columnist swearing that she actually is.

Was the man a jerk for calling your mother a *****? Of course! But it should be obvious to everyone what the right reaction to his insult is.

Hello, my name is Mustapha and I've been writing about Lebanese society, business and politics since February 2005. Subscribe to my feed to stay updated with the latest posts.

Solomon2 note: Click on the article link to view the comments thread.

dear if u don't punish such people , they will keep on Insulting Muslims and their religious sentiments ,
why there is no check on such things , why it is not labelled as media terrorism . why u people only blame Muslims for everything ,
why u people are so biased and irrational in ur approach ,
look when mob is angry , u can expect anything out of it and these incidents are a result of it

 

[OrionHunter]

The Muslim world is up in arms for that idiotic video that insults the Prophet (PBUH). But how come there is only muted reaction to this crass video in Pakistan?

There are huge demonstrations in Pakistan on the so called 'Kashmir Day' every year as well as at regular intervals in Pakistan with Mullahs and militant honchos spewing hatred and outrageous speeches that call for the death of infidels, Kafirs and so on. But how come there's nothing happening there in spite of the extremely insulting and provocative video on the Prophet? It seems raising the heat on Kashmir is more important than a vid that shows Islam in a bad light.

Just politics or hypocrisy?

 

[Solomon2]

my question to the author is that dont the jews need to grow think skins for the holocaust criticism, the topic which jews face is not a very personal question such as religion but a very general topic of the holocaust, attacking muslim's personal belifs and muslims should grow thick skin, while jews dont need to because its about holocaust??

#1: The author of the article is a Lebanese Muslim.

#2: If you're talking about me, then you should know that my grandparents and many other members of my family were killed in the Holocaust.

#3: Denying the Holocaust - are you going to magically bring my relatives back? Of course not, the primary purpose is to deny any feeling of common human empathy with Jews like me for the tragedy and loss we experience.

You're allowed your own opinion, but you're not allowed your own facts. I can deny that Muhammed was a prophet sent by Allah because that's a subjective opinion. You can't deny the Holocaust without also denying objective facts. But even if you do, I'm not going to burn or shoot you for it. As Mustapha points out, nobody deserves to die because of something they said.

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be subject to endless ridicule for doing so.

*

All Pakistani criticism nowadays seems to revolve around the same thing: others must change or act to satisfy Pakistanis, Pakistanis aren't responsible for anything Pakistanis do. Even your foreign minister thinks this way, pointing out that if Indians don't like 26/11, Pakistanis don't like what happened in 1971 - essentially an open-ended assertion that Pakistan today has the right to kill Indians whenever and however it can because India humiliated Pakistan by stopping its army from killing "inferior" East Pakistani Muslims a generation ago.

Mustapha is saying what should by now be obvious to you: this is diseased thinking and Muslims who think this way are damaging their own religion as well as killing others.

 

[anon45]

What people don't understand is that Muslims do not take religion as a joke. It baffles them that for some reason we get offended when someone degrades our religion because they themselves do not take their religions seriously so why should they be expected to respect ours. I saw that video or whatever to and I was pissed probably would've decked the dude as well but killing people is going overboard. Also if the blogger has no problem with someone calling his mom a ***** than I feel bad for his Mama whose son wouldn't even defend her honor. LOL



Forget Hollywood trying saying that on the streets see how fast you get labelled an anti-semetic (in US of course).

If this guy shoved his video in their faces and made them watch it you might have a point that you would probably not be convicted by a jury for decking the guy, but you watched this garbage of your own volition. Some more maturity is expected, especially when it wasn't directed at you personally, just like we dont go out and riot by the thousands and destroy mosques everytime a death to America rally comes up in the middle-east.

Just because some Muslims take their religion seriously doesn't mean we shouldn't be suprised and appalled when they riot and murder over things like these.

There are people that take world of warcraft dead seriously, people who have killed because of things that happened in game.

As a saving grace i've heard of Libyan protests against the death of our Ambassador in Libya, rest assured these acts are not representative of the sentiments of the vast majority of Muslims.

As a ending note, endless criticism of the author's views and his video is fine, in fact its more than fine. A point by point debunking and roast of the video posted on Youtube would be great! These actions would be much smarter and well recieved than what has happened.

 

[MilSpec]

I agree that the Muslim reaction to "insults" is the wrong approach. We need to learn from our Jewish brothers: when you hold 'em by the balls, they won't even think of insulting you in public, regardless of what they may say in private.

Sacha Baron Cohen can be blatantly racist about various ethnicities, but God help anyone who does the reverse. Jewish authors and comedians routinely trash Christianity and Islam, but the reverse would never be tolerated. Danish authorities blabber on about freedom of speech, but when Arabs insult Jews, these very same authorities charge them with inciting racial hatred.

Some, it seems, are more equal than others.

A religion commanding 23% of wold population doesn't need to be so sensitive. Why is it so easy to aggravate Muslims with a cartoon or movie, needs to be addressed.

Yet the point is correct that Muslims need to be able to handle these insults at the intellectual level because despite the anger, the ones paying for the instigation are mostly innocents or locals (property damaged, daily wages affected etc. of locals due to demonstrations that become violent burning, destroying facilities over anger in reaction to actions of some in a distant land) and the reality is that one cannot control what another says.

If you look at People (muslims in this case) in question; all reside in hottest part of the world. I think people living in hot climate in general are easily pissed off. look at the arabs ... More Air conditioners for world peace!!!!

 

[Solomon2]

Those Muslims who still feel like they want to kill someone for having been insulted might want to consider the story of British pornographer and political radical John Wilkes, who personally insulted King George III, to see the route Britain took to its great and lasting benefit.

 

[asad71]

It's not just about this film or this idiot of a pastor or the KKK clan he belongs to. To understand what is troubling us we need to re-read history written by our or independent sources of last 300 years.

 

[angeldust]

Armed Conflict in Muslim Countries, 1946-2010

With the global "War on Terrorism" holding our attention since the infamous 9/11 al Qaeda attacks on the territorial isolation and icons of US global power, interest has often focused on discontent, hosility, and militancy in the "Muslim World." The question arises whether the general trend in armed conflict in the "Muslim World" differs from the trend in the "non-Muslim world."

Figure 15 presents a graphic comparison of armed conflict trends in three subsets of the world's countries: 1) countries with Muslim majorities (red line); 2) countries with substantial Muslim minorities (greater than 5% of the population; green line); and 3) non-Muslim countries (purple dotted line). The Muslim majority countries account for about one-sixth the world's population. The Western democracies of Europe and North America have experienced very little armed conflict, on their territory, during the contemporary period and, so, this subset of countries and global population (about one-sixth) can be discounted from the trends graphs. The other two subsets represented in the graph account for roughly equal portions of the global population (about two-sixths each).

With this in mind, we can see from the graphs that the armed conflict trend for Muslim majority countries (about one-half the population of non-Muslim/non-Western countries) runs at about one-half the magnitude for the non-Muslim countries until the late 1970s, making the two subsets roughly equal in levels of armed conflict during this period. However, the trend in Muslim majority countries increases very sharply in the late 1970s and early 1980s and very quickly surpasses the level for non-Muslim countries (making the Muslim countries about twice as likely as non-Muslim countries to experience armed conflict until about 2001 when this likelihood doubles once again to about four times as likely).

On the other hand, armed conflict in the Muslim minority countries is substantially lower than that in the non-Muslim countries until the late 1980s, even though they are roughly comparable in population. All three trends have diminished in recent years and are now, in 2010, at levels between 75% (non-Muslim), 63% (Muslim minority), and 58% (Muslim majority) lower than their respective peaks. Of particular concern is the divergent, upward trend in armed conflicts in Muslim majority countries in the most recent decade.

http://www.systemicpeace.org/CTfig15.htm

Source: CSP Global Conflict Trends

 

[angeldust]

Current conflicts and wars: Source: http:/www.religioustolerance.org/curr_war.htm

Some of the world’s current “hot spots” which have as their base a significant component of religious intolerance are listed below:

Country and Main religious groups involved


1. Afghanistan Extreme radical Fundamentalist Muslim terrorist groups & non-Muslim Osama bin Laden heads a terrorist group called Al Quada (The Source) whose headquarters were in Afghanistan.

2. Bosnia Serbian Orthodox Christians, Roman Catholic, Muslims

3. Cote d’Ivoire Muslims, Indigenous, Christians

4. Cyprus Christians & Muslims

5. East Timor Christians & Muslims

6. Indonesia, province of Ambon Christians & Muslims

7. Kashmir Hindus and Muslims

8. Kosovo Serbian Orthodox Christians, Muslims

9. Kurdistan Christians, Muslims Assaults on Christians (Protestant, Chaldean Catholic & Assyrian Orthodox). Bombing campaign underway.

10. Macedonia Macedonian Orthodox Christians & Muslims

11. Middle East Jews, Muslims, & Christians

12. Nigeria Christians, Animists, & Muslims

13. Pakistan Suni & Shi’ite Muslims

14. Philippines Christians & Muslims

15. Russia, Chechnya Russian Orthodox Christians, Muslims. The Russian army attacked the breakaway region. Muslims had allegedly blown up buildings in Moscow. Many atrocities have been alleged.

16. Serbia, province of Vojvodina Serbian Orthodox & Roman Catholics

17. Sri Lanka Buddhists & Hindus Tamils

Additional conflicts

19. Thailand: Pattani province: Buddists and Muslims

20. Myanmar: Buddhists and Muslims

21. Bangladesh: Muslim-Hindu (Bengalis) and Buddists (Chakmas)

22. Tajikistan: intra-Islamic conflict

23. Egypt: Coptic Christians and Muslims

24. Persia/Iran: Zoroastrians and Muslims

25. China: Han Chinese and Uigur Muslims

So let us take a breath, pause, and see what we have here:

Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Coptic, Cypriot, and various other nationalities indigenous sects), Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Zoroastrians, Han Chinese.

Is there any religious entity/ethnicity in the world that Islam does not have a conflict with?

 

[Rafael]

The Muslim world is up in arms for that idiotic video that insults the Prophet (PBUH). But how come there is only muted reaction to this crass video in Pakistan?

There are huge demonstrations in Pakistan on the so called 'Kashmir Day' every year as well as at regular intervals in Pakistan with Mullahs and militant honchos spewing hatred and outrageous speeches that call for the death of infidels, Kafirs and so on. But how come there's nothing happening there in spite of the extremely insulting and provocative video on the Prophet? It seems raising the heat on Kashmir is more important than a vid that shows Islam in a bad light.

Just politics or hypocrisy?

There are no 'huge' demonstration on Kashmir day here, not that I have seen. The reason for muted reaction could be that our media has acted sensibly so far and has not sensationalized the issue. The debate here is about 'Why our religious beliefs are mocked by the west' in general rather then discussing this particular video.

 

[Audio]

'Why our religious beliefs are mocked by the west'

I think it has something to do with the statement "Islam is a religion of peace".

And in a broader sense, all religions are being mocked by secularists, it's just Muslims that can't take it.

stuff like this posted on FB wall of one of the worlds most sold out DJ's also doesn't help:

م

Who is Muhammad that is follow
ed by more than one billion Muslims?

هل هو عالم مبجل ومميز ؟

Is he a venerable scientist?

هل هو أمير دولة محبوب

Is he a popular prince?

هل هو رئيس وزراء دولة مُحَـنَّـك ؟

Is he a sophisticated Prime Minister ?

هل هو ملك عادل ؟

Is he a fair king?

الجواب

The answer is
لا
No

أعظم من كل هؤلاء جميعا

He is greater than all of those

إنه رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم

He is the Messenger of Allah

محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم ذلك الشخص الذى جاء منذ أكثر من 1400 سنة

برسالة من الله سبحانه وتعالى

وقال أنه مكلف بنشر هذه الرسالة فى الأرض كلها غير متقيد بزمان أو مكان أو جنس أولون أوشكل
قائلاً أن رسالته هذه آخر رسالات السماء إلى الأرض وأنه خاتم الرسل والأنبياء فلا رسول ولا نبى بعده صلى الله عليه وسلم

Muhammad received the message from Allah 1400 years ago to call all mankind to follow the true path, no matter where or when; no matter if white or black, his message is for all.

His message is the last and the lasting one, no messenger will come after him, he is the last Messenger.

Who is Muhammad?

أهو ذلك الأرهابي الذى يستهزؤن به في الصحف

أم هو الرجل العسكرى المنظم الذي إنتصر فى معظم حروبه على أعدائه.

أم هو العبقري الذي ألف بين قلوب القبائل المتحاربة؟

Is he a terrorist, as said by the Western media, or is he the brave warrior who won most of his battles against the enemies of Islam, or is he the genius who resolved all cases and troubles between the tribes.

إنه من حفظ حقوق الكل

He is the one who protected our Rights.

حفظ حقوق الرجال وحقوق النساء وحقوق الصغار

He protected men's, women's and children rights

حفظ علاقة الجار بجاره

He protected the relations between neighbors

وأسس علاقة المسلمين مع بعضهم ومع غير المسلمين

He established the relationship between Muslims and Non-Muslims .

و نظم العلاقات الأسرية التي تضمن للأب وللأم حقوق كبيرة وعظيمة على أبنائهم

He organized the relationship between the members of the family showing the duties towards the parents

منع الظلم ودعا للعدل و المحبة والتكاتف والتعاون للخير

He prevented injustice and called for justice, love, togetherness and cooperation for the best.

دعا لمساعدة المحتاج وزيارة المريض و التناصح والمحبة

He called for helping the needy, visiting the patients, love and exchanging advises between people.

منع على المسلمين المعاملات السيئة مثل السرقة والغش والقتل والظلم

He prohibited bad manners such as steeling, lying, and murdering .

إنه من غير حياتنا وطباعنا السيئة إلى حسنة

He is the one who changed our lives and manners to the best .

المسلم .. لا يسرق

A Muslim doesn't steal

المسلم لا يكذب

A Muslim doesn't lie

المسلم لا يشرب الخمر

A Muslim doesn't drink alcohol.

المسلم لا يزنى

A Muslim doesn't commit adultery

المسلم لا يغش

A Muslim doesn't cheat

المسلم لا يقتل الأبرياء

A Muslim doesn't kill innocent people

المسلم لا يؤذي جارة

A Muslim doesn't harm his neighbors

المسلم يبر بوالديه و يخدمهما

A Muslim obeys his parents and helps them

المسلم يعطف على الصغار وعلى النساء وعلى الضعفاء وكبار السن

A Muslim is kind to young and elderly people, to women and to weak people.

المسلم لا يعذب البشر ولا الحيوانات

A Muslim doesn't torture humans or even animals

المسلم يرحم ويحب زوجته ويهتم و يعطف عل أبناءه حتى آخر يوم من عمره

A Muslim loves his wife and takes care of his children and show mercy towards them until the last day of his life.

المسلم لا تنتهي علاقته بأولاده بعد سن الرشد أبدا

A Muslim's relationship towards his children never stops even when they become adults

إنه محمد رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم

He is Muhammad (PBUH)

هل عرفتم لماذا يحب كل المسلمون محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم ؟

Did you know why all Muslims love Muhammad (PBUH)?

هل عرفتم ماذا يعنى محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم للمسلمين ؟

Did you know what does Muhammad mean for Muslims?

كل مسلم يحب محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم أكثر من كل شئ

Every Muslim loves Muhammad (peace be upon him) more than himself and more than everything in his life.

قبل أن تقول رأيك أدعوك ان تكون محايد فإذا أردت أن تحكم على شخص فعليك :

1-أن تسمع منه هو شخصيا ، أنت تستمع الي أحاديثه ، ان تتبع أعماله .

2-تقارن الأفكار التي يدعو لها مع المنطق الذى يقبله العقل السليم

3- فاذا أقررت منطقه أنظر إلى فعله هل فعله مطابق لكلامه؟

4-ان كان فعله مطابق لكلامه فما عليك إلا تصديقه

وفي النهاية سوف تجيب بنفسك على هذه الأسئلة المحيرة:

من هو محمد

Before judging a person be neutral and:

1-Listen to this person, and follow his doings.

2-Compare his ideas and teachings with what is acceptable to the mind and heart.

3-If you think that his thoughts are right, compare them with his doings; is he applying his teachings?

4-If he is applying his teachings and sayings, so he is for sure right and one must believe him.

At the end you will get a clear answer for all confusing questions and you will know for sure :

who Muhammad really is

Tell me from the bottom of your heart if this dribble above belongs as a reply to trying to promote your newest song?
Would you not mock, if i posted some Christian verses on the FB of >insert popular Pakistani artist< when he/she tries to promote his/hers new work.
Would you not call me dumb, insane, out of touch with reality?

I'd call it spam in the best case scenario, in the worst it would be just religious propaganda, no different from Jehova's witnesses who go from door to door and try to sell their books and peddle their shit.

You guys are stuck, thats why the mockery.