Saturday, February 04, 2006

BBC Hardtalk – Mohammed Cartoons

In todays BBC Hardtalk there was a interview on controversy surrounding the Mohammed Cartoons. The interview was between Iman Ahmed Abu Laban the Muslim leader that sent delegates to Muslim countries to pressure the Danish Newspapers and Flemming Rose the journalist that commissioned the cartoons.

The following points were discussed in BBC Hardtalk on the Mohammed Cartoons

Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist are deeply offensive, but so is the violent reaction to the drawings from Islamic extremists

Many Muslims consider it blasphemous to illustrate Muhammad in any manner, to prevent idolatry but in the shia faith its okay to illustrate Mohammed

Danish Journalism has a tradition of satire where Flemming Rose has published a cartoon depicting Sharon as a child killer and Arab Press is full of anti sementic cartoons. The cartoon with the pigs head was not from the danish paper

Issue of publishing the cartoon was to open up the issue of self censorship and freedom of speech. By publishing cartoons the danish papers are treating muslims the the same as everybody else. Open up the debate in respect freedom of speech or freedom of religion

Iman Laban stoked up the flames by getting other muslim countries to act on the cartoon as he was not getting anyware with his complaints in Denmark. The Iman told arab countries that he would welcome boycott Danish goods

Iman stated that any act of violence is counter productive to the issue as they have enough patience to wait out this debate.

What the Iman was trying to clarify in sending delegations to Muslim countries was should the response be on tradition or be a Religious obligation

When Flemming goes to a the mosque he respects muslims and the issue is of what type of behaviour is accepted in public space. Like in public space if you took account account all views then it would be a nasty place to live in. He cant see a limit of when cartoons can be offensive.


My take on the Mohammed Cartoons debate.

The killing of the danish filmaker has pushed this issue to the forefront. The danish people are reacting to having their percieved freedoms threatened.

I am into indigenous rights so when you go to someone elses house you should respect their rights. But in that veign the homeowner should know something about the guest before before inviting a guest into their house. Example is if I invite a vegetairan to my house for dinner it would be insulting to the guest if serve him/her steak.

Cartoons are usually offensive to someone the issue is when the cartoon breaks the societies parameters of decency e.g In western worlds its usually sexual

Offensive christian cartoons and art have been occurring in western world and there has been outrage, but the acts of outrage is not worse then the offense. On TV I have been seeing protesters saying down with freedom and placards saying kill the people that insult islam!!!.

In my experience, for the more devout religous people the religious bonds are stronger then racial and even family bonds. So an offensive religious comment will effect them more.

Around a third of my staff are Muslim and are all Sunnis. Before this incident I can't remember seeing an image of Mohammed. Interesting that in december only 13,000 people searched in the internet for the word Mohammed and 3,000 for the word muhammed. To me it shows that even looking for information on the internet for the prophet Mohammed is Tabu.

We live in a global village so I understand why Iman sent delegations to other countries for assistance, if he wasn't able to solve the problem in Denmark.

This issue will push the Danish people more to the right.

The issue reminds me of when looking after kids, the kid that throws the biggest tantrum is given more special treatment to the detriment of the other kids.

1 Comments:

Blogger person said...

I really was upset about the cartoons. Why make such cartoons when they are infactual and false?

If people really read about the prophet peace be upon him they would realise he was a mercy to mankind.

Moreover, as Muslims we aren't allowed to draw pictures of Prophets, furthermore, we aren't meant to disrespect someone elses religion. We respect all prophets, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, so why not respect our dear Prophet?

10:39 pm  

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