Of Clouds and Silver Linings : Thank you Jyllands -Posten ...

'Every cloud has a silver lining' ! The same goes with the Danish caricatures re. Islam, Muslim but most of all Prophet Muhammad ( hattip Mad Canuck ).

Are you shocked ? well don't be and allow me to explain why...after all I did promise to weigh in at least one more time on this subject.

Following a week of controversy, anger, questions, diplomatic, embroglio, protests, deaths, childish behaviour, threats and so much more , we have OD-ed on this topic. I think the most shocked are probably the Danes as they seem not to know what hit them. I'm really sorry guys that you had your baptism of fire so to speak (no offense meant) in such a way, though I deplore the torching of embassies and such I think you are extremely lucky that so far only Muslims died accross the world.

However, there seems to be a misconceptions at the root of all this, as I mentioned my first post on this sorry issue , the Western world seems to think that Muslims are offended because the Prophet was represented despite a religious edit which prohibits this action. I hate to repeat myself again and state that although this could be technically correct it is not true especially in light of the 'sudden' revelation that an Egyptian paper had already printed the cartoons in October 2005 in an attempt to demonstrate how negative the portrayal by Europeans was of Muslims and their beloved Prophet ( Kudos to Freedom For Egypt and Sandmonkey).

I'll elaborate some more but I need to take this in baby steps. First do check a letter by Safia Libyan Muslim in Denmark ( which I found on Khadijateri's blog), excerpts : " I followed the issue from its very start in September 2005; a loony communist writer proposed to fill a wagon with qurans, then shed some menstruation blood on it (his name is Kare Bluitgen) - he declared he wanted to irritate Muslims for fun (he called it ART!)Nobody took him serious and he was ignored for a while. Then suddenly he declared he wanted to make a comic book about the life of our Prophet Muhammed (SAAS). He could not get anyone to draw the book, though. That started a discussion in the newspapers about why no one would draw the comic - Bluitgen claimed that Muslims had intimidated artists from working on the book. When journalist ridiculed him, he suggested to bring some comic drawings in the media to "test" the reaction of the Muslim community. The rest is history... " . She does not feel comfortable anymore and has made plans for an eventual return to Libya.

For all the talk about 'press freedom that we have been deafened with, and also the controversy brought up in the comment section about the Holocaust and it being an off limit topic to European ( and western) journalism and press and anyone in this world and it being IRRELEVANT to freedom of the press , I must wonder about this other anectode then and I quote "The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny". ( courtesy of The Guardian). That just makes my antennaes twich why the double standards dear folks at the Jyllands- Posten ?

I still maintain that as published by Jyllands-Posten and then deliberately reprinted by several European papers and taken further by bloggers and even American pundits ( Thank you Mad Canuck again for putting Michelle Malkin in my path ), the intent was and remains to hurt Muslims in an attempt to shake off the very real collective subonscious fear of Islam. My position also remains unchanged that the Muslim world had the right to be offended and seek retribution in a CIVILIZED manner as per the original principles of Islam and not what has been done in its name during the last week.


Moreover, I have personally seen and read about these cartoon on a French website back in September 2005, and did not think they were newsworthy or deserved to give them any publicity of credit ( because that is what their owner wanted ). This had opened my eyes from the illusion I had about Denmark, I knew that there was racial problems in France and Germany but did not really worry about Denmark. Now in my eyes all of Europe will be lumped toghether in this same pot - Islam haters at a deeper level than I thought. This sounds so radical does it not - although I am striving to keep an open mind - this is just my gut feeling at the moment. I know it is not true, as I have lived in Europe for years and tons of my friends are Europeans, also I've seen the genuine responses and feelings from Europeans on this blog and on other ME blogs and can evaluate their lovely emotions and sincere questions. I don't, won't and can't blame the European or the West. Why ? because this mess is our own.

The issues are beyond being a devout Muslim, the real issue rests in the fact that many Muslims have lost touch with Islam, the real Islam ( but that is not the problem of the West and none of their business, it's the Muslim's to work out on their own). The Muslims however are aware of their deficiency and some are looking for a way out of it. This to me explains why the Egyptians did not rise and riot when the Danish caricature were published in their own press - because simply not enough people from the easily influenced simple mob read about them. You can ask the Sandmonkey himself :) , who reads the papers in Egypt ? Is the thrashing threatening mob even litterate ? So the cartoons in Egypt newspapers passed beningnely because only a few thousand literrate people read that Al Fagr issue and understood the implications, which in their opinion ( and mine) would not warrant a boycott of Egypt or that particular paper precisely because it has OPENED their eyes to what for example Jylland Posten thought about Islam ( I'm not going to insult the Danes and say they all think this way). I believe that those Egyptians who read Al-Fagr were satisfied that it exposed this issue. Their sense of offense if any would be towards the Danish paper and NOT their own paper who was doing them a FAVOUR by reporting on this. So I disagree with Sandmonkey when he states that 'and not a single squeak of outrage was present' . SM, the outrage was already expressed by the paper. It is elementary. It would have been the cue for the Egyptian civil society then to move on with steps to make known its outrage overseas, if they they thought they were offended Not doing so was a big mistake. My only excuse to justify their inaction is that we have been used over the decades to being the recipients of abuse and offense from the West for a variety of reasons, and one more cartoon about Islam only comes to increase that list. What many of us Arabs are not used to is how to go and complain and write to your mayor, senator or whatever to stand up for your own rights. The 'ignorant' mob whose only fault is a love of the prophet was blissfully unaware.

However, the Danish Muslims, who were raised in a 'democratic' country knew better, and when they did not get the response they wanted from the Danish governement they went to seek the support of good old Saudi Arabia, because they know how influential that would be. I think they did not calculate this hysterical backlash, but only were thinking about getting some cash and maybe diplomatic pressure, and so they stuffed their file to make their case better. Due to the respect and love that Mecca and Medina hold in the hearts of Muslims everywhere, any crazy utterance which comes from a Saudi official would be taken seriously by ordinary Muslims. and extremists alike because half baked knowledge is more dangerous then ignorance. That needs to be changed by the way - as the Saudis ( not the populace) don't necessarily have the welfare of the Muslim world on their mind .

The culprits in this standoff are, in addition to the staff of Jylland Posten -who knew what they were doing- the Danish Muslims who went to fan this thing, which was then taken advertised with the petrodollars and that's how the Muslim street FINALLY heard about it and how the extremist exploited the Muslims mobs gullibility. What surprises the Muslim though is the matter of the boycott and that it worked. Though I agree that they were offended and hurt, I will confidently say that the larger part of the hurt was that they realised this was not a simple cartoon , that this was a calculated and deliberate bomb in their face, that is why they went bersek because Islam has replaced nationalism, Islam has become Islamic nationalism- does it make sense? It is equivalent to what many of you have been stating in the comment section that you feel hurt when you flag was burnt that is nationalism right ? Islam has become for many THE nation, and stirs deep feelings of nationalism, enough to go to war. Again it does not in any way excuse the torching of embassies or the death threats.

From the images on the Associated Press ( which are 481 up to now) we notice that the only ones bearing OFFENSIVE and THREATENING messages comes from those staged by our dear Muslims brothers in London ( and yes I am sarcastic when I say dear). Because dressing up as a suicide bomber to protest is not a bright idea especially in London; I'm glad the lunatic drug dealer was arrested. Now why was I being a tad sarcastic about our dear brothers in London? because although I don't wish to lay blame on others I would like to say that this whole mess was started by democratised Muslims in Europe ( of course let's not forget that is was after ample provocation by the free press) . Those Muslims in Europe ( the unsettled ones) have a different set of problems then the Muslims in the ME, they have not integrated, they have their own culture within a culture ( not just Islamic culture) and mix up a lot of things in the name of Islam including extremist feelings. I can understand the feelings of the Syrian protesters burning flags and even attacking an embassy, but not those cool placard carrying London Muslims whose messages were chilling. I've said it on many occasions but our Muslim non Arab brothers and particularly our Asian ones are a big problem ! We already have enough problem for a million lifetimes. So being caught between the anvil of the Asian Muslim extremists and the sledgehammer of the Saudi fundies is a nightmare of gigantic proportions. In addition the Western zealots are not a great help either :) if I may say so.

I must agree with Sandmonkey on this though "Now while the arab islamic population was going crazy over the outrage created by their government's media over these cartoons, their governments was benifitting from its people's distraction. The Saudi royal Family used it to distract its people from the outrage over the Hajj stampede. The Jordanian government used it to distract its people from their new minimum wage law demanded by their labor unions. The Syrian Government used it to create secterian division in Lebanon and change the focus on the Harriri murder. And, finally, the Egyptian government is using it to distract us while it passes through the new Judiciary reforms and Social Security Bill- which will cut over $300 million dollars in benefits to some of Egypt's poorest families".

And so I'm glad that the Libyan people from two measly lone staged protests here and here , and an initiative to boycott Danish products which we don't have that many anyway, have been largely reasonable about this whole process. Plus we only had 2 emails circulating and NO text messages yet ! Ok I'm not forgetting the decision to close the embassy but we already discussed that before right ? Anyway Libya has been more engrossed in the African mini-summit taking place here to try to diffuse the situation between Sudan and Chad, and which resulted in this declaration. On the whole things were pretty reasonable here :).


'Lo Allah Changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts' [Qur'an :Verse 10 Sura 13- Picktall translation 1997 , p .217].

In other words , only by taking their destiny into their own hands could Muslims ( or any freedom seeking people ) solve their problems and restore their dignity. This should be done by going back to pristine Islam and its pure principles and at the same time using all the tools of modern civil society provided to us by the West. I don't see any harm in that we have given to the world civilization, it is our turn to take from it to grow once again into a brilliant community- it's not like we lack the potential for that.

I'll conclude by a glimpse of what other Libyan bloggers said on this and which was not posted by me before :

Khadijateri : "while I don't believe that it's right to insult anyone's religious beliefs, I do believe that people should have the freedom to express themselves. Or to attend, or not attend a demonstration".

Tyenness: "I mean, if some freakish individuals feel this inescapable urge to prance around making faces and 'nanana' ing kindergarten fashion…well, let them. I don't see how anyone could take offense at something so pathetic.Abu Laban, the Danish Imam who first decided to make such an issue out of this, just exemplifies the extremist idiots jumping on the bandwagon. ".

Hanu: who linked to a great article "the clash to end all clashes" , and who also said "The thing was blown way out of proportion and was kept on the spotlight longer than it deserved".

The most graceful post and subtle post I've seen spawned by this issue must go though to Nura, who simply quoted from 'The Sunna of the beloved ' a book Dr. Khaled abu el-Fadl , a distinguished brilliant American lawyer and Islamic thinker, commissioned by President Bush.

Excerpts: " Permit me my Prophet, my own beloved Prophet, to tell you that I do not know you from the majestic debates of this Conference, I do not know you from the learned lectures of teachers, or from some infatuated delusional dream. No, I do not know you from the books full of sayings you reportedly said, and I even do not know you from all the reports about your life and about your likes and dislikes. I know you from a moment in time in which I fell in love with you. I know you because God taught you, praised you, and honored you. I know you because God comforted you, consoled you, and empowered you. I know you because God loved you. My Prophet, I know you through a heart that loves" . (Thank you Nura & Dr. Khaled for reminding us why we love Muhammad).

Now back to why am I grateful for the Jyllands- Posten ? simply because perhaps this crisis will spark another interfaith/intercultural dialogue which would be between peoples this time not the Vatican and Al-Azhar. I've seen you readers numerous in seeking answer. Maybe it would allow us all to understand the other a bit more, correct our mutual mistakes and misconceptions, educate not hesitate to ask questions and maybe learn that what is okay for us can be offensive for someone else, that is that my freedom ends where yours begins.




PS I hope I have covered most of what the readers have asked in the comment section I am grateful to all of you for participating and coming here, more specific and personalised replies to your qestions are all here - pls forgive the delay , but we had terrible weather ( Hattip -Khadijateri ) . So internet access was difficult for me; I hope you will come back even after this page in our history is turned, that would be the Silver Lining! Amin.