Dear Brother Adil Assalaam Alaikum, Very good letter. I appreciate it to the full extent. I request other muslim brothers and sisters to take the same stand.
May Allah (swt) grant us more courage to tackle this difficult situation with more wisdom and knowledge Aameen. Ghazi -----Original Message----- From: islamcity@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of "S.A.R. Adil" Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 6:11 PM To: islamcity@yahoogroups.com Subject: [IslamCity] An Open Letter to Danish Prime Minister An open Letter to Danish Prime Minister The outpouring of outrage by the Muslims the World over should not surprise anyone, not the least your Government Mr. Prime Minister. If the publications of the caricatures were not deliberately motivated to cause upheaval in the Muslim World, there is definitely good reason for us to believe that your anti-Muslim, deliberately provocative policies have lead to something like this happening? The freedom of expression does not mean abdication of social responsibility and this we believe even your government understands. However when a mischief of this magnitude is carried out in the name of freedom of speech and expression by the so called independent media and it does not even draw a hint of rebuke from your government, we the Muslims have no choice but to believe this is a well orchestrated conspiracy by the right wing Christian Governments of the EU to drive a wedge between the Christian West and the Muslims. What is the end game we don't know but surely there is more to it than what meets the eye. Your utter lack of regard to the sentiments of Muslims and your denial of audience to the Muslim delegation comprising of Leaders and Imams who only wanted to see you to put across their view point and why it was so painful to them to see their Prophet being lampooned in such a manner has now snowballed into a tidal wave of Muslim anger and shows no sign of dying down. If only you had the sagacity and wisdom to meet up with the delegation and issued even a one line statement of rebuke against the editor of Jylland-Posten for their irresponsible act, this matter would have died. We believe you deliberately declined to meet the Muslim delegation because from the outset your mind was clouded by your hatred towards Muslims and a peaceful demise of this problem was the last thing you wanted. Karen Armstrong, one of the most eminent experts on the Middle East and author of the biography of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), has pointed to the historical animosity that western culture (through its orientalist literature) has always carried against Islam when she said - "These cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist are utterly inaccurate, feeding into an Islamophobia that has been a noxious element in Western culture since the time of the Crusades". We are told that in Universities in Europe and America Journalists are often taught that freedom of speech ends where the sensitivities of people begin. It is such a paradox that on the one hand the Journalists learn one thing at College and at the same time stand up in solidarity with your Jylland-Posten by publishing the same caricatures in their own newspapers and magazines. However there are exceptions such as our own media in India and so too the big Networks such as CNN and BBC who have consciously avoided publication of these offensive caricatures in order not to hurt the sentiments of the Muslims. We the Muslims are grateful to the media giants BBC and CNN for their extremely responsible conduct. The Quran Says: The Messenger (Muhammad PBUH) believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. Each one believes in Allah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. (They say), "We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers"- and they say, " We hear, we obey, (We seek) Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to you is the return (of all)." Al-Quran 2.285. The above verse should suffice to amply demonstrate why it is not possible for us to accept even a hint of disrespect to any of our prophet(s). When we say we believe, let it be understood that we indeed do. Hence the question of accepting such lampooning of our Prophets and the revealed Books as a joke is simply out of the question. You and your government will do well Mr. Prime Minister to note what the famous Historian Lamar Tine had to say about the greatness of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In the words of Tine: "If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislation, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls.... his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was two-fold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words. "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Warrior, Conqueror of ideas, Restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is MUHAMMAD. As regards all the standards by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, IS THERE ANY MAN GREATER THAN HE?" (Lamar tine, HISTOIRE DE LA TURQUIE, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp 276-277). In conclusion Mr. Prime Minister we the Muslims in Bangalore through your embassy in Delhi implore you to even now acknowledge the grave error of judgment you made in making light of an issue that affects the hearts and minds of all Muslims. An unequivocal apology even at this late hour will go a long way in assuaging the hurt sentiments of Muslims. Syed Adil [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ *** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/TXWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/islamcity/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
