In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
The Canadian Islamic Congress Friday Bulletin
Friday, February 10, 2006 - Muharram 11, 1427, Year:9 Vol:9 Issue: 22
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THIS FRIDAY BULLETIN CONTAINS SEVEN ITEMS:
1. WHAT CHRISTAIN AND EUROPEAN THINKERS SAY ABOUT PROPHET,MUHAMMAD
2. MUSLIMS -- NOT ISLAM -- IN NEED OF DEFENSE
3. THOSE DANISH CARTOONS: SILLY, PROVOCATIVE AND PERVERSE
4. NEWSBRIEF: THE VATICAN TENTATIVELY REACHES OUT TO MUSLIMS
5. NEWSBRIEF: CASTRO OFFERS AMERICANS FREE EYE SURGERY
6. WED BETTER LEARN TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE ENEMY
7. ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
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1. WHAT CHRISTAIN AND WESTERN THINKERS SAY ABOUT PROPHET,MUHAMMAD
[By Wahida Valiante -- Special to the Friday Bulletin]
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"WE HAVE SENT YOU (O MUHAMMAD) ONLY AS A MERCY FOR ALL THE WORLDS." [The
Qur'an, The Prophets 21:107]
"I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the
modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would
bring it much-needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith
of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is
beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today." Sir George Bernard Shaw
in :The Genuine Islam," (Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936)
In some of the quotations below, Christian writers have mistakenly used the
word Muhammadanism as a synonym for Islam. But Muhammadanism actually means
the worship of Muhammad, which is not what Muslims do, and is therefore a
gross misrepresentation of Islam.
Down through history, many similar terms improperly describing Muhammad,
Islam, and Muslims were borrowed from European writings of the 11th to the
19th centuries, times when ignorance and prejudice prevailed. The
quotations below attest to the facts.
1. Alphonse de LaMartaine in "Histoire de la Turquie" (Paris, 1854)
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are
the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man
in 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, legislations, empires, peoples, 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 the souls.
"Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of
Rational beliefs.... the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one
spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human
greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than
he?"
2. Jules Masserman in "Who Were History's Great Leaders?" (Time Magazine,
July 15, 1974)
Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammad, who combined all the
three functions. To a lesser degree Moses did the same.
3. Thomas Carlyle in "Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History"
(1840)
"The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this
man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only." "A 'silent great soul
one ... who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world [that] the
world's Maker had ordered ..."
4. Sir George Bernard Shaw in :The Genuine Islam," (Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936)
"If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within
the next hundred years, it could be Islam ... I have always held the
religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality.
It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating
capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to
every age. I have studied him -- the wonderful man -- and in my opinion far
from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity."
5. Reverend Bosworth Smith in "Muhammad and Muhammadanism," (London, 1874)
"Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one;
but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the
legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a
police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right
divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports.
He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life
was in keeping with his public life."
"In Mohammadanism everything is different ... Instead of the shadowy and
the mysterious, we have history ...We know of the external history of
Muhammad ...while for his internal history after his mission had been
proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its
preservation ...on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been
able to cast a serious doubt."
6. W.C. Taylor in "The History of Muhammadanism and its Sects"
"So great was his liberality to the poor that he often left his household
unprovided, nor did he content himself with relieving their wants, he
entered into conversation with them, and expressed a warm sympathy for
their sufferings. He was a firm friend and a faithful ally."
7. Michael Hart in "The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in
History," (New York, 1978)
"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential
persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he
was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the
secular and religious level. ... It is probable that the relative influence
of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus
Christ and St. Paul on Christianity... It is this unparalleled combination
of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be
considered the most influential single figure in human history."
8. Dr. William Draper in "The History of Intellectual Development of
Europe"
"Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca, in
Arabia, the man who, of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon
the human race ... To be the religious head of many empires, to guide the
daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify the title of
a Messenger of God."
9. W. Montgomery Watt in "Muhammad at Mecca," (Oxford, 1953)
"To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems that it solves.
Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in
the West as Muhammad ... Thus, not merely must we credit Muhammad with
essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at
all; if we are to correct the errors we have inherited from the past, we
must not forget the conclusive proof is a much stricter requirement than a
show of plausibility, and in a matter such as this only to be attained with
difficulty."
10. Lawrence E. Browne in "The Prospects of Islam," (1944)
"Incidentally, these well-established facts dispose of the idea so widely
fostered in Christian writings that the Muslims, wherever they went, forced
people to accept Islam at the point of the sword."
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2. MUSLIMS -- NOT ISLAM -- IN NEED OF DEFENSE
[By Dr. Mohamed Elmasry]
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The recent publication of anti-Islam cartoons in Europe have had a negative
impact -- not so much on Islam as a world religion which still attracts
truth-seekers every day -- but on Muslims, especially Muslim minorities.
To live as a minority in any country, at any time in history, poses many
challenges; to live as a Muslim minority today in a Western country poses
even more challenges.
I believe that contemporary Muslims living in Western nations, including
Canada -- and Muslim youth in particular -- face a long list of challenges
that directly threaten their future well-being.
What makes the situation even more dangerous is that, unlike their
immigrant parents, the young people have no other country to turn to if the
going gets tough.
Why is this so? The answer lies in how the West has responded to the
dramatic tragedies of terrorist attacks in the nearly half-decade following
September 11, 2001. Many nations have chosen to discard their traditional
values respecting human rights, religious tolerance and political
pluralism.
Last year, for example, a leading British university banned students from
wearing Islamic head scarves and hooded tops. Imperial College, London,
arbitrarily ruled that "hoodies" and "veils" which obscure the face pose a
threat in the wake of the London July bombings. Furthermore, all students
at the university -- which has a large Muslim population -- have been told
they must carry photo identity cards and be subject to security checks to
ensure that their faces match their pictures.
The Imperial College code stipulates: "Clothing that obscures an
individuals face is not allowed on any of the colleges campuses. Staff
and students should refrain from wearing clothing which obscures the face,
such as a full or half veil, or hooded tops or scarves worn across the
face."
The code was introduced following a government order that all universities
must clamp down on "student extremists" after the July terror attacks.
British media reported (without mentioning a source) that Imperial College
had been named in a study as one of 31 universities that had allegedly
harboured terrorists. The study also said "the institution provided a base
for extreme Islamic organizations."
Many groups in the West who hate Islam and Muslims consider such measures
not only justified, but as too little, too late. One can't help wondering,
however, if these groups are advocating for the common good or advancing
their own selfish agendas?
Two main streams can be identified here -- those who hate Islam and Muslims
for political reasons, including strong pro-Israel supporters; and those
who hate Islam and Muslims for religious reasons, including conservative
Christian missionary organizations focused on the business of converting
Muslims.
In this highly charged atmosphere, can security be achieved without
compromising minority human rights? ...and without treating minorities as
guilty-by-association? Fortunately, the answer is a definite Yes to both
questions, but only if there is enough political will behind it. A multi-
dimensional solution is not only desirable, but a must, in order to achieve
social peace for everyone.
Last December, racial violence erupted in Sydney, Australia. Police there
said white supremacists and neo-Nazis were among those involved. There were
calls by local residents to beat-up the "Lebs and Wogs" -- racial slurs for
people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin. In the mainly Muslim suburb
of Lakemba, Muslim youth blocked roads near the local mosque, believing an
attack was imminent. As a result, more than 30 people were injured and 16
arrested in some of the worst racial violence in Australian history.
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence and called
for ethnic tolerance. But he dismissed any suggestion that his governments
recent warnings about the possibility of attacks by "home-grown Muslim
[terrorists]" had fuelled the rampage.
"It is impossible to know how individuals react, but everything this
governments said about home-grown terrorism has been totally justified,"
he asserted, in an apparent reference to the arrests of 18 Muslim men a
month earlier on terrorism charges.
But that is not the way to solve these problems; all it does is further
exacerbate the increasing trends of racial profiling, religious
intolerance, Islamaphobia, and social unrest. Meanwhile, groups within
Australia's Western-modelled society who should be speaking up for the
common good and for achieving security with rights, have kept a thundering
silence.
The outcome is that Australian Muslim youth are paying a high price for the
combined evils of prejudice and apathy; they are paying economically,
socially, psychologically and spiritually. These challenges are
overwhelming and can only be faced with the help of fair-minded people in
every Western country where Muslims are a minority.
I am optimistic that there are plenty of these fair-minded people waiting
to emerge and stand up for the good of the whole human family -- if only
Western Muslims would reach out to them.
(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic
Congress. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED])
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3. THOSE DANISH CARTOONS: SILLY, PROVOCATIVE AND PERVERSE
[By Robert Fisk -- The Independent -- February 5, 2006]
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So now its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Ambassadors are
withdrawn from Denmark, the Saudis and the Syrians complain, Gulf nations
clear their shelves of Danish produce, Gaza gunmen threaten the European
Union and foreign journalists.
In Denmark, Fleming Rose, the "culture" editor of the pipsqueak newspaper
which published these silly cartoons -- last September, for heavens sake!
-- announces that we are witnessing a "clash of civilizations" between
secular western democracies and Islamic societies. This does prove, I
suppose, that Danish journalists follow in the true tradition of Hans
Christian Anderson. Oh lordy, lordy. What were witnessing is the
childishness of civilizations.
So lets start off with the Department of Home Truths. This is not an issue
of secularism versus Islam. For Muslims, the Prophet is the man who
received divine words directly from God. We see our saints and prophets as
faintly historical figures, at odds with our high-tech human rights and
freedoms, almost caricatures of themselves. The fact is that Muslims live
their religion. We do not. They have kept their faith through innumerable
historical vicissitudes. We have lost our faith ever since Matthew Arnold
wrote about the seas "long withdrawing roar." Thats why we talk about
the West versus Islam rather than Christians versus Islam -- because
there arent an awful lot of Christians left in Europe. There is no way we
can get round this by setting up all the other world religions and asking
why we are not allowed to make fun of the Prophet.
Besides, we can exercise our own hypocrisy over religious feelings. I
happen to remember how more than a decade ago, a film called the Last
Temptation of Christ showed Jesus making love to a woman. In Paris, someone
set fire to the cinema showing the movie, killing a young Frenchman. I also
happen to remember a major U.S. university which invited me to give a
lecture three years ago. I did. It was entitled: "September 11, 2001: ask
who did it but, for Gods sake, dont ask why." When I arrived, I found
that the university authorities had deleted the phrase "for Gods sake"
because "we didnt want to offend certain sensibilities. Ah-ha, so we have
"sensibilities" too.
In other words, while we claim that Muslims must be good secularists when
it comes to free speech -- or cheap cartoons -- we can worry about
adherents to our own precious religion just as much. I also enjoyed the
pompous claims of European statesmen that they cannot control free speech
or newspapers. This is also nonsense. Had that cartoon of the Prophet shown
instead a chief rabbi with a bomb-shaped hat, we would have had "anti-
semitism" screamed into our ears -- and rightly so -- just as we often hear
the Israelis complain about anti- semitic cartoons in Egyptian newspapers.
Furthermore, in some European nations -- France is one, Germany and Austria
are among the others -- it is forbidden by law to deny acts of genocide. In
France, for example, it is illegal to say that the Jewish Holocaust or the
Armenian Holocaust did not happen (wait for Turkeys problems over the
latter if it ever gets into the EU). So it is in fact impermissible to make
certain statements in European nations. Im still uncertain whether these
laws attain their objectives: however much you may prescribe Holocaust
denial, anti-semites will always try to find a way round it.
The point, however, is that we can hardly exercise our political restraints
or laws to prevent anti-semitic cartoons or Holocaust deniers and then
start screaming about secularism when we find that Muslims object to our
provocative and insulting image of the Prophet.
For many Muslims, the "Islamic" reaction to this whole squalid affair is an
embarrassment. There is perfectly good reason to believe that Muslims would
like to see some element of reform introduced into their religion. If this
cartoon had advanced the cause of those who want to debate this issue -- if
it allowed for a serious dialogue -- no one would have minded. But it was
clearly intended to be provocative. It was so outrageous that it only
caused reaction. And this is not a great time to heat up the old Samuel
Huntington garbage about a "clash of civilizations." Iran now has a
clerical government again. So, to all intents and purposes, does Iraq
(which was not supposed to end up with a democratically elected clerical
administration, but thats what happens when you topple dictators).
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood won 20 per cent of the seats in the recent
parliamentary elections. Now we have Hamas in charge of Palestine. Theres
a message here, isnt there? That Americas policies and "regime change"
and "democracy" in the Middle East are not achieving their ends. These
millions of voters were preferring Islam to the corrupt regimes which we
imposed on them. For the Danish cartoon to be dumped on top of this fire is
dangerous indeed.
In any event, its not about whether the Prophet should be pictured. The
Qur'an does not forbid images of the Prophet even though millions of
Muslims do. The problem is that these cartoons portrayed Islam as a violent
religion. It is not. Or do we want to make it so?
(This article was slightly edited for the Friday Bulletin.)
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4. NEWSBRIEF: THE VATICAN TENTATIVELY REACHES OUT TO MUSLIMS
[By staff writer -- Associated Press -- January 27, 2006]
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The Vatican is exploring the possibility of expanding its Catholic- Jewish
dialogue to also include Muslims, although talks are at a very initial
stage, a Vatican official said late last month.
Monsignor Michael Fitzgerald, who heads the Vatican's office for
interreligious dialogue, was interviewed after the World Jewish Congress
chairman, Rabbi Israel Singer, had reportedly discussed the initiative with
Fitzgerald and other high-ranking Vatican officials.
The main point of the talks was to intensify the Vatican's official
dialogue with Jews, but they also included "specific possibilities to
expand interfaith talks to also include representatives from the Islamic
faith," the WJC said in a statement.
"It is important to enter into discussions with the third 'Abrahamic
child,' Islam," Singer said in a statement. "No one in the meetings has
underestimated the difficulties in bringing about a meaningful dialogue.
But we all agreed that the principle of mutual respect can override
differences that exist between the religions."
Fitzgerald confirmed he had met with Singer and that they discussed "the
various meetings taking place between Jews, Christians and Muslims."
"We examined the possibility [of] doing something in this line," he said of
the WJC's suggestion for a trialogue with Muslim, but stressed that the
recent meeting with Singer was just "exploratory."
Pope Benedict XVI has tried to reach out to Muslims, and met with Muslim
representatives during his visit to Cologne, Germany in August 2005.
(This article was edited and abridged for the Friday Bulletin.)
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5. NEWSBRIEF: CASTRO OFFERS AMERICANS FREE EYE SURGERY
[By staff writer -- Associated Press -- January 26, 2006]
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HAVANA, Cuba -- President Fidel Castro has offered free eye operations to
impoverished Americans and is asking the U.S. government to let them travel
to his island for treatment. Castro made the offer during a three-hour
appearance on state television in which he also slammed U.S. policies
toward his communist country.
Because travel to Cuba is prohibited under longtime U.S. sanctions, Castro
asked American authorities to give their citizens special permission to
travel to for the operations. "Were ready to send an airplane to Florida
to pick them up," the Cuban leader said.
Amid worsening Cuba-U.S. relations, American approval to let people travel
to the Caribbean communist state for free medical treatment appeared
unlikely.
Cuba teamed up with Venezuela in recent months for a free eye surgery
program that brings impoverished people from around the region to Cuba for
free treatment.
(This article was edited and abridged for the Friday Bulletin.)
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6. WED BETTER LEARN TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE ENEMY
[By Miles Tompkins -- The Halifax Herald -- February 4, 2006]
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This past Christmas, my son gave me a DVD entitled The Fog Of War, a
documentary about Robert McNamara, a former U.S. Secretary of Defense
during the Vietnam War. In this must-see documentary, the 85-year-old
McNamara gives us 11 lessons of war, none more important then the first --
empathize with the enemy.
In a Feb. 2 opinion piece, Andrew Smith worries about history repeating
itself in Iran and equates tensions in the area with Hitler and Nazism. His
comparison has very little to do with the present crisis, and any effort to
suggest otherwise is to deny the real problems and lead us into a potential
catastrophe greater than has yet been seen there.
Is Mr. Smith so phobic as to suggest that Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey
and Syria were smitten with Hitler to such an extent that they blindly
jumped aboard the Nazi train? He suggests that America's "war on terror" is
something left over from the Second World War. But I suggest that Mr. Smith
examine history more closely, with an unbiased eye towards the forces of
Zionism and Western imperialism.
Iran made slow, creeping moves toward democracy until the 1950s, when the
populist Mohammed Mossadegh came to power. His move to nationalize the
Anglo Iranian Oil Company led to a spiralling sequence of events that in no
small part created the tensions of todays Iran.
Iran was a British-Russian dessert, not a Nazi stronghold. If Satan himself
could have removed the British from Iran, he would have gained popular
support. In fact, once Eisenhower gained power, the CIA and the British
were equally happy to have Fazlollah Zahedi and Bakhtiari -- two Nazi
collaborators -- fill the void. Sad, but very true.
Enter the Shah of Iran, a man whom Amnesty International described in 1976
as having the "worst human rights record on the planet," and to whom the
CIA taught torture techniques. This was fascism of the first degree,
promoted for the self-interest of the British and later the United States;
but all backed by Israel, whose powers have always seen a moderate, Arab-
friendly Iran as a threat to their expansionist ideals. This is the history
being repeated in Iran, only now it is the Iranian Oil Stock Exchange that
poses the threat.
Nuclear issues are merely a fear-promoting hot button, raised to convince
the United States and the West that Iranian-inspired extremism is a major
threat to us. And comparisons with Hitler are just tinder for the flame.
The Iranians had nothing to do with the Holocaust, the Palestinians even
less. The Christians of the world carry more blame for that vile atrocity
than anyone in the Middle East.
At present, the anti-Iranian position is being led by Washington- supported
forces in Israel that have nothing to do with Jewish theology. They can ill
afford any friendliness between Iraq and Iran, and are determined to twist
history to fit today's self-serving goals.
When will we ever learn? Terrorism is not some leftover lesson from Adolf
Hitler. Terrorism is a product of fanaticism; we we embraced it in
Afghanistan for short-term gain during the late 1970s. And come hell or
high water, we embrace it whenever it fulfils our strategic needs.
We had better take Iraq's tension seriously and open some dialogue with
Iran. We should even hold our noses and start talking to Hamas as well,
because it is a populist movement and no more extreme than the Sunni
Muslims we are now breaking bread with, or the mujahadin that we funded and
supported in Afghanistan.
So to return to the wisdom of Robert McNamara; if we dont want history to
repeat itself, we had better start empathizing with our enemies. We did
them no justice in the last century and the current one is no different --
we continue to ignore this fact at our peril. Many Israelis realize this,
and their press is far more open to discuss it; but for some reason, we
never hear their voices.
Let us never forget the Holocaust and the vile regime that killed so many
innocent people, but let us also not make the mistake of contorting the
history of Hitler in Europe to promote our version of history in present-
day Palestine and Iran.
To be sure, our current enemies have their own self-interests too, and have
blood on their hands. Yet the radical forces in Iran would never have come
to pass had we justly dealt with the popular movements of their day. Now,
Mossadegh looks Gandhi-like by 2006 standards. The outcome and the
consequences are grave; subscribing to the Andrew Smith's thesis, while
ignoring that of Robert McNamara, is no better than sticking our heads in
the sand.
(Miles Tompkins lives in Antigonish, NS. This article was edited, and also
slightly abridged, for the Friday Bulletin.)
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7. ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
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The Arab Students Collective at the University of Toronto presents the
second Israeli Apartheid Week
DATE: From Feb 13 to 18, 2006
LOCATION: St. George Campus.
For more information please check the following website:
http://www.al-awda.ca
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NOTE: Some letters may have been edited for clarity and length;
however, writers' opinions are unaltered.]
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DISCLAIMER:
All material published by The Friday Bulletin is the sole
responsibility of its author(s). The opinions and/or assertions
contained therein do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of
The Friday Bulletin, nor those of the Canadian Islamic Congress and
its officers.
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