In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
The Canadian Islamic Congress Friday Bulletin
Friday, February 17, 2006 - Muharram 18, 1427, Year:9 Vol:9 Issue: 28
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THIS FRIDAY BULLETIN CONTAINS FIVE ITEMS:
1. MOHAMED ELMASRY ON THE OFFENDING CARTOONS
2. AMERICAN ABORIGINAL LEADER REFLECTS ON THE DANISH CARTOONS
3. ISRAEL, HAMAS, AND PEACE WITH JUSTICE
4. DESPERATION SETS IN RUMSFELD'S HITLER ANALOGY
5. E-MAIL RESPONSES
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On the occasion of Ashura, the Canadian Islamic Congress offers
heartfelt recognition of this special time for the Shia community as
it remembers the beloved Prophet, his family, and the martyrdom of
Imam Husain on the plains of Karbala.
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1. MOHAMED ELMASRY ON THE OFFENDING CARTOONS
[By Surya Bhattacharya -- The Toronto Star -- Feb. 12, 2006]
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Mohamed Elmasry is the chair and president of the Canadian Islamic
Congress, the nation's largest non-profit Islamic association, with no
affiliation to any particular ideology. He is also a engineering professor
at the University of Waterloo.
Q: What has been the reaction of Canadian Muslims to the cartoons?
A: So far, the reaction of the Canadian Muslims has been controlled and
calm. The Canadian Islamic Congress did urge the community to channel their
objections in a peaceful manner, through letter writing to various media
outlets and to the government of Denmark.We asked them to take this
opportunity to explain the meaning of Islam. They can do this by inviting
non-Muslims into Muslim households, by having open houses in mosques for
people to explore and understand Islam and through outreach campaigns. Many
Canadians don't know much about Islam. Many of them have never met a Muslim
in their lives. We're a tiny minority. There are less than 3 per cent of
Muslims in the population, so if every Muslim tried to reach out to 10 or
20 people, it will have an impact.
Q: Why have Canadian Muslims reacted the way they have?
A: That's because they are amongst the most highly educated Muslim
minorities in the world. It's because Canadian immigration policy only
accepts people with certain qualifications and university degrees. So, a
majority of Muslim households encourage their children to attend colleges
and universities. As a result of that, the standard of education remains
high. The Canadian Islamic Congress supports smart integration where
Muslims can practise their religion but can also be involved in advancing
the well-being of their home country, which is Canada.
Q: What is Islam's stand on depictions of the Prophet?
A: Islam forbids two- or three-dimensional images of any prophet, including
Muhammad, Moses, Jesus and Abraham. All the prophets are considered
messengers of God. Islam also forbids making statues of God to make sure
the faithful don't fall into the trap of worshipping idols. However, you
can show respect for God and the messengers by being a good and just
person.
Q: How have you personally chosen to address the cartoon controversy?
A: I think the editor who allowed the cartoons to be published made a
mistake. If he'd apologized within days or weeks of the publication, we
wouldn't be in this episode right now. Newspapers apologize all the time. I
think it is a journalistic ethical question and has nothing to do with
religion or politics.
Q: If you could speak with the publisher of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish
paper that published the cartoons, what would you say?
A: If it was published in Canada, I would've contacted the publisher
immediately, asked for a meeting and explained how the published cartoons
hurt the Muslim minority.We have to convey that any negative stereotypes
have a negative impact on our community. The level of hate against the
community increases. There will be discrimination on the job, verbal and
psychological abuses, and our youth will lose their self-identity. No
journalist who strives for excellence will propagate negative stereotypes.
To the Danish publisher, I would say that he should circulate a memo among
his staff that it was a mistake and misjudgment to publish it in the first
place. Many innocent people paid the price with their lives or their
livelihood. I'd like to remind him that some Danish businesses are losing
millions of dollars every day due to boycotts of their products.The editor
should be fired. He's made the mistakes, not the innocent [Danes] who had
nothing to do with it.
Q: Muslim leaders in Montreal have called on the government to pass a law
recognizing racism against Muslims as a hate crime. They've said if the
government agrees to meet with them, they'll discourage the demonstrators.
What do you think?
A: The CIC issued a statement a few days ago discouraging our community
from going to demonstrations. During demonstrations, you don't have control
of who will do what. Opposing sides who are anti- Muslim or supporters of
freedom of expression could show up and a shouting match can turn violent.
Instead, we've encouraged a more proactive approach to plead with the
government to recognize anti- Islam the way it does anti-Semitism. Violence
goes against the teachings of Islam. If you have no control over the
situation, things can turn violent. You are changing a bad situation to
worse. What Islam teaches is to try to make a bad situation better. The
Qur'an rejects violence and aggression.
Q: Can you offer a quote from the Qur'an to support your views?
A: Chapter 7, Verse 55-56: "Call on your Lord in a quiet and humble voice,
for God dislikes aggressive people. And do not spread mischief on the earth
that God has set in order. Call on your Lord reverently and hopefully
remembering that His mercy comes to those who seek to perfect their deeds."
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2. AMERICAN ABORIGINAL LEADER REFLECTS ON THE DANISH CARTOONS
[By Robert Robideau -- Counter Punch -- Feb. 9, 2006]
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Reading the first news reports about the cartoons depicting Muhammad as a
terrorist reminded me of the unfriendly media that printed the then
Attorney Gerneral of for South Dakota, William Janklows' vigilante order,
"The only way to deal with the Indian problem in South Dakota is to put a
gun to the AIM leaders' heads and pull the trigger." Such ethnically
hostile and abusive reporting by mainstream media was what helped to kill
more than 60 American Indians and assault hundreds more during the federal
government's reign of terror that occurred between 1973 and 1975 on the
Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation.
The old adage that was popularized in Hollywood westerns, "White man speaks
with forked tongue" had a special meaning. It denoted the deceit of
European settlers who often lied to North American Indian people as they
stole coveted lands and nearly decimated them as a people. The recent
split-tongue approach used in defending Danish racist cartoons as freedom
of speech must be loudly condemned as just more attacks on the rights of
Muslims to defend their lands, culture and self determination.
Most European and North American newspapers support the editor of Jyllands-
Posten, the first paper to publish the offensively racist cartoons, which
expressed the position, "we cannot apologize for freedom of expression."
The [implied] word "but" is a favorite transition of hypocrites who would
have us believe on one hand that freedom of speech is a democratic
principle to be defended at all cost, while on the other hand they are
quick to condemn when that same "freedom" incites hatred toward them and
those they wish to protect.
For years Abu Hamza al-Masri, an Egyptian Muslim, had exercised his right
to free speech at his Finsbury Park mosque in London. British authorities
attempted to revoke his citizenship and for years never brought criminal
charges against him. With the new atmosphere created around the global war
on terrorism an English tribunal recently convicted and sentenced Hamza to
seven years in prison for allegedly "directly and deliberately stirring up
hatred against Jewish people and encouraging murder of those he referred to
as non-believers." Certainly the same could be said of the cartoonist.
Despite the fact that nearly a dozen people have died as a result of the
Danish cartoons, no criminal charges have been laid against the offending
paper nor the Danish cartoonist. Some countries say they are looking for
ways to prosecute. The cartoons, which many Danish and Scandinavian
newspaper editors defended in the name "radical Islam," predictably (and
rightly) resulted in stirring the anger of the Muslim world. In defense,
they have taken to the streets in unified protests that will, I hope, send
shock waves throughout the European Union for some time to come.
With all the comparisons that have been made and continue to be made
between the struggles of Muslim people and North American Indian nations,
it did not come as a surprise to find similar cartoons historically used to
create racism, hatred and war against the latter. A cartoon by Grant
Hamilton called "The Nation's Ward" portrayed the Indian as a savage snake
constricting a pioneer family. It shows further the American Indian being
fed by Uncle Sam while the pioneer's home burns. This cartoon and others
like it protested the U.S. treaty promise of giving food rations to Indians
during hard winters. Political propaganda fed through various print media
helped create a mentality that allowed wholesale, systematic killings of
Indian men, women and children.
One example of such an atrocity took place at Sand Creek when Phil Sheridan
gave U.S. soldiers permission to butcher women and children and hang their
sexual body parts on public display at the Denver opera house. Such
atrocities have occurred in modern wars currently being waged against
Muslim people under president Bush's "preemptive strike" doctrine, which
has killed more civilians then fighters.
During the 1960s, the FBI was used as a national political police force to
put down legitimate protest movements. Its counterintelligence program used
offensive cartoons as a method to fan the flames of racism that had been
spoon-fed to the Euro-American public. Through newspapers, books, cartoons
and Hollywood westerns, offensive caricatures became part of their standard
bag of dirty tricks in putting down peaceful protest.
Today, the FBI, with a mad affinity for prolonging the imprisonment of now
world famous American Indian activist, Leonard Peltier, used a cartoon
posing him as an Indian terrorist killing their fellow agents. This cartoon
is still today on their website, despite the fact that even prosecutors who
tried the case admit they "do not know who killed the two FBI agents"
during the Pine Ridge reign of terror on June 26, 1976. Leonard Peltier has
been confined for 30 years in federal prisons as a result of manufactured
FBI evidence, much of which the federal government has since acknowledged
as such.
There is no question that sports teams who use Indian mascots or logos
portray inaccurate images, symbols insulting to American Indians. One
professor, speaking out against the use of Chief Illiniwek by the U of I
football team in the late 1990s, said "I've often visited Germany and
speaking to younger people there, they all feel great pain when they
consider the recent past. Not one university in Germany would contemplate
having a rabbi as a mascot."
Freedom of speech and of the press has been used as a weapon against
oppressed people for centuries. It has been nothing more than a smokescreen
to justify the actions of a few who in reality incite religious and ethnic
hatred. The editors knew these cartoons were clearly drawn as deadly
propaganda tools, created with malice and forethought, to neutralize Muslim
groups and deny them legitimacy in the world community. Who now should be
charged for inciting a riot? Who now should be held accountable to the
Muslim communities for the slanderous, racist cartoons that have forced
communities to take sides against each other? How can we share this world,
respecting the diversity of ethnic origins if powerful media continue to
pump the public full of hate propaganda!? It is time for the media to step
up to the plate and accept responsibility for their actions. What better
place to start than in Denmark!
(Robert Robideau is co-director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee.
He can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This article was
slightly edited for the Friday Bulletin.)
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3. ISRAEL, HAMAS, AND PEACE WITH JUSTICE
[By Dr. Mohamed Elmasry]
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In the midst of a decades-long struggle for independence, Palestinians have
heroically embraced democracy in order to structure their political
organizations, government, and even battle plans. The results of their
democratic process have made the Western world very uncomfortable.
Western countries did not object when Israelis elected Ariel Sharon as
prime minister, despite the Palestinian blood on his hands from brutal
military campaigns in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza; despite the fact
that countless Palestinians lost their lives, loved ones, and whole
families, with his full knowledge, approval, and complicity.
So why are both Israel and the West so upset that the Hamas movement won
more seats than any other party in the recent Palestinian parliamentary
elections?
To be able to freely and fairly elect those who will represent you in
government is held as a sacred right in the West; but why not for
Palestinians? Why do others -- but not Palestinians -- have the right to be
free, the right to resist a foreign occupation, and the right to rebel
against brutal oppression?
And why are Palestinians, who have suffered injustice for generations, not
allowed to aspire toward peace with justice by electing -- without fear --
those who they believe will lead them closer to this goal?
Is it too much to ask or expect, that Palestinians be able to count on the
West's support in their struggle for a future free from Israeli army
killings, massacres, targeted executions, assassinations, bombings,
terrorism, detentions, house demolitions, torture, and the dehumanizing
segregation of an obscene Apartheid Wall?
The questions are not new, but their urgency grows by the day, by the
minute. Palestinians are struggling for their independence against one of
the cruellest occupation forces of modern times; an occupation force which
is unashamedly backed by the world's only remaining super- power and
supported by a Western media which believes "Israel can do no wrong."
That same Western culture raises moving and genuine emotion over the
killing of a single Jew, but seems to have been programmed for cold
indifference when it comes to the mass-murder -- genocide, in fact -- of
thousands of Palestinian women and children. How can we go on supporting
such contradictory beliefs?
Was the West not historically responsible for giving European Jews
Palestinian lands, displacing thousands of indigenous citizens from their
homes and traditional livelihoods? What kind of justice was this? And now
the West seeks to punish these people for the Nth time, by withholding even
the few dollars allotted annually to every Palestinian -- just enough so
that he/she can subsist, but without much hope for dignity or freedom.
The West could make an enormous difference by changing its policy of
uncritical and wholehearted support for Israel by instead exerting
political and economic pressure to have the notorious "security"
(Apartheid) wall dismantled; by discouraging the spread of more Jewish
settlements; and by working to end Israel's malevolent campaign of death,
destruction and misery against all Palestinians.
There is no logical argument to condone the grossly unfair imbalance of
military strength and wealth that exists between the occupying power and
the people under occupation. How can Western powers -- especially the
United States -- continue to pour the annual equivalent of $1000 for every
Israeli man, woman and child into a country that still invites Jews from
all over the world to come and settle on occupied Palestinian land?
And if that is not bad enough, the West has no ethical or moral qualms
about finding ways to further compensate the current generation of Jews for
atrocities committed against their European ancestors more than half a
century ago. There is no doubt about their deservedness or entitlement, but
do Palestinians -- similarly robbed of culture, life, and homeland -- not
deserve the same level of compensation and legitimate concern?
The basic problem here is not the election of Hamas, or even the
destructive policies of the Israeli government. If the West is truly
interested in resolving the tragic Israel-Palestine conflict, there must be
an unconditional commitment to the overarching principle of peace with
justice.
Note the phrase "peace with justice" -- the two words, and all that they
mean, are inseparably linked. This is not merely the absence of open
conflict, not merely an improvement of conditions inside prison walls.
What is called for is nothing less than a massive paradigm shift in the
West. The old rules of the game are no longer valid or safe, not for Israel
or for the rest of the world. The sooner the West gets the message, the
better -- for the good of everyone.
(Dr. Mohamed Elmasry is national president of the Canadian Islamic
Congress. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED])
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4. DESPERATION SETS IN RUMSFELD'S HITLER ANALOGY
[February 4 / 5, 2006 Counter Punch By DERRICK O'KEEFE]
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The only real surprise is that it took this long.
On Thursday, February 2, the U.S. government's senior hawk, Donald
Rumsfeld, stooped to the Hitler 'analogy' in a show of his administration's
increasing desperation at the consolidation of the Bolivarian Revolution
and the rise of the Left in Latin America. The Secretary of Defense
delivered the clumsy slur against the (repeatedly) democratically elected
president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez:
"We've got Chavez in Venezuela with a lot of oil money. He's a person who
was elected legally, just as Adolf Hitler was elected legally, and then
consolidated power, and now is, of course, working closely with Fidel
Castro and Mr. [Evo] Morales and others. It concerns me (1)."
Not to be outdone, his even more irrational fellow right-wing
septuagenarian renewed his call for the United States to assassinate
Chavez. This time using Fox News as his pulpit, Robertson added a half-
hearted caveat to the death wish: "not now, but one day". The evangelist
closed his comments with a racist boast, "until that [earlier] comment
everybody thought Chavez was a fellow having to do with table grapes in
California". To close the segment, co-host Sean Hannity concluded with this
statement, agreeing with the thrust of Robertson's inciteful remarks:
"I think one thing we could say is, the world would be better off without
him where he is, because he is a danger to the United States." (See the
full interview transcript to believe it at MediaMatters.org).
It would be gratuitous to dwell on the absurdity of Rumsfeld's flailing and
Robertson's fatwa. The more important point is to highlight the real
political developments underlying the hysteria. There are a number of key
aspects to Venezuela's political and social revolution that are currently
haunting not only that South American country's economic elites, but their
superiors in Washington, D.C. as well.
First, the Bolivarian Revolution is more entrenched politically and more
strident ideologically than ever; Chavez has had his mandate confirmed on a
number of occasions since his initial 1998 election, and is all but
guaranteed a huge victory in the December 2006 presidential elections. A
great number of social programs and investments, fuelled by high oil
prices, are bringing tangible improvements to the poor majority in the
country. In addition to this redistribution of wealth, increased political
participation and grassroots organizing is pushing forward for a more
radical transformation of society. And Chavez, especially in the past year,
has been every more urgently calling for this process to lead to the
development of 'socialism for the 21st century'.
Another extremely threatening consequence of the Bolivarian Revolution,
from the point of view of imperial interests, is the way that its message
is resonating across Latin America. The December 2005 landslide election of
Evo Morales in Bolivia was just the most spectacular example of the recent
trend in the region. Morales--also, by implication, ludicrously tarred with
the Hitler brush in Rumsfeld's remarks--came to power after years of revolt
by Bolivia's indigenous peoples and working class.
The Venezuelan experience stands as both an inspiration to social movements
across Latin America and as a standard to which populist and Left leaders
can be held accountable, as they inevitably face pressure from national
elites and the transnational interests of capital.
Finally, Hugo Chavez has been hitting the United States government hard of
late on the home front. This might even be the hardest pill to swallow for
Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney et al. In September, for instance, the Venezuelan
government's offer of aid was held up--and Cuba's offer of hundreds of
doctors was ignored outright -- while the U.S. government failed to help
the victims of Hurricane Katrina. In subsequent months, Venezuela announced
that CITGO--a wholly owned subsidiary of the country's PDVSA national oil
company--would begin providing discounted heating oil to disadvantaged
households in the United States. Last month, for instance, Venezuela agreed
to give upwards of $5 million worth of heating oil to low-income, homeless
and Native people in--of all places--the state of Maine (2). In this and
other initiatives, Chavez is turning international solidarity on its head,
and intervening on the side of the 'other America' within the United
States. The new internationalism of the Bolivarian Revolution is not the
kind of 'globalization' that the progenitors of that euphemism for neo-
liberal capitalism had in mind.
As if providing all that essential energy and disaster relief to so many
citizens of the United States wasn't enough of a poke in the eye to the
government in Washington, last week Hugo Chavez played host to the woman
who has led the resurgence of the U.S. anti-war movement. Cindy Sheehan was
among the honoured guests at the World Social Forum, held in Caracas
January 24-29.
Along with over 60 000 participants, Sheehan resolved, among other things,
to build huge rallies on March 18 of this year, the third anniversary of
Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq. The Venezuelan president urged people in
the United States and around the world to bring down the U.S. Empire, even
offering a little career advice to Sheehan, the world's most famous
activist against the Iraq war: "He said, 'why don't [you] run for
president?'" (3)
And that, as much as anything, explains the murderous fury and ridiculous
slander of Pat Robertson and Donald Rumsfeld alike.
Derrick O'Keefe is co-editor of Seven Oaks.
Notes
(1) February 3, 2005, 'Tit for tat: U.S. and Venezuela trade expulsions and
slurs', CBC.ca.
(2) January 11, 2006, 'Maine, Venezuela reach oil deal', Portland Press
Herald.
(3) January 30, 2006, 'Chavez backs Sheehan in new Bush protest', CNN.com.
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5. E- MAIL RESPONSES
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Feb 12,2006
OWEN AND FULFORD ON ISLAM
Letters to the Editor The National Post
Re: "Look, But Don't Worship" by Gerald Owen; and "Saving Muslims from
Islamists" by Robert Fulford (Feb. 11, 2006)
There were no surprises here.
Owen, as usual, was informative, factual, timely, balanced and stimulating
(even where one might not agree with him). Fulford, as usual, was anti-
Islam, lacking accuracy, balance and fairness.
Owen had clearly researched the issue of why Islam, not unlike Judaism,
forbids making images of God and the Prophets (not only portrayals of
Muhammad but similarly of other divine messengers, such as Abraham, Moses
and Jesus). It was clear that Owen relied on legitimate academic
authorities in preparing his article.
By contrast, Fulford neglected to tell readers why he thinks the Muhammad
cartoons are a "bogus controversy." He apparently based his opinions on an
interview with one Nonie Darwish who, he notes, "considers herself an
apostate Muslim" while at the same time campaigning "against the radicals
who destroy the fabric of Islam." Can you have it both ways?
Moreover, Fulford failed to ask the 57-year-old Darwish (an American) about
her assertion that as a child "she learned to hate Jews" because of "the
fanatical Muslim Brotherhood," yet all members of the Brotherhood were
imprisoned from the 1950s through the 1980s. The math simply does not work
here. Darwish also reportedly described living in Gaza as a child, where
her father, an army officer, "was assigned to raid Israeli civilian
communities." This also is unsupported by historical facts. And officers'
families are not allowed at the front lines in any army, including the
Egyptian army.
It's outrageous to think that Fulford might actually have been paid for his
sloppily researched article, filled as it was with unsubstantiated
assertions from a less-than-credible source.
Dr. Mohamed Elmasry National president, The Canadian Islamic Congress
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Assalam Alaikum Sr Wahida;
Regarding the offensive cartoons, I've seen many different responses on
this subject, both on TV as well as in newspapers. It's been a discussion
in my workplace as well. Here is what I've told colleagues.
In Islam, we have great regard for the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). We even say
"Peace be upon Him" whenever someone mentions his name. He has never left
an image of himself or photograph, lest we worship him instead of God.
Therefore, the cartoons are blasphemous and offensive to Muslims, and
resulted in the global reaction by Muslims.
However, having said that, I believe that some Muslims are over- reacting.
There is no excuse to call for killings, such as have happened in England
and other places. This may only prove that Muslims are a bloodthirsty lot
looking for revenge of the most serious type. Instead, the world could
learn from Canadian Muslims. Speak out, boycott, peacefully protest, teach
others, etc. I believe this will have a better impact. Heaven knows, too
many have already formed a negative image of Islam; this recent incident is
not helping.
Respectfully yours,
Sister Anela
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Re: CONGRESS URGES NEW PM TO RESPECT DEMOCRATIC RESULTS IN PALESTINIAN
ELECTIONS
Assalamuailakum;
I love all the good information this organisation has been sending to my
email box. As a Muslim, I need to know what is happening in other countries
where Muslims live.
May the Almighty continue to guide and provide you with this good work.
Abubakar,
(Nigeria)
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Re: CONGRESS URGES NEW PM TO RESPECT DEMOCRATIC RESULTS IN PALESTINIAN
ELECTIONS
Your efforts provide a great service to the Muslims in Canada.
Congratulations!
Munawar Merchant
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I extend congratulations to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper and the
Conservative Party of Canada on winning the federal election. The diverse
participation of Quebec voters and the airing of the voices of the West
bode well for Canadian unity.
I also congratulate Dr. Elmasry and the Canadian Islamic Congress on
providing a very valuable and successful political education service for
Muslims. I believe that a new chapter has begun for Canadian Muslims and no
party should now take law-abiding and loyal Canadian Muslims for granted.
We hope that future governments will realize that the positions of the CIC
and the Islamic community at large are just and based on reason, compassion
and a desire for peace. I am sure the CIC will be there reminding them.
Akber Choudhry
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Dear Dr. Mohamed Elmasry;
As a Canadian Christian I simply want you to know how appalled I am by the
recent caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. I have not seen them
personally, but only partial displays of them on television as well as
descriptions. Neither do I wish to see them. I believe in religious freedom
for all and I believe that people of faith should not have to be subjected
to what is called "the freedom of the press" to the point where [others']
faith(s) are slandered and mocked.
I am a simple man, not a theologian or person of influence; however, it is
my opinion that the cartoons are inflammatory and should never have been
allowed to be published. I do not believe that "freedom of the press"
should override the freedom of any faith to live without discrimination, or
depict their prophets, icons, and God as being less than what they are. I
also believe that Islam is a faith based upon peace.
I do not believe that violence is the answer to the dilemma which now faces
you, nor do I believe that Canadian Muslims seek to use violence. That is
what makes Canada a wonderful country. We are able to live relatively
peacefully and co-exist for the most part. While all religions suffer
somewhat from such disturbing displays as what has happened recently to the
Islamic peoples, Canada has remained a relative bastion of calm.
Despite the above, I am aware that people in Canada, indeed even some
Christians, are not sympathetic about the offense towards Islam; it is to
their shame. Canadians should come together as one people, despite our
varying belief systems or lack thereof and take peaceful action toward
those who would blatantly slander others. I am aware that Islam is the
target of hate crimes even within Canada, as are Christians at times.
Simply, I want you to know that I am sympathetic to the outrage amongst the
Islamic peoples of the world. As I said, I do not believe violence is the
answer. However, the Danish newspaper has refused to withdraw or apologize
for their transgression. It is my belief that perhaps a boycott against
their economy is the best possible solution to voice our dissent. Wherever
a Danish product can be identified it should simply be boycotted. I would
urge any person of any faith to partake in such an boycott. Though this
flash point was not propagated by all Danish peoples, I believe that this
is the best solution to let the Danish government and press know how we
feel. Such intolerance should not be suffered now or in the future.
At the very least I hope you will come to realize that not all Christians
agree with what has transpired over the past few months. I certainly do
not. I may not be Muslim and I may not have suffered as you have, but I do
have an empathy towards this situation. I look forward to a Canada in which
all religions and peoples can peacefully live together despite cultural and
religious differences. I embrace peace and harmony. This cannot be
accomplished as long as there are people so insensitive towards people of
faith that they would malign their icons, their prophets and even their
God.
Peace be with you,
R. Jones (Edmonton, Alberta)
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February 11, 2006
Letters to the Editor, The Edmonton Sun
Re: "'Toons spark ire in Calgary," Feb. 11.
In his attempt to justify publishing the Danish cartoons depicting the
Prophet Muhammad, Jewish Free Press editor Richard Bronstein trots out the
canard that "people need to make up their own minds."
Only a fool fails to comprehend that Mr. Bronstein and his ilk are
deliberately denigrating the founder of Islam, an Abrahamic faith whose
contribution to civilization is unsurpassed.
The cartoon most offensive to the world's more than one billion Muslims is
the one of Muhammad with a bomb in his head dress. Defying logic and
morality, it implies that he was a terrorist because a relatively few
Muslims have engaged in terrorism, including suicide bombings.
I have a question for Mr. Bronstein based on the fact that the world's
leading human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch, have repeatedly censured Israel for committing crimes against
humanity and war crimes against Palestinians. Would you publish a cartoon
showing Moses at the controls of an Israeli helicopter gunship or F16
bombing, strafing and launching missiles against defenceless Palestinian
civilians?
Yours sincerely,
Gary D. Keenan
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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
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