Islam itu agama damai, bual orang Islam... --
National Violent protests against sacrilegious film likely to intensify Sabir Shah Monday, September 17, 2012 >From Print Edition LAHORE: The wrathful reaction of Muslims against sacrilegious acts in the past suggests that violent demonstrations across the Islamic countries against the California-made blasphemous video are likely to intensify in the days to come. Furious protests were witnessed across the Muslim world following Salman Rushdie's blasphemous 547-page 1988 novel `The Satanic Verses', 2008 film `Fitna' of Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the Danish cartoon controversy of September 2005. It has been quarter of a century now that various European and American individuals are consistently displaying irreverence towards Muslim beliefs and Islamic teachings, compelling the believers in countries like Pakistan, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Iran, Bangladesh, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan and Iraq to break into a furious rage, take to the streets and register their protests in a manner that cannot be called `peaceful' by any stretch of imagination. Salman Rushdie's novel `The Satanic Verses' had attracted resentment from the Muslim world 24 years ago. In 1988, this novel was immediately banned in Pakistan, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Sudan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Qatar, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Venezuela and Singapore. On December 2, 1988, some 7,000 British Muslims had publicly set copies of `The Satanic Verses' ablaze. On February 12, 1989, six people were killed and 100 injured when nearly 10,000 angry Muslims had attack the American Cultural Centre in Islamabad, protesting against Rushdie, his book and his `patrons'. The anguish of the Muslims then could be gauged from the fact that in 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran had issued a decree (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie, forcing the writer to go into hiding for nine years. An Iranian religious foundation had even come out offering a reward of $1 million for the murder of Rushdie and many other Muslim charities followed suit in later years. A BBC report had stated: "Scotland Yard is providing the author with specialist protection and advice and all 11,000 staffers at publishers Viking have received internal memos about the potential danger". On February 18, 1989, Rushdie had formally apologized through media for hurting the Muslim sentiments. On February 22, 1989, following the publication of Rushdie's novel in the US, leading book houses like `Barnes and Noble' and `Waldenbooks' had to remove the book from the shelves of one-third of the country's bookstores. On February 28, 1989, the offices of the Riverdale Press a weekly newspaper in the Bronx locality of New York, was rocked by firebombs. On March 7, 1989, Iran broke diplomatic relations with Britain. In 1990, bombing incidents targeted a few bookstores in England. In July 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, the novel's Japanese translator, was stabbed to death and Ettore Capriolo, the book's Italian translator, was seriously wounded. On July 2, 1993, some 37 Turkish intellectuals and locals participating in Literary Festival in Turkey had died when the hotel hosting the moot was set on fire by an angry mob because Aziz, the Turkish translator of Rushdie's novel, was among the expected guest speakers. The translator escaped the fire and survived. In October 1993, the novel's Norwegian publisher, William was shot and seriously injured. On August 26, 1995, Rushdie had admitted in a newspaper interview that it was biggest mistake of his life to pen down `The Satanic Verses'. In 1998, although the Iranian government had publicly declared that it would neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie, the month of February in 1999 saw more than half of the Iranian Parliament signing a statement that the death verdict on Rushdie was still valid. In 2007, the Muslims got more infuriated when Rushdie's name was published in Queen Elizabeth's birthday honours list and he was consequently awarded a knighthood for services to literature. The decision of the British government to knight Rushdie was deplored in various Muslim countries, including Pakistan, as General Pervez Musharraf-led regime had vehemently lashed out at the United Kingdom. In January 2012, organizers of the Jaipur Literature Festival in India found themselves in a quandary after the country's Islamic school `Darul Uloom Deoband' had demanded of the Indian government to deny Rushdie a visa for his scheduled appearance at the festival. Though the Indian government never paid any heed to the demand, Rushdie had himself declined to fly over due to security concerns. After Dutch politician Geert Wilders' film `Fitna', that he was banned from entering the United Kingdom between February 12, 2009 and October 13, 2009 by the British government, which said his presence would be a `threat to one of the fundamental interests of society'. The ban on Wilders was overturned on appeal in October 2009. In January 2009, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal had ordered Geert Wilders' prosecution for `incitement to hatred and discrimination'. Wilders was acquitted of these charges on June 23, 2011. Still facing serious death threats, Geert Wilders moves in a heavy protection of state-provided guards and changes locations every night. The strongest voice against hijab (veil), burqa and building mosques in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders had even developed differences within his political party, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy or VVD for his extreme behaviour against Islam and its followers. Wilders ultimately had to part ways with the VVD, laying the foundation of his own political party - the Party for Freedom. The Der Spiegel had stated: "Wilders is depriving himself of a personal life with his obsessive hatred of Islam. His bodyguards move him to a different location every night. He sees his wife once every week or two. In his windowless office in the Dutch parliament building in The Hague, the Binnenhof, he smiles derisively as he shows films depicting his image, underscored with the rattle of machine guns and the snarling voice of a hate-mongering imam calling for his death". It is pertinent to note that in November 2004, Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim of Moroccan origin, had assassinated a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, in Amsterdam for producing a film `Submission', which criticized the treatment of women in Islam and hence aroused controversy among Muslims. Theo van Gogh had produced this film with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a female Dutch writer-cum-politician of Somali orgin. The Der Spiegel writes: "Using a knife, the killer pinned a blood-spattered note to van Gogh's body, threatening the life of Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam". Ayaan Hirsi Ali has also received several awards including a free speech award from the Danish broadsheet newspaper `Jyllands-Posten', more known globally for publishing 12 blasphemous cartoons in September 2005. The blasphemous cartoon had initially drawn protests from Muslims living in Denmark and then the resultant unrest had engulfed the whole of Muslim world, including Pakistan. The cartoonist was Kurt Westergaard. At the start of 2006, Danish embassies around the world were attacked and dozens died in rioting. Just to mention one such incident, the Danish embassy in Islamabad was attacked on June 2, 2008. The suicide car bomb attack had killed at least six people. Al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for the attack on June 5, 2008. The attack was confirmed to be an answer to the reprinting of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's cartoons, as well as the presence of Danish troops in Afghanistan. The cartoons controversy had resulted in withdrawal of the ambassadors of Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria from Denmark, as well as boycotts of Danish consumer products in a number of Islamic countries. Although this Danish newspaper has tendered an apology to the Muslims, two of its main offices have since been the subject of several bomb threats. In February 2008, following the arrest of three men who allegedly had conspired to kill one of the cartoonists, Jyllands-Posten and 16 other Danish newspapers republished the cartoon in question to `show their commitment to freedom of speech'. Five men were arrested in the Scandinavian capitals in December 2010 for allegedly planning to kill as many of the people present as possible at the Jyllands-Posten Copenhagen news desk. Last but not least, Tasleema Nasreen, a Bangladeshi author and former physician, has been living in exile since 1994 in various European countries and in India for her unflinching criticism of Islam and for blaming the Muslims of oppressing their women. On August 9, 2007, Nasrin was attacked by a violent mob in Indian city of Hyderabad. On August 17, 2007, the Kolkata-based Muslims clerics offered an unlimited amount of money to anybody who would kill her. On November 21, 2007, Kolkata witnessed a violent protest against Nasrin by Muslims, following which the army was deployed to restore order. Till date, since the last 18 years, Taslima remains in hiding - probably in India - as various Indian newspaper reports have suggested. ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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