By Karima Rhanem | Morocco TIMES 2/5/2006 | 6:01 pm
Rabat--- Hundreds of Moroccans denounced on Friday, in a peaceful sit-in before the Parliament in Rabat, the publication of satirical cartoons on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) by some European newspapers.
The Sit-in was organized by four Islamic groups namely 'Attawhid Wa al-Islah movement', 'al- Adl Wa al-Ihsan', 'al-Haraka min ajli al-Ummah', and 'Nadi al-Fikr al-Islami'.
Demonstrators chanted slogans accusing the western publications of spreading "hatred," asking those responsible for such acts to present their excuses to the Muslim world.
Slogans read: “All Moroccans are ready to defend the prophet”, “there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet”, “this is neither dialogue nor freedom, this is hatred”.
The demonstrators also called for a boycott of all Danish products. SMS calling for the boycott are circulating since Friday.
Several political figures who attended the demonstration, have criticized the use of freedom of expression to attack millions of Muslims who reject the humiliation of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
Saâd Eddine al-Othmani, Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party told MAP news agency that “the aim of this sit-in is to send a clear message to the international community stating that Muslims won't tolerate any mockery or harm against Prophet Mohammed.” He called on the international community to adopt a charter providing for the respect of all religions.
For his part, Mohammed Lakhsasi, MP and member of the national council of the socialist party, denounced the “political drive behind these acts, which aims at harming the dignity of Muslims”.
“These acts have nothing to do with freedom of expression; rather, this is a campaign which aims at shaking the principles and values that unite Muslims,” Lakhsasi told MAP news agency.
Mohammed al-Khalifa, member of the executive commission of the Istiqlal party also denounced the cartoons and said that this sit-in is a strong and bona-fide condemnation from all Moroccans of any kind of insult against the prophet and Islam”.
Demonstrators also called on the Moroccan government, parliament, political parties, syndicates, and every official to take the issue of insulting the Prophet seriously, and to officially call on the western governments to apologize for that.
They also called on the Moroccan civil society to express their protest and denunciation over insulting Muslims.
The Supreme Council of Ulemas, headed by King Mohammed VI, has also condemned the publication of the cartoons, regretting it came to provoke Muslim's feelings.
The Council urged the wise and decision makers around the world to unite to protect freedom and all the ethical values that are threatened by hatred and irresponsible behaviors.
Morocco banned delivery of some French publications
On the same day, the Moroccan government barred the delivery of the Friday issue of French daily 'Liberation', among those who published the cartoons.
It also barred the Wednesday issue of 'France-Soir' daily that carried the cartoons and defiantly defended its right to publish them.
France Soir's Managing director has been fired for republishing the blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet.
"We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication of the cartoons," Egyptian-born Raymond Lakah, the paper's owner, said in a statement to AFP.
The Moroccan Ministry of communication said the banning of France Soir was a reaction to "the intentionally offensive character of the cartoons to the Prophet and the fact that they were a blatant and gratuitous provocation for the beliefs of Muslims."
The Ministry said that “while Morocco firmly believes in tolerance and openness, it deems that mutual respect is needed and does not accept nor allow that a religious reference shared by the entire Islamic nation be subject to mockery.”
It added that any other publication that offends the religious feelings of over 1.5 billion believers shall be denied access to the Moroccan territory.
Learning beforehand that Morocco will not distribute its Friday issue in Morocco, the French daily “Le Monde”, which also published on Friday the caricatures, decided not to send its edition to Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Oman, "taking into account the hyper-sensitivity to this issue.
In the name of press freedom, more European newspapers ran controversial cartoons: the Die Welt, Spanish ABC and Catalan El Periodico, Italian La Stampa and Il Corriere della Sera, and Belgian De Standaard.
The United States condemned the cartoons on Friday, siding with Muslims who are outraged that newspapers put press freedom over respect for religion.
Apart from the BBC, which briefly broadcast the drawings on Thursday, Britain's newspapers have so far refused to publish the cartoons, earning them praise from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
"I believe the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong," Straw said.
To explain the reason for its attitude, the BBC contented itself saying that the drawings were screened in 'a responsible manner' to explain to its viewers the cause of the violent sentiments that had arisen after the republication of the cartoons in different papers in Europe.
Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met Muslim envoys to seek calm but said he could not apologise on behalf of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper which first published the images.
Violent Protests in the Middle East
While Morocco staged a peaceful demonstration against the cartoons, protests in other countries mainly in Palestine, Lebanon and Syrian took other forms.
In Gaza City, demonstrators hurled stones at a European Commission building and stormed a German cultural center, smashing windows and doors. Protesters also burned German and Danish flags and called for a boycott of Danish products.
In Lebanon, thousands of Lebanese protesters gathered on Sunday near the Danish diplomatic mission in Beirut to condemn the cartoons and managed to set ablaze the embassy, waving black and green Islamic flags in front of the burning building.
The most violent demonstration against the publication of the cartoons took place Saturday in Syria, where demonstrators managed to set alight the Danish and Norwegian embassies.
Denmark and Norway blamed the inefficiency of security bodies in Syria and said it was unacceptable that Syrian authorities had allowed the protests to take place.
Thousands of angry Muslims also protested in other cities around the world, including Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan, Indonesia, and London.
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The blog contains most of my past articles at Morocco Times. It also includes some interesting subjects in different fields
By Karima Rhanem | Morocco TIMES 2/2/2006 | 6:04 pm
Morocco has banned the distribution of the Wednesday edition of the French daily, France Soir, which republished insulting cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) under the pretext of “freedom of expression”, said a release of the Ministry of Communication.
The Ministry said the ban was a reaction to "the intentionally offensive character of the cartoons to the Prophet and the fact that they were a blatant and gratuitous provocation for the beliefs of Muslims."
The release stresses that, while Morocco firmly believes in tolerance and openness, it deems that mutual respect is needed and does not accept nor allow that a religious reference shared by the entire Islamic nation be subject to mocked at.
It added that any other publication that offends the religious feelings of over 1.5 billion believers shall be denied access to the Moroccan territory.
The Moroccan Supreme Council of Ulemas also condemned on Tuesday the publication of these cartoons, regretting it came to provoke Muslims' feelings.
The council has also criticized the use of freedom of expression to attack millions of Muslims who reject the humiliation of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
The Council urged the wise and decision makers around the world to unite to protect freedom and all the ethical values that are threatened by hatred and irresponsible behaviors.
Meanwhile the editor of the daily France Soir has been fired for republishing blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet.
"We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication of the cartoons," Egyptian-born Raymond Lakah, the paper's owner, said in a statement to AFP.
He decided to "remove Jacques Lefranc as managing director of the publication as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual."
Under the title “Yes, we have the right to caricature God”, the French daily put on its front page the depiction of Prophet Mohammed angry and sitting on a cloud with Buddha, and a Jewish and a Christian God.
While the Danish paper, 'Jyllands-POosten', which ignited the Arab world's anger, apologized on Monday for causing the “not intended offence” to Muslims, the French daily said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.
More other European newspapers have reprinted the caricatures in the name of “freedom of expression”. These included the German Welt daily which put one of the drawings on its front page on Wednesday, saying the picture was "harmless" and regretting that the Danish Jyllands-Posten daily had apologised for causing offense.
In Spain, ABC and the Catalan paper El Periodico also published the cartoons. They were joined by the Italian papers La Stampa and Il Corriere della Sera.
Jyllands-POosten, Denmark's largest circulation daily, published in September 2005, twelve satirical cartoons on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about him.
One of the cartoons portrays the Prophet wearing a time-bomb-shaped turban and shows him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.
The cartoons have sparked uproar in the Muslim world. Several countries summoned their ambassadors or closed their embassies in Denmark; others called for a boycott of all Danish products. The debate on the issue was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations, which Islam consider blasphemous.
The reprinting of the insulting cartoons by France Soir, a once successful daily which is now fighting to survive, has drawn condemnation from the six million Muslims living in France.
French Muslim leaders denounced in unison the reprinting of the cartoons and vowed to take the case to French courts.
“We call on French Muslims to peacefully protest this aggression on the Prophet of Islam,” the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM) said in a statement after a meeting chaired by its head Dalil Boubackeur.
Boubakeur's call was echoed by Lhaj Thami Breze, the head of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), who blasted the provocative and unnecessary publication.
The Muslim world's two main political bodies, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, said Sunday they were seeking a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions in response to the furor.
Morocco has banned the distribution of the Wednesday edition of the French daily, France Soir, which republished insulting cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) under the pretext of “freedom of expression”, said a release of the Ministry of Communication.
The Ministry said the ban was a reaction to "the intentionally offensive character of the cartoons to the Prophet and the fact that they were a blatant and gratuitous provocation for the beliefs of Muslims."
The release stresses that, while Morocco firmly believes in tolerance and openness, it deems that mutual respect is needed and does not accept nor allow that a religious reference shared by the entire Islamic nation be subject to mocked at.
It added that any other publication that offends the religious feelings of over 1.5 billion believers shall be denied access to the Moroccan territory.
The Moroccan Supreme Council of Ulemas also condemned on Tuesday the publication of these cartoons, regretting it came to provoke Muslims' feelings.
The council has also criticized the use of freedom of expression to attack millions of Muslims who reject the humiliation of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
The Council urged the wise and decision makers around the world to unite to protect freedom and all the ethical values that are threatened by hatred and irresponsible behaviors.
Meanwhile the editor of the daily France Soir has been fired for republishing blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet.
"We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication of the cartoons," Egyptian-born Raymond Lakah, the paper's owner, said in a statement to AFP.
He decided to "remove Jacques Lefranc as managing director of the publication as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual."
Under the title “Yes, we have the right to caricature God”, the French daily put on its front page the depiction of Prophet Mohammed angry and sitting on a cloud with Buddha, and a Jewish and a Christian God.
While the Danish paper, 'Jyllands-POosten', which ignited the Arab world's anger, apologized on Monday for causing the “not intended offence” to Muslims, the French daily said it had published the cartoons to show that "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.
More other European newspapers have reprinted the caricatures in the name of “freedom of expression”. These included the German Welt daily which put one of the drawings on its front page on Wednesday, saying the picture was "harmless" and regretting that the Danish Jyllands-Posten daily had apologised for causing offense.
In Spain, ABC and the Catalan paper El Periodico also published the cartoons. They were joined by the Italian papers La Stampa and Il Corriere della Sera.
Jyllands-POosten, Denmark's largest circulation daily, published in September 2005, twelve satirical cartoons on Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about him.
One of the cartoons portrays the Prophet wearing a time-bomb-shaped turban and shows him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.
The cartoons have sparked uproar in the Muslim world. Several countries summoned their ambassadors or closed their embassies in Denmark; others called for a boycott of all Danish products. The debate on the issue was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations, which Islam consider blasphemous.
The reprinting of the insulting cartoons by France Soir, a once successful daily which is now fighting to survive, has drawn condemnation from the six million Muslims living in France.
French Muslim leaders denounced in unison the reprinting of the cartoons and vowed to take the case to French courts.
“We call on French Muslims to peacefully protest this aggression on the Prophet of Islam,” the French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM) said in a statement after a meeting chaired by its head Dalil Boubackeur.
Boubakeur's call was echoed by Lhaj Thami Breze, the head of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), who blasted the provocative and unnecessary publication.
The Muslim world's two main political bodies, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, said Sunday they were seeking a UN resolution, backed by possible sanctions, to protect religions in response to the furor.
By Karima Rhanem | Morocco TIMES 1/31/2006 | 6:26 pm
Morocco condemned on Tuesday the publication of satirical cartoons on Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, regretting it came to provoke Muslim's feelings, said a release of the Moroccan Supreme Council of Ulemas.
The council has also criticized the use of freedom of expression to attack millions of Muslims who reject the humiliation of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
The Council urged the wise and decision makers around the world to unite to protect freedom and all the ethical values that are threatened by hatred and irresponsible behaviors.
The Council, which is presided over by King Mohammed VI, includes 15 members, heads of the thirty regional councils of Ulema, the Minister of Islamic affairs, and a secretary general.
Officials in Muslim countries and various religious bodies have also expressed anger at the cartoons, while the editors of the newspapers have defended their publication on the grounds of freedom of expression.
The Council of Europe, concerned about the developments, warned the
Danish government last week against publications provoking enmity and
an interesting protest rose from inside Denmark.
Twenty-two retired Danish ambassadors issued a joint declaration in the country's bestselling newspaper the Politiken, criticizing the Danish Premier and the newspaper Jyllands Posten and underlining that freedom of expression cannot be used in a way to offend Muslims.
'Jyllands-POosten', Denmark's largest circulation daily, published in September 2005, twelve satirical cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about him.
One of the cartoons portrays the Prophet wearing a time-bomb-shaped turban and shows him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.
Muslim States in protest, call for Danish products boycott
The cartoons have sparked uproar in the Muslim world who called for a boycott of all Danish products. The debate on the issue was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations, which Islam consider blasphemous.
While Denmark's Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen tried to assuage Muslim anger, several Arab countries have recalled their ambassadors, or say they plan to do so; and Denmark cautioned its citizens about travel in Muslim countries.
Libya closed on Sunday its embassy in Denmark in protest at the drawings and Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Denmark.
Muslim wrath has spread rapidly in the Middle East, with Gulf retailers pulling Danish products off their shelves and protesters gathering outside Danish embassies.
A Qatari cooperative society, al-Meera, has decided to boycott Danish and Norwegian products.
The move follows similar action taken by other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, in protest at the cartoons.
Egypt's Federation of Chambers of Commerce has also launched a boycott and plans to urge organizations in the maritime transport sector to halt their dealings with shipping lines that transport Danish goods.
The boycott call already prompted a Danish food company, which produces a range of dairy products for sale in the Arabic region, to close a dairy in the Saudi city of Riyadh that employs 800 people.
Arla Foods, a Danish company and the second-largest distributor of dairy products in Europe, reported that sales had dropped to nothing.
"This is a public uprising," Louis Honore, a spokesman for Arla, told the New York Times. "This has spread through the region like wildfire. And the boycott has been practically 100 %."
The Middle East is Arla Foods' main market outside Europe. It has $430 million in annual sales in the Middle East and about 1000 employees in the region.
The ramifications of the dispute could reach well beyond Scandinavia. The Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are planning to ask the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs, and backed by threats of sanctions.
EU warns on Danish boycott
The European Union has warned Saudi Arabia that the bloc will take action at the World Trade Organization if the Riyadh government supports a boycott of Danish goods.
Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, told the Saudi Minister of State that any Danish boycott would be a boycott of the European Union.
Peter Power, a EU spokesman, said on Monday “he made it clear that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott, Commissioner Mandelson would regret having to take the issue to the WTO."
Muslim wrath forces Danish paper to apologize
The editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, apologized on Monday for publishing satirical caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a boycott of Danish products across the Muslim world and generated threats to Nordic citizens abroad.
In a statement to "Honorable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World", the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, said the cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law but they have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, for which we would like to apologize".
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed on Monday his first criticism of the publication, but said his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper.
"I personally have such respect for people's religious feelings that I personally would not have depicted Mohammed, Jesus or other religious figures in such a manner that would offend other people," Rasmussen said.
Earlier this month, the conservative Prime Minister rejecting the demand for talks
made by 12 Muslim countries' ambassadors in Copenhagen including
Turkey's, supported the cartoons publication on grounds of "freedom of press and expression".
On Tuesday, the Danish Prime Minister directed his criticism towards the Islamic Faith Community based in Denmark, which according to him they spread "misinformation" about the country in the Arab media after their tour of the Middle East.
Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Muslim group, denied spreading any false information about Denmark.
The Scandinavian country has some 170,000 Muslims. Islam is the second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, whose followers comprise four-fifths of the country's population
Muslims assaulted several times in past months
The past months have known several assaults against Muslims which sparked Muslim outrage all around the world.
In May 2005, the US magazine, Newsweek, quoting a knowledgeable US government source, said US interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Qur'an down a toilet.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it had provided the Pentagon with confidential reports about US personnel disrespecting or mishandling the Qur'an at Gitmo in 2002 and 2003.
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Gaza city.
In July 2005, US Republican Tom Tancredo had suggested “the United States could target Muslim holy sites (bombing Mecca) if radical Islamic terrorists set off multiple nuclear attacks in American cities.”
In December 2005, the US Coalition for a Secure Driver's License's launched a billboard campaign in New Mexico and North Carolina, which contains extremely negative and racist images of Muslims, Arabs and Arab cultural symbols.
The billboard incites fears of Arab and Muslim Americans and depicts them as a threat to the American national security, “misleadingly” using “false stereotypes and racist rhetoric to push their anti-immigration agenda.”
“The ad depicts an individual whose face is covered by a Kufiya (the traditional male headdress in some Arab countries,) carrying a hand-grenade and a North Carolina driver's license. The billboard also features nonsensical Arabic letters that do not form words and two figures in the background wearing military fatigues. The caption reads 'Don't License Terrorists, North Carolina!'"
More recently, a host of KFI-AM 640, a Los Angeles-area radio show made fun of a stampede that killed hundreds of Muslims during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
According to the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), host Bill Handel imitated the people screaming and then joked that the Muslims at the pilgrimage should use a helicopter to monitor pilgrimage traffic, as is done in Los Angeles with the freeways.
CAIR quoted Handel as saying, "This is Mahmoud Nolan. Hajj in the Sky. There is an accident ... Ali lost his sandal on the on-ramp to the Martin Luther King Jr. freeway ..."
In March 2004, KFI issued an on-air apology after CAIR filed a complaint with the US Federal Communications Commission after a skit that claimed Muslims have sex with animals, do not bathe and hate Jews.
The Los Angeles radio has said “he will apologize only if an Islamic civil rights group denounces terrorism and acknowledges Israel's right to exist.”
The recent assaults against Muslims through the publication of satirical cartoons on the prophet Mohammed will not be the last attack on Muslims if the Islamic Ummah does not move to protect the dignity of the one billion Muslim around the world.
Morocco condemned on Tuesday the publication of satirical cartoons on Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper, regretting it came to provoke Muslim's feelings, said a release of the Moroccan Supreme Council of Ulemas.
The council has also criticized the use of freedom of expression to attack millions of Muslims who reject the humiliation of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
The Council urged the wise and decision makers around the world to unite to protect freedom and all the ethical values that are threatened by hatred and irresponsible behaviors.
The Council, which is presided over by King Mohammed VI, includes 15 members, heads of the thirty regional councils of Ulema, the Minister of Islamic affairs, and a secretary general.
Officials in Muslim countries and various religious bodies have also expressed anger at the cartoons, while the editors of the newspapers have defended their publication on the grounds of freedom of expression.
The Council of Europe, concerned about the developments, warned the
Danish government last week against publications provoking enmity and
an interesting protest rose from inside Denmark.
Twenty-two retired Danish ambassadors issued a joint declaration in the country's bestselling newspaper the Politiken, criticizing the Danish Premier and the newspaper Jyllands Posten and underlining that freedom of expression cannot be used in a way to offend Muslims.
'Jyllands-POosten', Denmark's largest circulation daily, published in September 2005, twelve satirical cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about him.
One of the cartoons portrays the Prophet wearing a time-bomb-shaped turban and shows him as a wild-eyed, knife-wielding bedouin flanked by two women shrouded in black.
Muslim States in protest, call for Danish products boycott
The cartoons have sparked uproar in the Muslim world who called for a boycott of all Danish products. The debate on the issue was re-ignited last week when a Norwegian Christian magazine republished the illustrations, which Islam consider blasphemous.
While Denmark's Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen tried to assuage Muslim anger, several Arab countries have recalled their ambassadors, or say they plan to do so; and Denmark cautioned its citizens about travel in Muslim countries.
Libya closed on Sunday its embassy in Denmark in protest at the drawings and Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Denmark.
Muslim wrath has spread rapidly in the Middle East, with Gulf retailers pulling Danish products off their shelves and protesters gathering outside Danish embassies.
A Qatari cooperative society, al-Meera, has decided to boycott Danish and Norwegian products.
The move follows similar action taken by other Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, in protest at the cartoons.
Egypt's Federation of Chambers of Commerce has also launched a boycott and plans to urge organizations in the maritime transport sector to halt their dealings with shipping lines that transport Danish goods.
The boycott call already prompted a Danish food company, which produces a range of dairy products for sale in the Arabic region, to close a dairy in the Saudi city of Riyadh that employs 800 people.
Arla Foods, a Danish company and the second-largest distributor of dairy products in Europe, reported that sales had dropped to nothing.
"This is a public uprising," Louis Honore, a spokesman for Arla, told the New York Times. "This has spread through the region like wildfire. And the boycott has been practically 100 %."
The Middle East is Arla Foods' main market outside Europe. It has $430 million in annual sales in the Middle East and about 1000 employees in the region.
The ramifications of the dispute could reach well beyond Scandinavia. The Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) are planning to ask the UN General Assembly to pass a resolution banning attacks on religious beliefs, and backed by threats of sanctions.
EU warns on Danish boycott
The European Union has warned Saudi Arabia that the bloc will take action at the World Trade Organization if the Riyadh government supports a boycott of Danish goods.
Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, told the Saudi Minister of State that any Danish boycott would be a boycott of the European Union.
Peter Power, a EU spokesman, said on Monday “he made it clear that if the Saudi government had encouraged the boycott, Commissioner Mandelson would regret having to take the issue to the WTO."
Muslim wrath forces Danish paper to apologize
The editor-in-chief of the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, apologized on Monday for publishing satirical caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that have triggered a boycott of Danish products across the Muslim world and generated threats to Nordic citizens abroad.
In a statement to "Honorable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World", the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, said the cartoons "were not in violation of Danish law but they have undoubtedly offended many Muslims, for which we would like to apologize".
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed on Monday his first criticism of the publication, but said his government could not apologize on behalf of a newspaper.
"I personally have such respect for people's religious feelings that I personally would not have depicted Mohammed, Jesus or other religious figures in such a manner that would offend other people," Rasmussen said.
Earlier this month, the conservative Prime Minister rejecting the demand for talks
made by 12 Muslim countries' ambassadors in Copenhagen including
Turkey's, supported the cartoons publication on grounds of "freedom of press and expression".
On Tuesday, the Danish Prime Minister directed his criticism towards the Islamic Faith Community based in Denmark, which according to him they spread "misinformation" about the country in the Arab media after their tour of the Middle East.
Kasem Ahmad, a spokesman for the Muslim group, denied spreading any false information about Denmark.
The Scandinavian country has some 170,000 Muslims. Islam is the second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, whose followers comprise four-fifths of the country's population
Muslims assaulted several times in past months
The past months have known several assaults against Muslims which sparked Muslim outrage all around the world.
In May 2005, the US magazine, Newsweek, quoting a knowledgeable US government source, said US interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Qur'an down a toilet.
The International Committee of the Red Cross also said it had provided the Pentagon with confidential reports about US personnel disrespecting or mishandling the Qur'an at Gitmo in 2002 and 2003.
The report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Gaza city.
In July 2005, US Republican Tom Tancredo had suggested “the United States could target Muslim holy sites (bombing Mecca) if radical Islamic terrorists set off multiple nuclear attacks in American cities.”
In December 2005, the US Coalition for a Secure Driver's License's launched a billboard campaign in New Mexico and North Carolina, which contains extremely negative and racist images of Muslims, Arabs and Arab cultural symbols.
The billboard incites fears of Arab and Muslim Americans and depicts them as a threat to the American national security, “misleadingly” using “false stereotypes and racist rhetoric to push their anti-immigration agenda.”
“The ad depicts an individual whose face is covered by a Kufiya (the traditional male headdress in some Arab countries,) carrying a hand-grenade and a North Carolina driver's license. The billboard also features nonsensical Arabic letters that do not form words and two figures in the background wearing military fatigues. The caption reads 'Don't License Terrorists, North Carolina!'"
More recently, a host of KFI-AM 640, a Los Angeles-area radio show made fun of a stampede that killed hundreds of Muslims during the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
According to the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), host Bill Handel imitated the people screaming and then joked that the Muslims at the pilgrimage should use a helicopter to monitor pilgrimage traffic, as is done in Los Angeles with the freeways.
CAIR quoted Handel as saying, "This is Mahmoud Nolan. Hajj in the Sky. There is an accident ... Ali lost his sandal on the on-ramp to the Martin Luther King Jr. freeway ..."
In March 2004, KFI issued an on-air apology after CAIR filed a complaint with the US Federal Communications Commission after a skit that claimed Muslims have sex with animals, do not bathe and hate Jews.
The Los Angeles radio has said “he will apologize only if an Islamic civil rights group denounces terrorism and acknowledges Israel's right to exist.”
The recent assaults against Muslims through the publication of satirical cartoons on the prophet Mohammed will not be the last attack on Muslims if the Islamic Ummah does not move to protect the dignity of the one billion Muslim around the world.
By Karima Rhanem | Morocco TIMES 4/18/2006 | 3:06 pm
MEDA Films Development (MFD), a project initiated by Ali n' Productions in partnership with the Marrakech Film Festival Foundation, has selected 10 film projects for their 2006 film developing programme. MFD received 29 applications from all MEDA countries, except Syria.
MFD, which is funded by the European Union-funded Euromed Audiovisual II programme, aims at promoting synergies between producers and scriptwriters of the MEDA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey) and between MEDA and European producers.
It also aims to boost cinematographic projects of the South Mediterranean countries.
Nabil Ayouch, director of Ali n' Productions said earlier in a press conference that “in the MEDA countries, professionals of motion pictures face common problems in the development of cinematographic projects.”
“These problems are essentially linked to the lack of training in both scriptwriting and film production. Therefore, training these professionals will eventually improve filmmaking projects in the MEDA countries.”
The producers and scriptwriters who are selected will attend three workshop sessions a year, which will take place in April, July and October 2006 in Marrakech (Morocco).
During the three sessions, the participants will have the opportunity to follow a number of rich and adapted activities fitting their specific needs.
The major themes of the workshops will include scriptwriting, rights and contracts between the scriptwriters and producers, the producer's role, the artistic features of the filmmaking process, the marketing and communication aspect of the film, and the film distribution.
The selected films included: Au bout du tunnel by Adlane Khodja and Anis Djaad (Algeria), Sense of Will by Nizar Yunès and Shady Srour (Israel),Temporarely Unsignified by Baher Agbaria and Juna Suleiman (Israel), Le Testament by Pierre Sarraf and Nadim Tabet (Lebanon), Un homme d'honneur by Michel Ghosn and Jean-Claude Codsi (Lebanon), Oum by Olga Nakkas (Lebanon), Dancing At The Check Point by Karma Abu Sharif and Ismaël Habbash (Palestine), Azrayl by Mohieddine Temimi and Semy El Haj (Tunisia), Revolutionist Youth Bridge by Selda Salman and Bahriye Kabadayi (Turkey), Elif by Devici Sadik and Voskay Sibel (Turkey).
The Euromed Audiovisual II is a three year programme launched in January 2006 to contribute to mutual understanding between the peoples of the European Union and the South of the Mediterranean by underlining their common values and the cultural diversity of the Mediterranean region.
The programme has been designed to constitute a process of experiences and know-how, to develop a better understanding through a higher diffusion of audiovisual productions between the two shores of the Mediterranean and to support the development of Mediterranean film proj
By Karima Rhanem | Morocco TIMES 5/17/2006 | 7:08 pm
Ron Howard's movie 'The Da Vinci Code', adapted from Dan Brown's best seller and world's most controversial novel, carrying the same name, was screened on Wednesday in Cannes amid Christians' protests around the world, who even called for its boycott.
The movie begins its worldwide debut with Tom Hanks as the cryptologist pursuing a 2,000-year-old mystery that could reveal Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that the Vatican covered it up.
The protests and the calls for boycotting the Da Vinci Code evoked a fierce debate over freedom of expression in the west, particularly in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) a few months ago had triggered violent protests worldwide.
This shows an attitude of double standards when it comes to dealing with certain issues that directly touch people's faiths.
If Europe defends freedom of expression, why then it used this pretext only when dealing with the issue of cartoons, and not with 'The Da Vinci Code'.
If the 'Da Vinci Code' is considered a dangerous book suffused with lies, distortions, and historical inaccuracies about Christianity and Jesus Christ, the cartoons were regarded as an insult to the person of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and to millions of Muslims around the world.
If Europe supports freedom of expression, then it should regard 'The Da Vinci Code' as any other book defending a theory, open to discussion!!
More recently, an Austrian court has sentenced British historian David Irving to three years in prison for denying the Holocaust in his book 'Hitler's War'. It is then inconceivable to try David Irving for denying a historical fact and not prosecuting Dan Brown for shaking Christians' faith by denying the Christ divinity!!!
What makes the difference between the holocaust case, the cartoons' crisis, and the Da Vinci Code claims? Whatever the difference is, freedom has limits. It should not be a pretext to attack people's faiths and beliefs. There should be a world consensus on rejecting the blasphemy of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
Christian leaders around the world denounced "The Da Vinci Code," fearful that the movie may spread misinformation about their religion. Some groups even planned boycotts and attempted to block or shorten screenings ahead of its debut on Wednesday.
Their reaction should only be understandable as that of Muslim leaders over the insulting depiction of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
The UK-based Christian Enquiry Centre is distributing 270,000 specially designed cards to every cinema screening the Hollywood version of the Dan Brown bestseller. The cards feature 10 claims made in the book. Cinema goers are asked to judge whether they are fact or fiction by scratching the appropriate box.
The Vatican officials are currently discussing whether to ignore or boycott a book that has already sold 40 million copies around the world.
What do 'The Da Vinci Code' readers think?
A poll recently conducted in Britain by Opinion Research Business among a representative sample of 1,005 adults between May 12 and 14, revealed that 'The Da Vinci Code' has seriously damaged people's faith in the Christian Church.
But two thirds of Britons who have read Dan Brown's thriller believe that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, a claim rejected as baseless by historians and Bible scholars, said the UK-based Telegraph, which published the poll.
Sixty percent of the adults polled said after reading the book that they believed there was truth in the suggestion that Jesus had children and that his bloodline survives, compared with 30 % of those who have not read it.
Just under a third (27 %) think that the Catholic Church is covering up the truth about Jesus and the figure rises to 36 % among those who have read Brown's novel.
The poll has shocked Church leaders who have mounted a massive campaign to debunk The Da Vinci Code in advance of the release of the Hollywood film version today.
The findings suggest that the book has significantly shifted attitudes towards traditional Christianity and will fuel fears that people increasingly prefer to believe in conspiracy theories that taint the Church rather than historical evidence.
Analyzing the Da Vinci code
The year's most eagerly awaited film 'The Da Vinci Code', which stars Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen and Audrey Tatou, starts with a murder in Paris Louvre Museum.
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) returns to the famous Ritz hotel for a good night's sleep after giving a talk at the American University of Paris on mysterious runes at Chartres Cathedral.
A late-night visit from the police inspector Bezu Fache leaves him shocked: the man with whom he was supposed to meet earlier that day, Jacques Saunière, has been murdered.
Jacques Saunière's body is discovered in the Louvre's Denon Wing, not far from two of Leonardo Da Vinci's greatest works.
Near the body, the police have found an enigmatic message. With the help of Saunière's granddaughter, talented cryptologist Sophie Neveu, Langdon unravels the message: a series of clues that will lead the two on a quest for the Holy Grail.
While reading the novel or watching the movie, the core questions that come into your mind is whether there is any real evidence that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married? Who is Mary Magdalene: is she a prostitute as Christian tradition has portrayed her? If she is not, why was she portrayed as such?
Does the Gospel of Philip found at Nag Hammadi (if well translated) really state that Jesus used to kiss Mary Magdalene on the mouth or it is just a metaphor? If Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, did they foster a bloodline that continued into modern times? Is Mary Magdalene a spiritual figure and the author of the 4th Gospel?
The question of Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene may turn the whole theory of the Christ's divinity and Christians' belief in Trinity upside down.
The divinity of Christ is also refuted by Muslims. Muslims honour and respect Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary. They believe that he was one in a long line of honourable prophets, who taught his people to worship and obey the One True Lord, the Creator.
The Qur'an makes it very clear that Jesus was a prophet, chosen by God to teach his people, but not associated with, nor part of, God Himself. He performed miracles, by the grace and power of God alone. He by himself could do nothing, all of his glory pointed back to the One Almighty God.
Muslims therefore reject the notion of the Trinity that is common in most Christian denominations today. Islam adheres to a firm monotheism, and considers such a theology to be idolatrous.
'The Da Vinci Code' also makes us think about Da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper' and other works. Did Da Vinci embed secret symbolic messages in his paintings? Does 'The Last Supper' depict a female Mary Magdalene to the right of Christ, rather than the male apostle John?
Dan Brown also pointed out that the Bible's composition and consolidation may appear a bit too human for the comfort of some Christians. Therefore, did leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, from Constantine to Pope Gregory, carry out a concerted attack on alternative beliefs and scriptures?
Did they edit what became the accepted canon for political purposes? Did they deliberately conflate Mary Magdalene with another Mary in the Gospels who was, indeed, a prostitute?
All these questions are open to discussion. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' is an intelligent thriller, a novel of ideas and concepts put into an action-adventure-murder mystery. Brown has given an array of fascinating ideas open to deep reflection and debate on Western history.
Ron Howard's movie 'The Da Vinci Code', adapted from Dan Brown's best seller and world's most controversial novel, carrying the same name, was screened on Wednesday in Cannes amid Christians' protests around the world, who even called for its boycott.
The movie begins its worldwide debut with Tom Hanks as the cryptologist pursuing a 2,000-year-old mystery that could reveal Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that the Vatican covered it up.
The protests and the calls for boycotting the Da Vinci Code evoked a fierce debate over freedom of expression in the west, particularly in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) a few months ago had triggered violent protests worldwide.
This shows an attitude of double standards when it comes to dealing with certain issues that directly touch people's faiths.
If Europe defends freedom of expression, why then it used this pretext only when dealing with the issue of cartoons, and not with 'The Da Vinci Code'.
If the 'Da Vinci Code' is considered a dangerous book suffused with lies, distortions, and historical inaccuracies about Christianity and Jesus Christ, the cartoons were regarded as an insult to the person of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and to millions of Muslims around the world.
If Europe supports freedom of expression, then it should regard 'The Da Vinci Code' as any other book defending a theory, open to discussion!!
More recently, an Austrian court has sentenced British historian David Irving to three years in prison for denying the Holocaust in his book 'Hitler's War'. It is then inconceivable to try David Irving for denying a historical fact and not prosecuting Dan Brown for shaking Christians' faith by denying the Christ divinity!!!
What makes the difference between the holocaust case, the cartoons' crisis, and the Da Vinci Code claims? Whatever the difference is, freedom has limits. It should not be a pretext to attack people's faiths and beliefs. There should be a world consensus on rejecting the blasphemy of any prophet, from Adam to Muhammad, including Moses and Jesus.
Christian leaders around the world denounced "The Da Vinci Code," fearful that the movie may spread misinformation about their religion. Some groups even planned boycotts and attempted to block or shorten screenings ahead of its debut on Wednesday.
Their reaction should only be understandable as that of Muslim leaders over the insulting depiction of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).
The UK-based Christian Enquiry Centre is distributing 270,000 specially designed cards to every cinema screening the Hollywood version of the Dan Brown bestseller. The cards feature 10 claims made in the book. Cinema goers are asked to judge whether they are fact or fiction by scratching the appropriate box.
The Vatican officials are currently discussing whether to ignore or boycott a book that has already sold 40 million copies around the world.
What do 'The Da Vinci Code' readers think?
A poll recently conducted in Britain by Opinion Research Business among a representative sample of 1,005 adults between May 12 and 14, revealed that 'The Da Vinci Code' has seriously damaged people's faith in the Christian Church.
But two thirds of Britons who have read Dan Brown's thriller believe that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, a claim rejected as baseless by historians and Bible scholars, said the UK-based Telegraph, which published the poll.
Sixty percent of the adults polled said after reading the book that they believed there was truth in the suggestion that Jesus had children and that his bloodline survives, compared with 30 % of those who have not read it.
Just under a third (27 %) think that the Catholic Church is covering up the truth about Jesus and the figure rises to 36 % among those who have read Brown's novel.
The poll has shocked Church leaders who have mounted a massive campaign to debunk The Da Vinci Code in advance of the release of the Hollywood film version today.
The findings suggest that the book has significantly shifted attitudes towards traditional Christianity and will fuel fears that people increasingly prefer to believe in conspiracy theories that taint the Church rather than historical evidence.
Analyzing the Da Vinci code
The year's most eagerly awaited film 'The Da Vinci Code', which stars Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen and Audrey Tatou, starts with a murder in Paris Louvre Museum.
Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) returns to the famous Ritz hotel for a good night's sleep after giving a talk at the American University of Paris on mysterious runes at Chartres Cathedral.
A late-night visit from the police inspector Bezu Fache leaves him shocked: the man with whom he was supposed to meet earlier that day, Jacques Saunière, has been murdered.
Jacques Saunière's body is discovered in the Louvre's Denon Wing, not far from two of Leonardo Da Vinci's greatest works.
Near the body, the police have found an enigmatic message. With the help of Saunière's granddaughter, talented cryptologist Sophie Neveu, Langdon unravels the message: a series of clues that will lead the two on a quest for the Holy Grail.
While reading the novel or watching the movie, the core questions that come into your mind is whether there is any real evidence that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married? Who is Mary Magdalene: is she a prostitute as Christian tradition has portrayed her? If she is not, why was she portrayed as such?
Does the Gospel of Philip found at Nag Hammadi (if well translated) really state that Jesus used to kiss Mary Magdalene on the mouth or it is just a metaphor? If Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, did they foster a bloodline that continued into modern times? Is Mary Magdalene a spiritual figure and the author of the 4th Gospel?
The question of Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene may turn the whole theory of the Christ's divinity and Christians' belief in Trinity upside down.
The divinity of Christ is also refuted by Muslims. Muslims honour and respect Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary. They believe that he was one in a long line of honourable prophets, who taught his people to worship and obey the One True Lord, the Creator.
The Qur'an makes it very clear that Jesus was a prophet, chosen by God to teach his people, but not associated with, nor part of, God Himself. He performed miracles, by the grace and power of God alone. He by himself could do nothing, all of his glory pointed back to the One Almighty God.
Muslims therefore reject the notion of the Trinity that is common in most Christian denominations today. Islam adheres to a firm monotheism, and considers such a theology to be idolatrous.
'The Da Vinci Code' also makes us think about Da Vinci's painting 'The Last Supper' and other works. Did Da Vinci embed secret symbolic messages in his paintings? Does 'The Last Supper' depict a female Mary Magdalene to the right of Christ, rather than the male apostle John?
Dan Brown also pointed out that the Bible's composition and consolidation may appear a bit too human for the comfort of some Christians. Therefore, did leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, from Constantine to Pope Gregory, carry out a concerted attack on alternative beliefs and scriptures?
Did they edit what became the accepted canon for political purposes? Did they deliberately conflate Mary Magdalene with another Mary in the Gospels who was, indeed, a prostitute?
All these questions are open to discussion. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' is an intelligent thriller, a novel of ideas and concepts put into an action-adventure-murder mystery. Brown has given an array of fascinating ideas open to deep reflection and debate on Western history.
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