On September 30, 2005, a group of cartoonists published a collection of cartoons that insulted Islamic figures including the Prophet Muhammad in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. This demonstrated the regular western attitude that criticizes everything, even sacred religions, as part of freedom of expression. After Danish Muslims visited Arab countries, some Islamic preachers and thinkers, who follow disordered political systems in Iran and Syria, found a great opportunity to revolt against western schemes in the Middle East. For example, Hasan Nasr declared on February 1, 2006 that serious action should be taken against those who published the cartoons. On February 3, 2006 Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī said during the Friday sermon, "the nation should feel angry. Imām al-Shāfi‘ī said that he who is pushed to get angry and does not get angry is a donkey, and we are not donkeys; we are furious lions."
Some extremist Islamic groups who are ready to get furious and violent responded to al-Qaradāwī’s speech. They began chaotic and destructive demonstrations in most Islamic countries. For example, 11 churches were burned in Nigeria, where 24 people were killed and 20 others were injured. Demonstrators in Libya burned the Italian consulate in Benghazi and 11 were killed while being chased by the police. In Syria, both the Danish and the Norwegian embassies were attacked. Besides, the demonstrators burned the Danish embassy and consulate in Beirut.
On September 12, 2006, Pope Benedict delivered a deep philosophical lecture about the relationship between "faith and reason" in a German university, in which he quoted some negative comments about the Prophet Muhammad said by Emperor Manuel II during the fourteenth century. The Pope apologized three times for the pain his speech caused to all Muslims. However, many Islamic thinkers and extremist leaders kept attacking and insulting the Pope.
Their violent attacks were, as usual, void of both meaning and reason. In the Gaza Strip, five churches were attacked and damaged and 11 other churches were burned in Nigeria on September 22. In addition, in Iran, Ahmad Khātamī demanded that the Pope kneel and apologize to all Muslims. Al-Qaradāwī said, on al-Jazīrah satellite channel [http://english.aljazeera.net/News], that "we cannot remain silent especially after the Pope’s lecture." On September 21, 2006 he was interviewed again on al-Jazīrah where he called on all Muslims to kill whoever attacks Islam or the Prophet Muhammad.
All these responses can be easily summarized in one motto that fits all extremist organizations. This motto is "violence is the solution." All this killing and destruction is considered by the thousands who promote extremist ideas to be acceptable actions. What about the daily abuses and attacks in the Islamic world against other religions, especially Judaism and Christianity? Muslims say that the Pope’s insult is unforgivable because it was said by a great Christian figure, the head of the Catholic church. What about the insults said by major Islamic figures against others?
Here are some of the actions and declarations that are being taken and said against other religions:
- Fatwà no. 19402 issued by the Saudi Fatwà Committee states that "there is no true religion on earth except Islam. It is one of the fundamentals of Islam to believe that all non-Muslims are kāfir, including Christians and Jews. Muslims are not allowed to permit the building of a mosque, a church and a Jewish temple in the same building, for this means that they are admitting to other religions rather than Islam. It is also not permitted to print either the Bible or the Torah."
- The former Grand Imām of the Azhar, ‘Abd al-Halīm Mahmūd, writes, in his book ‘al-Imān bi Allāh’ [Believing in God], "Christians are like a contagious disease that all Muslims should ill-treat and despise until they convert to Islam."
- Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī considers all Jews and Christians to be kāfir. This was declared in his books and seminars. The last of these declarations took place after the pope’s speech, when al-Qaradāwī said, "Christianity is based on resembling the created to the creator by claiming that man is the son of God. The Holy Qur’ān is the only revelation that is kept unchanged or from distortion."
- The Islamic preacher, Zaghlūl al-Najjār, says and writes, "Muslims should fight in all ways to destroy Israel" and "Judaism is not really a religion. It is rather a disease that works on replacing the person’s good nature with a demonic power."
- The comment of Khālid Mash‘al, head of Hamās, concerning the Danish cartoons was, "The nation of the Prophet Muhammad will lead the world. You [the West] will be defeated in Palestine and Iraq. Muslims will triumph. If you do not apologize to our nation, you will regret it, for our nation will not forgive you when we control the world in shā’ Allāh. Our nation is coming."
This is how the radical talk that controls the main body of Islamic extremist countries is characterized; as speech that accuses both Christians and Jews of being kāfir. It encourages terrorism and murder. It is talk that criticizes the holy books of the Jews and Christians and claims that they have been distorted. It is hostile talk that attacks the West, America and Israel.
The question now is: who should apologize to whom? Who should judge whom?
The former Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Athnar said, "Why is it always the West who should ask for forgiveness at a time when the Islamic world never apologizes? I have never heard a Muslim apologize for invading Spain and colonizing it for eight centuries. There is no doubt that we have to face a radical Islamic trend that is affecting the Islamic world… We are being attacked and we have to defend ourselves."
Voices that demand that the West apologize for every little thing don’t look closely at their own fatal and hostile mistakes against others.
