Opinion: How to respond to the cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed?

Baghdad (Azzaman) By Fatih Abdulsalam - I have had a look at the cartoons undermining the great prophet of Islam and humanity, Mohammed. They are not innocent. They are an attempt to destroy the picture of Islam as a mission of tolerance disseminating knowledge, science and coexistence among peoples and tribes.

In this view I am not pursuing the unlicensed and unqualified religious scholars and clerics of the 21st century whose interpretations have made Islam an easy target for arrows fired from the quivers of societies led by different ideas.

At the outset, those abominable cartoons are not the product of freedom of expression as some say. They are an upshot of the U.S. campaign on terrorism.

This campaign has turned at least half of Iraq into wasteland under the cover of regional and international ‘legitimacy’ and we are awaiting the destruction of the other half.

However, there is yet another aspect to the issue.

Muslims, generally speaking, are to blame for failing to carry the mission of their religion as a platform for principles consolidating world peace, promulgating virtue and respecting human rights particularly those of women.

Arab diplomatic missions are busy monitoring members of groups opposing their regimes who are in the first place afraid of their own people.

Having said that, there must be some response to these cartoons; but the question is how?

Boycott is not enough and perhaps Muslims themselves will be harmed because of it. Muslim countries do not have a solid economic base to stand on.

Fighting those tarnishing the picture of Islam, whether through old-fashioned ideas and worn-out methods, is a must.

But Muslims will also need dialogue – meetings, conferences, symposiums – to inform about the identity of their tolerant religion and rather than their current identity.

There is a huge gap between the identity of Islam and what many of his followers have chosen to be.

What are we going to do if all industrialized nations opted to publish these cartoons. Would our countries survive without medicine, food, commerce and industry?

We the Muslims have not woken up to the extent of ruin we experience under that shadow of governments that have turned their states into hideouts and ganglands and not states that are proud of their peoples."
The Kurdistani

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