“IslamOnline.net suffers hacking attempt early Monday causing minor technical hitches being redeemed”, reads the message on the website early today.
In any event…
Prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi denounced on Sunday, February 5, sabotage and violent protests by Muslims over the publication of cartoons mocking Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by several European newspapers, saying Muslims should vent anger prudently.
“The sabotage done by some Muslims in some [Arab] capitals in response to the offensive cartoons is unacceptable and should be denounced,” Qaradawi, who heads the Dublin-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) told Al-Jazeeraâ??s Shari`ah and Life program.
“We never call on people to set fire to cars, but to express their anger in a prudent manner to head off serious consequences,” said the prominent scholar.
“True that Islam has been the subject of attacks recently, but Muslims should not reciprocate.”
Qaradawi further strongly condemned the attack on a church in the Lebanese capital Beirut by a Muslim mob.
“It seems as if some opportunists are behind these attacks just to add fuel to the already raging flames,” he said.
The site also put up a few tips Muslims should follow within the borders of their religion, to face these attacks:
Muslims should try their best to â??
1. Declare before the whole world their complete condemnation of and dissatisfaction with what is happening against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)
2. Stage peaceful demonstrations and protests here and there in order to pressurize the public opinion in order for such media campaign to stop what it is doing
3. Make use of such events to present the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as a role model in the modern world, as there is no doubt that the West and those who are attacking the Prophet know nothing about him.
4. Avoid hurling insults against the people of other religions as a result of publishing those provocative cartoons against the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). There is a direct prohibition to this retaliatory behavior, as Allah Almighty says: [Revile not those unto whom they pray beside Allah lest they wrongfully revile Allah through ignorance. Thus unto every nation have We made their deed seem fair. Then unto their Lord is their return, and He will tell them what they used to do] (Al-An`am 6:108).
5. Boycott the products of the countries that have published those provocative cartoons or that are still publishing them, as the boycott is a universal weapon that is by Muslims and non-Muslims as well.
In addition to the above, I call upon all mosque imams, especially those living in the West, to start shedding more light on the great aspects of the Prophet’s personality and his rich morals that today’s world is in need of. With this, imams will be educating their respective communities about the great personality of the Prophet Muhammad and they will be forwarding an indirect message to those who are ignorantly attacking him to derive lessons from his life and character.
As for the crazy nut who did this, he should be executed.
And these guys got the address wrong. (even though their directions came from the state)
Also Read: Global Voices Roundup – Arab Bloggers Take on Danish Cartoons
“he should be executed”
Do you really mean that? I’ve been reading your blog for some days and consider you a balanced guy. Do you really believe in capital punishment. Do you think this is in accordance with your religion? I’m genuinely curious.
Regards,
Thomas
Thomas,
Arent people executed or recieve the death penalty for first degree murder?
I cant see why you are astonished about something that has been going on for so long
Ohoud
There are lots of things that have been going on for a long time that shouldn’t happen today. Capital punishment is certainly one of them. I detest any regime (including the United States) that kills its citizens. And I dis-respect anyone who believes in the justification of a death penalty.
In every civilized country today the capital punishment is abolished. The US is a sad exception in the democratic world.
If it is an islamic view that capital punishment is a good idea (as indicated in the original post) then we face another insurmountable challenge (besides the definiation of free speach) in the dialogue between democracy and islam.
Thomas
Thomas, I was of course venting out above, my rage has nothing to do with anything my religion says. And speaking of, yes it does preach capital punishment as do all the monothiestic religions, and yes I do believe in capital punishment as written in Islamic law, as long as it is in accordance with those laws and not the usual interpretations of a backwards imam somewhere in iran or something.
as for the civilized world. denmark just published 12 cartoons insulting the prophet of 1.3 billion people.
not everything the civilized world does is by default civil in nature.
thanks for the comments
Actually, here in the USA, we believe that the punishment should fit the crime.
It isn’t unreasonable that the punishment for murder should be the death of the person who committed the murder, but it should be reserved for only the most henious of cases, for example – multiple murders with other aggravating factors.
*sigh*
If we could just do that.
Great post and comments.
Nas, I am not necessarily against capital punishment per se. I have heard other reports that the suspect appeared to be as young as 14 -years old. In any event (and perhaps this is just my own cultural bias) if he is under 18 or so, I don’t think I would want to see him put to death. Furthermore, I don’t think his murder victim would want to see him put to death – the Catholic church opposes the death penalty under any circumstance. I, like Todd, believe in the death penalty but think it should be reserved for particularly barbaric cases. To give an example of why I both support the death penalty (and think that countries that have abolished it, like Britain, are too lenient) and why I would not support the death penalty in this case, here is a couple of murders to contemplate from the UK:
The Kriss Donald case:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5032720.shtml
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/lo/features/7015814.html
The Christopher Yates case:
http://www.newswatch.co.uk/headlines.asp?ref=QO1018479I
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4416988.stm
Unbelievably, for a crime as savage as the Yates murder, the killers could possibly walk the streets again in as little as 15 years – a so-called ‘life sentence’ in Britain. Even if the judge had ruled this was a ‘hate crime’ that would have only added 2 or 3 more years to the minimum sentence. If the British justice system is anything like the American system, the parents of the murder victim will have to fight constantly to keep these individuals behind bars longer than the minimum at parole and probation proceedings. The death penalty isn’t barbaric, unjust sentences like these are barbaric. Countries that don’t have the death penalty generally tend to impose weak sentences on even the most heinous criminals. No wonder the Europeans are beginning to rival us ‘gun-toting, trigger-happy cowboys’ in the United States when it comes to crime.
Nas, as I told you earlier I think that satirical comments are one of the important aspects of civilization. The reaction to those drawings should be discussion and even satirical comments to the Danish culture. Enough said.
The discussion of capital punishment is to me far more interesting than the partly funny, partly stupid drawings and the funny, partly scaring hysterical reactions to them. For me, and for the most people in Europe, there is absolutely no discussion. Capital punishment is as detrimental to civilized society as free speach is vital. And you’re wrong in thinking that all monotheistic religions sanctions capital punishment. As Edward says the Christian church does not sanction the death penalty. It did in the past, thats true, but not anymore. Most agrees that the histories of Jesus indicates that he didn’t believe in capital punishment (turn the other cheek, throw the first stone etc). The Old Testament is an eye for an eye, but not the New. Anyway I think the argument is stupid. If we should base our laws on religion we would have the Spanish Inquisition or the Taleban or the American teaching “Intelligent” design and “homosexuality is a disease” to innocent school children.
Which is beside the point as I don’t believe religious systems should have any influence on the way we organize our societies anyway.
Giving the state the right to kill people is wrong and does not serve any purpose other than satisfying irrational hate. The state is given a monopoly on violence and that violence should be restricted as much as possible. Also I think that one wrongly executed is not worth the prize of 1000s of guilties.
Edward: As long as you hold on to your thoroughly stupid gun laws, you are a bunch of gun-toting… as far as I’m concerned. As for the “weak” European sentences I should tell you that sentences gets harsher and harsher here in Europe. But we’ll never get near the American system (three strikes, huge racial bias etc.). We want to put criminals away for two purposes: to deter and to protect society. But we do not want to put people away for ever in order to satisfy hate.
I’m shocked that this is an issue on which the americans and the muslim seemingly can unite against the civilized world.
Thomas
(Edward and everybody else: I’m not anti-american. I just think you guys could make a few aspects of your society better).
Huge racial bias?
Give me a break, Thomas. When you commit a serious crime, you commit a serious crime. I’m tired of weak excuses for crime. The fact is that the majority of people, even poor people, are law abiding. The savage murders I’ve linked to above are a reflection, not of poverty, but of a culture that does not respect life. The large number of victims of African-American criminals are other blacks. It would be disrespectful to the majority of law-abiding blacks to go soft on crime.
We want to put criminals away for two purposes: to deter and to protect society. Yeah, your doing a wonderful job, that explains the fact that while American crime rates have been dipping the past several years, European crime rates continue to rise (as do the rates of another ‘soft on crime’ country: Canada). Sorry, 15 years does not a life sentence make, in my opinion. Putting these individuals away for the rest of their lives would be merciful considering the vile nature of the crimes committed.
Concerning race: Maybe Europeans need to look in the mirror. As I understand it, the majority of inmates in French prisons are actually Muslims. Sweden reports that almost 2/3 of all rapes in that country are committed by immigrants, mostly from Muslim countries. I suppose these statistics reflect racial bias in Europe, correct? How about Britain, how much do you want to bet that Asians (Pakistanis and Indians) are strongly overrepresented in the British prison system?
Edward: You’re right about the racial bias. My mistake. It’s the same in Denmark. People with muslim backgrounds are over-represented.
Otherwise crime rates in Canada and Europe are in another universe from the American ones. You got quite a level to dip from. And Danish crime rates are not going up. On the contrary.
Thomas, you are certainly correct that the murder rate in the United States is still much higher than in Europe.
Then again, according to Nationmaster, during the period of 1998-2000, Denmark ranked #4 in total crime, Finland #3, United Kingom #6, and the US #8, probably much of it non-violent, of course:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_tot_cri_percap
You can get other such statistics for this period for per capita crime rates at the same web site.
When I commented on the rising crime problem in Europe. I wasn’t thinking so much of Denmark, I don’t know what the fluctuation in crime rates in Denmark has been the last few years. Most Scandinavian countries are relatively placid when it comes to violent crime. I was thinking more of the United Kingdom and France. Sorry for any confusion.
Interestingly, even before the last few years (back in 1998-2000):
Per capita, the UK exceeded the US in robberies during this time, nearly approximated the United States in assaults (Canada just a bit behind both), exceeded the United States in burglaries (surprise, Denmark was #3, UK #7, US #17) exceeded the United States in car theft (surprise again, Denmark was #2 in this category, UK #3, US #9).
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_rob_percap
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_ass_percap
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_bur_percap
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/cri_car_the_percap
The United States still had a much higher rate of rape than United Kingdom. Interestingly, per capita, Canada exceeded the US in this category.
Generally, the most criminal countries in the world by various indicators appear to be Colombia (esp. in murder rates), the little Caribbean island of Dominica and South Africa.
It also must be kept into consideration that the United States has a larger minority population than most European countries (and Canada for that matter). Blacks constitute only a little over 10% of the US population, but about 50% of murders are committed by blacks. Hispanics are not as severely overrepresented as black, but still have a much higher per capita rate of crime than do whites. Whites sometimes appear to have a greater representation in crime statistics in the United States than is accurate, since criminal statistics typically consider ‘Hispanic’ a linguistic category rather than a racial category. Some people who would be classified as ‘mestizos’ wind up being classified as white.
It also must be noted that the US crime rate has declined over the past few years, the rate in the United Kingdom during this time had risen, though it had apparently began to taper off during the 2004-2005 period (though gun crime during this period, strangely, was up in spite of the fact that the UK has only gotten more restrictive about firearms over the last few years):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4700575.stm
It is also worth noting that in the United States the violent crime rate has fallen less sharply or not fallen at all in many cities with large black populations – such as Philadelphia and New Orleans (prior to Hurricane Katrina).
Unfortunately, I think if you investigate all the statistics what you would find is that if race/ethnicity were factored in the crime rates, such as crime rates among American whites versus British, Danish or Canadian whites, the differences in crime, especially violent crime would be far less substantial than they appear by looking strictly at national statistics. Race is unfortunately probably one of the best predictors of violent crime anywhere.
Anyway, since this is getting a bit off topic, this is the last post I’m going to make on the subject.
As far as the 2004-2005 crime rates in France go, I don’t know if any change similar to the UK has taken place or not. Crime rates in France were rising for several years from the last reports I had heard.