Posted on 02/07/2006 10:26:38 AM PST by summer
NEW YORK -- On Saturday, the Philadelphia Inquirer became one of the first major U.S. papers to carry a drawing featuring Muhammad -- with a lit bomb stuck in his turban -- that have sparked riots abroad. On Monday, more than two dozen Muslims offended by that decision picketed the newspaper.
"It's disrespectful to us as a people," Asim Abdur-Rashid, an imam with the Majlis Ash'Shura, an umbrella group for mosques in the Delaware Valley, told the Inquirer for a story today. "It's disrespectful to our prophet to imply that he's a prophet of violence."
The group may call for a boycott and a further protest on Friday if the newspaper does not apologize.
Amanda Bennett, The Inquirer's editor, and Carl Lavin, a deputy managing editor, talked with the protesters outside the building.
"Neither I nor the newspaper meant any disrespect to their religion or their prophet," Bennett said in her paper. "I told them I was actually really proud of them for exercising their right to freedom of speech."
But Bennett stood by the decision to publish the cartoon, saying it "is one of the things newspapers do to communicate directly with people" about issues important to all communities.
She told The New York Times, "There's been a whole history of newspapers publishing things that people would find controversial and offensive. My view is that we need to publish it for a good news reason, we need to publish in context and we need to explain to readers why we did it."
Few U.S. newspapers have reprinted the cartoon. The New York Times, in an editorial today, noted that it had not carried any of the cartoons and "much of the rest of the nation's news media have reported on the cartoons but refrained from showing them. That seems a reasonable choice for news organizations that usually refrain from gratuitous assaults on religious symbols, especially since the cartoons are so easy to describe in words."
Some newspapers have carried links to the cartoon images on their Web sites, however.
In an e-mail to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau declared he would never use images of Muhammad. "Nor will I be using any imagery that mocks Jesus Christ....I may not agree with their reasons for dropping any particular strip, in fact, I usually don't, but I will defend their right and responsibility to delete material that they feel is inappropriate for their readership," he said.
"It's not censorship, it's editing. Just because a society has almost unlimited freedom of expression doesn't mean we should ever stop thinking about its consequences in the real world."
Poynter Institute faculty discussed the journalistic issues relating to the controversy in a roundtable (read the transcript or download the 21-minute podcast).
E&P Staff (letters@editorandpublisher.com)
It'll be easier to stop this now than later.
ROTFL! The adherents of the Religion of Murder are deluded. SWEIN (So what else is new?)
Yeah, I agree. They are out there expressing their displeasure in a time-honored American tradition. As long as they are peaceful, I don't have a problem with it. I may not like Islam, but sounds like they're doing this the right way.
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Nothing wrong with picketing. I bet the Inquirer would even print a letter to the editor on the topic.
"It's disrespectful to our prophet to imply that he's a prophet of violence."
Too funny. When the (real) God was handing out logic, the Muslims were out taking a wizz.
The moral equivocation is preposterous.
If Christians acted like Muslims do, Hollywood would have been torched to the ground long ago, and the Directors, Writers and Actors hanged.
But in the mind of the Western Liberal, there are two types of people: The Oppressed and the Oppressors. Christians are Oppressors while Muslims are part of the Oppressed.
So it's OK to mock the Oppressors, and *never* the Oppressed.
Picket all they want but the second they start the rioting crap it's a license for us to kick their a*s.
"It's disrespectful to our prophet to imply that he's a prophet of violence."
Is it disrespectful to quote the scripture of the Quran and the Hadith itself, to tell the truth about Mohammed?
Here is the violent prophet in action:
Surah 9:29. Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger.
Bukhari 1:24. Narrated Ibn 'Umar: - Allah's Apostle said: "I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Apostle.
Bukhari Vol.9 Number.57, Narrated 'Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'ALI AND HE BURNT THEM. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"
"The apostle said, ‘WHO WILL RID ME OF IBNU’L-ASHRAF?’" One of his followers volunteered said, "I will deal with him for you, O apostle of God, I will kill him." AND THE PROPHET RESPONDED BY SAYING, "DO SO IF YOU CAN."2
Sura 9:5. But when the forbidden months are past, then fight AND SLAY THE PAGANS WHEREVER YE FIND THEM, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); BUT IF THEY REPENT, and establish regular prayers and pay Zakat, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft- forgiving, Most Merciful.
"When the apostle heard what she had said he said, "Who will rid me of Marwan's daughter?" Umayr b. Adiy al-Khatmi who was with him heard him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her." - FROM THE SIRAT RASUL ALLAH, by Ibn Ishaq
After Muhammad and his men captured Khaybar, Muhammad ordered his men to torture the Jewish chief of this settlement who was named Kinana. He had him tortured in order that the Jew would tell where the community treasure was buried. Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasulallah gives the details:- (...) so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr b. `Al-Awwam, 'TORTURE HIM UNTIL YOU EXTRACT WHAT HE HAS,' so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head, in revenge for his brother Mahmud.3
I think I'll suscribe to the paper now.
Protest is fine. In fact it is expected. The test is if this is peaceful. If they remonstrate in a proper manner to show their displeasure, then I say bravo on the display of good ol' American virtues. If not, then the cartoons have been validated.
Hang in there, Inquirer! Don't cater to the bullies of the world.
This isn't about the cartoons and who runs them, its about the muslins rioting and causing disrubtion and terror....nothing more; nothing less...
This is great! I hope they really riot!
It's time for the country to SEE what these people are all about.
This could be a new strategy. Post cartoon. Wait for Muslims to show up and start rioting. Profile, arrest, deport or eliminate as appropriate.
Good point... this is all about a vile culture of fear trying to win through intimidation.
Exactly. First arab starts hopping mad in his flip-flops in the street with a 'death to..' banner, meet Ford grille.
Re your post #50 -- Yes, you're right, as long as it's peaceful. Thanks. :)
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