During the first year of war on terrorism, a joke was circulated on a wide scale among the youth in the Islamic and Western worlds, especially after the American detention camps and prisons became filled with large numbers of accused, quasi-accused and innocent, and after they were tortured and harassed for many years without any trials. The joke says that a man was walking in a park in the center of New York and suddenly saw a dog attacking a little girl. He ran towards her to protect her and started fighting the dog until he killed it and saved her. In the meantime, a policeman was watching the scene. He headed towards the man and said to him: “You are a hero! Tomorrow you will read the news in a newspaper: Courageous man from New York saves a child's life." The man answered: “But I am not from New York," to which the policeman replied: “Then it will say: A courageous American man saves a little girl's life." The man responded: “I am not American." At this point, the policeman wondered: “What are you?" And the man said: “I am Pakistani." The next day, the paper read as follows: “Islamic extremist kills innocent American dog." This is why I had hoped – along with others – to avoid falling in the trap of those trying to depict Islam as being brutal. The last few days witnessed dramatic developments and the expansion of the protests in the Arab and Islamic worlds. These incidents featured bloody attempts to storm American diplomatic headquarters due to the crisis provoked by the American film which was offensive to Islam, despite the fact that the American leaders and officials rushed to condemn the film with the harshest expressions. The condemned film is insolent, hostile and provocative and whoever made it is a criminal. However, the international communities should have turned to their governments, staged peaceful protests, demanded the exertion of pressures on the American government to pursue the producer of and participants in the film, and filed one or more lawsuits in America to try the opponents in court, as it is done by the Jewish organizations there, instead of carrying out acts of violence, harming innocent people, attacking the peaceful and shedding blood. Indeed, there is wide difference between defending the Prophet through the adoption of his ways and Sunna, and implementing riots, acts of thuggery, killing, burning and threats. This made me recall the joke which condemned the American practices against Muslims. But by killing the peaceful, are we not committing the same mistake? This is especially true after the situation deteriorated, reaching the point of storming the American embassy and killing Washington's ambassador in Libya and three American nationals, not to mention the violent confrontations which erupted in front of the American embassies in Cairo, Sana'a, Tunis, Khartoum and other capitals and what they featured in terms of rowdy acts, fires and destruction. The violence and riots seen in front of the American embassies are not in support of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him, and do not convey the tolerance of Islam or the ways of the Islamic religion, considering that Islam prohibits the killing of the peaceful and Ahl al-Dhumma and the shedding of innocent blood. It is known that there is a reaction to each action, while the repercussions of the film's wide-scale broadcast were expected, especially since it is based on provocation and insolence towards 1.3 billion Muslims spread around the globe. This is what led to these dramatic developments, expanded the scope of the protests and increased the hostile sentiments towards all that is American. During the past years, and in light of the disdain shown by some hardliners towards Islam, its Prophet and followers, the Western governments did not play a responsible role in containing the latter offenders and their evil, and in implementing the laws to prosecute those spreading hatred, instigating strife and debasing religions and their Prophets. There are clear cases showing contradictions at the level of the Western governments' handling of and leniency towards cases related to Muslims. Hence, when Islam is attacked and its Prophet offended, this is considered to be freedom of expression. But when the issue features the mere doubting of the Jewish Holocaust, the case becomes one of racism and anti-Semitism and is internationalized. In any case, we – along with all the wise around the world – wish to see the distancing of violence, the legal and judicial pursuit of the producer of the offensive film to Islam and the Prophet Peace Be Upon Him, and the deployment of pressures on the American government to file lawsuits against him and present him to justice. We also hope to see collaboration with the wise in America and Europe who support the Arab and Islamic causes, in order to expose these attempts and their evil goals, i.e. the creation of strife between divine religions, and the depiction of Islam as being a terrorist, monstrous and murderous faith. This would be a methodic action, establishing the reality of Islam as a religion of justice and peace. These issues should have been handled as the Prophet himself would have handled them, considering that sanctions and pursuits during the days of the Prophet, Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him, were limited to the perpetrator of the offense, who could be pardoned, and were not based on his race, religion or his country of origin. This is the object of consensus between all the jurisprudent and legislators, and was featured in the Holy Koran “And no bearer of burden shall bear the burden of another." The cartoons in Denmark, the practices of the American Terry Jones and finally the dubious film, all constitute offenses against Islam and Muslims. But before issuing condemnations and rejections, the West should know who has been standing behind the promotion of such actions in the last few years and what was done to contain the repeated insolence. What is certain is that the West's behavior has so far failed to fix the flaw and appease Islamic popular anger, as well as to play a clear role in deterring those showing disrespect and disdain towards religions and the prophets. This confirms the West's need for efficient and serious involvement and the reviewing of the anti-Islamic tendency. Moreover, its governments and wise men should act swiftly to thwart the eruption of a new war of hatred fueled by extremists to provoke the Muslims in general, through the pursuit of the producer of the film and those who participated in it, just as America and the European states did when they pursued the founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange and as they try to appease Jewish wrath whenever the Holocaust is doubted! [email protected] twitter | @JameelTheyabi
