A recent film denigrating Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has sparked the fury of Muslims worldwide. The blasphemous film, produced by an Egyptian Coptic Christian with the help of an American Jew, also triggered violent protests and a number of US embassies in Islamic countries came under attack. However, this fury against the film did not prevent the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo from publishing cartoons ridiculing the Prophet (pbuh). The French authorities quickly deployed riot police forces on the premises of the magazine to protect its offices. This was not the first time that the magazine had indulged in provocative acts of insulting the religion of Islam and its Prophet (pbuh). Last year, the weekly magazine came out with an issue in which there was an article claimed to be written by the Prophet (pbuh) under the title Shariah Hebdo. This also caused violent protests and bomb attacks on the magazine's offices in Paris. At that time, the French authorities intensified security measures around French embassies in the Islamic world. And on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City was put in an awkward position when it was forced, by a court order, to place inflammatory ads equating Islamic Jihad with savagery in 10 New York City subway stations. The authority earlier rejected the ads on the grounds that they violated its policy against the use of demeaning language. But the pro-Israel American Freedom Defense Initiative, which sponsored the ads as part of its anti-Muslim campaign, filed a lawsuit and obtained a judgment in its favor from a US federal judge in Manhattan. According to the court document, the ad reads as follows: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel/Defeat Jihad.” Here the words are clear and there is no need of any interpretation. Reacting to this blatant hostility that hurts the feelings of Muslims, the head of Cairo's Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayeb said that the West still thinks in terms of the legacy of the Middle Ages. He said that the historical relationship of Islam with Western Europe has been complicated and that it warranted a closer reading of history to extrapolate its laws and philosophy. What we see today in the Western hatred of Islam and its civilization is a heritage of the collective minds of Europeans that dates back to the Middle Ages. There is no need to be surprised at the barbaric behavior of the West over all the periods of history from ancient times to the modern day. History cannot forget the Crusades fought by the Franks, the persecution and attempt to exterminate the Jews and Muslims in Spain and efforts to turn the free people of Africa and America into slaves. In an exclusive interview, the Sheikh of Al-Azhar spoke about the issue, saying that the Christian West does not hate Islam, but is afraid of Islam. Hatred is an emotional issue that does not have any impact on Islam, but fear is based on the fact that the West knows that Islam and the Holy Qur'an that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) are the truth! The global culture that our children will inherit will be entirely different from what it is now. There will be major changes in the world's demographic features. According to a research report, any civilization can survive for more than 25 years only if its population can maintain a minimum growth rate of 2.11. Any growth rate less than this would result in the eventual downfall of the civilization. During 2007, the rate of average population growth was 1.8 in France, 1.6 in Britain, 1.3 each in Greece and Germany, 1.2 in Italy, and 1.1 in Spain, and thus the average rate of population growth in Europe was 1.38. The study showed that it is impossible to have any reversal of these figures over the coming few years. Europe, as we know it today, will vanish one day! In spite of all this, we can see that the overall population in Europe is not falling. How can this be? The answer is immigration. Muslim immigration was instrumental in increasing the population of Europe. Since 1990, nine percent of the population growth of Europe has been attributed to Muslim immigration. The south of France was once regarded as a place with one of the highest concentrations of churches in the world. Now this region houses more mosques than churches and nearly 30 percent of the inhabitants there under the age of 20 are Muslims.
– Hassan Tahsin is an Egyptian writer and political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
