Time for cool heads to prevail

The protests over Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons do not seem to be abating at all. In fact fresh protests erupted across Asia and the Middle East today.

And over the weekend three people died in violent protests in Afghanistan and a child was killed in Somalia.

Protests have been taking place from Gaza to India, Indonesia, Thailand and Iran.

These follow attacks and torching on Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon.

Nothing seems to be able to placate the anger felt by these Muslims, only to be aggravated by newspapers continuing to publish the offending cartoons.

In Malaysia, an editor of a Sarawak-based newspaper resigned over the weekend after printing one of the cartoons. Printed on page 12 of the paper, the cartoon illustrated an article about the lack of impact of the controversy in Malaysia, a country with a majority Muslim population.

The newspaper apologised and expressed "profound regret over the unauthorised publication", in a front page statement on Sunday.

The editor, who has not been named, regretted his mistake, apologised and tendered his resignation, according to the statement.

And it now faces the prospect of its printing permit being either suspended or revoked.

However, The Philadelphia Inquirer in the US defended its rights to publish the cartoons, saying that its readers should be the judge if the images are offensive or not.

Its editor Amanda Bennet said:

"This is the kind of work that newspapers are in business to do. The
Inquirer intends no disrespect to the religious beliefs of any of its readers.
But when a use of religious imagery that many find offensive becomes a major
news story, we believe it is important for readers to be able to judge the
content of the image for themselves."

And in London, the protests themselves have become a controversy for their offensive and threatening placards.

The police are under pressure from politicians and Muslim leaders to explain why no one was arrested at two demonstrations outside the Danish Embassy in London.

Crowds held banners calling for the beheading of the authors of the cartoons and one demonstrator provoked hundreds of complaints from the public after being photographed dressed as a suicide bomber.

read more of this: 'Police must bear down on extremist protesters' (via independent)

Downing Street also got into action today by stating that the actions of these London protesters were “completely unacceptable”.

Despite criticisms, some Muslims in the UK believe their actions in carrying such placards were reasonable.

Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, an extremist cleric who fled Britain to Lebanon this summer told the BBC that whoever was responsible for the cartoons should be killed.

"In Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet,
he must be punished and executed. This man should be put on trial and if it is
proven to be executed."

p/s: cartoon found here

I am worried that the situation is just going to escalate rather than ease away. The religious division is becoming more apparent by the day and government leaders are NOT making themselves heard in trying to solve the situation. Have we heard anything from the OIC on this? Or for that matter the EU?

Left unchecked, such global protests will only encourage tit-for-tat behaviour from the other side. Do we want the western population to start their own protests in the name of freedom of expression?

Why can't the Muslim clerics worldwide talk to their flocks about having already made a point, and just let the matter rest. And how about the world media not playing fire by publishing more of the offensive cartoons?

read my other blog here