Why the riots over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad?

Real underlying reasons

The riots over the cartoons seem to have taken on a life of their own, and now reflect the real underlying political and sectarian conflicts for which the cartoons provided an excuse.   While the cartoons are offensive to all Muslims, rioting is not an appropriate Muslim response, and Muslim clerics have denounced the violence as un-Islamic.

 

Western sense of the sacred

Western society is surprised by Muslim feelings of outrage because it has lost the sense of the sacred, and with it, respect for the sacred, even the sacred of its own religion of Christianity.   It seems that the sacred and the profane have now traded places, the sacred is laughed at and subjected to offensive insults, while the profane is revered.  Nothing seems to be sacred anymore, not even cowboys.

 

The offensive insults of the sacred that arise from this Western attitude are troubling to Muslims, who are forbidden by God to revile the sacred of other religions, Quran (Sura 6, Al-Anam v. 108), even that held sacred by idol worshippers.

 

Freedom of Speech

The cartoons raise the important question of whether freedom of speech should have no limits whatsoever or whether it should have limits to prevent infringement of rights of others.  Does not one’s right to swing one’s arms end where another’s face begins?

 

What was the Founding Fathers’ intent for the proper use of the freedom of speech and the right to bear arms?   Was it the noble intent to prevent tyranny of rulers and tyranny of the majority, and encourage civil debate, or was their intent to enable incitement of hate and violence, and enable some to insult, slander, annoy, demean and harass others?

 

Words are powerful agents of change, and have consequences, good and bad.  The words of Jesus Christ brought the polytheist pagans of Europe towards monotheism, while the words of Hitler incited the German nation to war and the Holocaust.

 

If freedom of speech can be misused, there should be limits in civilized societies on what one does with that freedom.   Otherwise, if one truly believes in freedom of speech without limits, whatever the consequences, then one should not complain about racists in the US, or anarchists, or Communists,  or extremist Muslims who use words to incite violence.  The reality in Europe seems to be a double standard where offensive insults against Islam are protected as free speech, while expressions of offensive views about the Holocaust are punished with imprisonment.

 

Riots, savagery, progress and patience

The actions of some Muslims shown on TV lead some to declare Muslims as savages.  While their actions are indeed despicable, there seems to be much haste to cast the first stone, forgetting the very recent history of Europe and America.  These riots seem like a Sunday school picnic compared to the savagery inflicted by Europeans on each other this last century, two World Wars that killed millions, and the Holocaust, among other acts. 

 

The funeral of Coretta Scott King, and Black History month are reminders of how far America itself has come in the last century.  Until the 1960’s, there were frequent rampages by violent mobs who burned black neighborhoods, shot and lynched innocents, and segregated neighborhoods, schools, buses, and even churches, which to this day remain one of the most segregated institutions in America.  It took the brave efforts of the Civil Rights movement and half a century of time for the attitudes of those white Christian Americans and their children to change for the better. 

 

And it will take time and effort by brave, moderate Muslim leaders for Muslim attitudes to change.  The change will not happen in a few weeks or months, hopefully in only a few years, and not as long as half a century.  So let us be patient and not condemn all Muslims as savages, and burn the bridges of dialog and understanding.

Dialog

Americans would consider it unfair if America was judged solely by its Timothy McVeighs, the KKK, race riots, and the widespread drug use, for it is much greater than these.   Muslims would similarly want Americans to know that Islam is greater than the terrorists and the riots.   As Muslim Americans, we reach out to our fellow Americans to build bridges of dialog and understanding.