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Issues / Western campaigns against Islam: An objective view of non-objective stands
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Western campaigns against Islam:
An objective view of non-objective stands |
By The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein
Fadlullah in Al-Hayat Daily
Islam in its intellectual content on the level of
doctrine, Sharia, humanitarian concepts and the personality of the
Messenger (p.) is being subjected, every now and then, to distorting and
offending campaigns whether by the media and the arts (movies) or by
research centers and intelligence agencies that depict Islam as the
religion of violence and terror. This is done through generalizing the
behaviour of one "Islamic" group to describe the religion of Islam as
well as all Muslims.
It is noteworthy that these campaigns are not
restricted to the media or arts, but have been transferred to the sphere
of politics aiming at instigating against Muslims to kick them out of
their countries, the last of which being that of a Dutch MP who produced
a movie to offend the Quran, and called on Muslims that if they want to
stay in Holland they have to tear half the Quran and throw it, since,
according to his claim, it is the essence of evil. Moreover, he called on
the Dutch government to ban the Quran just as it has banned some Nazi
books.
In this regard we have certain points we would like to
clarify to both the Western and Islamic public opinions.
Firstly: We strongly believe in the freedom of
expression, as a humanitarian and civilized principle, but we believe
that this freedom should go hand in hand with respect, lest it will lose
its humanitarian civilized content, and turn into a kind of aggression
against the other, as it is an aggression on his sacred beliefs.
Thus the pictures that were published in certain media
outlets that offended Prophet Muhammad (p.) do not fall into the category
of the freedom of expression. Rather, they are an aggression against one
fifth of the earth's population, as well as against many citizens in this
or that country.
The Holy Quran gives us a humanitarian civilized
principle. It says: Revile not ye those whom they
call upon besides Allah, lest they out of spite revile Allah in their
ignorance, meaning that every nation or community has its sacred
symbols that should not be offended, for it will draw counter reactions,
while Islam wishes to remove the element of excitation to conduct an
objective and fruitful intellectual dialogue and not one based on
instincts and emotional reaction.
Secondly: As we emphasize that these methods are not
related to the freedom of expression, we wonder as to why these people do
not dare to criticize what the Jews teachings that despise other nations,
with some rabies describing other nations as “insects and snakes”, or, as
their books are full of, glorifying violence against other nations.
Moreover, why are not the Western laws that prevent any criticism
concerning Judaism, under the principle of rejecting anti-Semitism,
criticized?
Thirdly: We call for studying the Glorious Quran in a
scientific and objective way, so that the fair reader will find that the
Quran emphasizes human dignity, since it considers man as Allah's viceroy
on earth. And that the Quran is a call for love and mercy, as it calls to
resorting to the best of means and words in dialogue and dealing with the
other.
It also represents a movement towards dialogue, a
movement calling for meeting on the basis of the unity of God and the
unity of humanity. It also states that Christians are the nearest to
Muslims in their spirituality and human humbleness. On the other hand,
the Quran did not create anything new with respect to how man conducts
his struggle against others, when it called for fighting as a reaction to
the aggression of others. Allah says: Fight in the
cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for
Allah loves not transgressors. This has always represented the
civilized line of the legitimacy of self-defence, or in the face of an
eminent aggression.
Fourthly: Instead of directing the efforts towards
offending Islam and the Quran that embodies the values of good and
justice, they should be directed against the brutal violence being
actually practiced against the poor nations which include killing,
destruction, plunder of wealth and confiscating the future, especially
that the world is legitimizing usurpation and occupation that are based
on the collective eradication of peoples, just as in Palestine where a
Jewish state was instituted on the ruins of another nation under the
pretence of religious historic rights.
Fifthly: as we reject the method of thinking in our
Islamic society that is based on the mentality of cancelling the other
who is different in religion sect, politics… etc, we believe that the
method of Takifir has been adopted by many secular parties against Islam
and the Muslims. And if this method produces in the Islamic sphere a
violence against Muslims or others, we see in the Takifiri Western
movement a means of justifying any violence against Muslims in the
Western societies that embraced them as citizens or residents, especially
that these calls have been accompanied by warnings made by the Israeli
President a few years ago, in which he warned Europe that its states
might become Muslim with the number of Muslims reaching 30 millions in a
few years.
Sixthly: We should be aware that some of the campaigns
that we have seen in the Western media might be instituted by a Jewish
instigation movement that aims at erecting barriers in the face of any
serious international Muslim Christian rapprochement, since those who
sought to obtain a Christian acquittance regarding their historic
aggression against Jesus Christ (a.s.) having been also working on
facilitating the acceptance of the theory of a Muslim-Christian clash. We
are motioning this point, because we believe, that establishing a united
Islamic Christian spiritual and humanitarian front that is based on
values, represents in itself a challenge to the Zionist project that is
based on violence, arrogance and despise of other nations.
Seventhly: It has become known that these aggressions
against the Muslim's sacred symbols could induce reactions that are in
nobody's interests. It could also provide a pretence for the Takifiri
movements to justify its violence among the Muslim communities in the
West, and deploy the young enthusiastic Muslims by focusing on the
retaliation against the aggressions that target the Muslim sacred symbols
in the name of freedom of expression that falls short of accepting any
criticism of any Israeli, Jewish or Zionist claim.
Thus the Dutch government, and all others, should
assume its responsibility when it comes to showing this offending film or
the like both in the present and the future, to safeguard the peace that
we seek for the entire world.
Eighthly: We call upon all the Muslims in the world,
especially the Muslim communities in the West, to haunt all movements
that try to distort the image of Islam or offend its sacred symbols under
any pretence. We ask their intellectuals, their elites, their religious
scholars and all their popular potentials to shoulder their
responsibilities on the media political, legal, artistic and literary
levels, to stop these offending movements and reveal theirs goals, as
well thwarting the attempts of those who want to create a rift between
the Muslims and their Western societies.
They should resort to the civilized means that the
laws of their countries guarantee and which increase the public opinion
sympathy with our just causes.
We also call for an artistic wide movement to present
the Western public opinion with the Islamic civilized values and to
introduce Islam as a religion that opens up on all other religions, and
that has contributed greatly to the human civilization. It is not a
religion that makes any aggression but rather defends itself in the face
of aggression.
In this respect, we emphasize the need for the
conscious Muslims to take the initiative to build broad relations with
Western thinkers and researchers on all levels to thwarts the attempts of
those who are misguiding the Western public opinions, about our Islamic
issues.
Lastly: We ask the United Nations and its member
countries about their commitment to reject anti -Islamism that the former
UN Secretary General has emphasized, in addition to anti-Semitism, so
that there will be no double standards.
And we have also called for international friendship
between all men, and that all religion followers should meet on the basis
of the values of justice, love, respect and good for all men.
By The Religious Authority, Sayyed Muhammad Hussein
Fadlullah in Al-Hayat Daily
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