Islam, with its intellectual content on doctrine, Shariah, humanitarian concepts, and the personality of the Messenger, is repeatedly subjected to distortion and offensive campaigns. These campaigns are conducted by media, arts (movies), research centers, and intelligence agencies. They try to distort the image of Islam. They depict it as the religion of violence and terror. This is done by generalizing the behavior of a single "Islamic" group to describe all of Islam and all Muslims.
These campaigns are not restricted to media or arts. They have moved to the sphere of politicians. Politicians aim to instigate hatred against Muslims to expel them from their countries. A recent example was a Dutch MP. He produced a movie to offend the Quran. He called on Muslims to tear half the Quran and throw it away if they want to stay in the Netherlands. He claimed it is the essence of evil. He also called on the Dutch government to ban the Quran, just as it has banned some Nazi books.
In this regard, we have certain points to clarify for both Western and Islamic public opinions:
Firstly: We strongly believe in freedom of expression as a humanitarian and civilized principle. However, we believe this freedom should go hand in hand with respect. Otherwise, it loses its humanitarian content and becomes a form of aggression by offending sacred beliefs.
Thus, the pictures that offended Prophet Muhammad and were published in certain media outlets do not fall under freedom of expression. They are an aggression against one fifth of the earth's population. They also aggress against many citizens in various countries.
The Holy Quran gives us a humanitarian civilized principle. It says: “And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah, lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge.” Surah Al-An'am (6:108). This means every nation has its sacred symbols that should not be offended. Any offense will draw counter reactions. Islam wishes to remove impulsivity to conduct an objective and fruitful intellectual dialogue, not one based on emotional reaction.
Secondly: We emphasize these methods are not related to freedom of expression. We wonder why these people do not dare to criticize Jewish teachings that despise other nations. Some rabbis describe other nations as “insects and snakes”. Their books are full of glorification of violence against other nations. Why are Western laws that prevent any criticism of Judaism, under the principle of rejecting anti-Semitism, not criticized?
Thirdly: We call for studying the Glorious Quran in a scientific and objective way. The fair reader will find that the Quran emphasizes human dignity. It considers man as Allah's viceroy on earth. The Quran is a call for love and mercy. It calls for using the best means and words in dialogue and dealing with others.
It represents a movement towards dialogue. It calls for meeting on the basis of the oneness of Allah and the unity of humanity. It states that Christians are the nearest to Muslims in spirituality and human humbleness. The Quran did not create anything new regarding how man should conduct his struggle against others. 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.” Surah Al-Baqarah (2:190). This has always represented the civilized line of legitimacy for self-defense against eminent aggression.
Fourthly: Efforts should not be directed towards offending Islam and the Quran, which embodies values of good and justice. Efforts should be directed against the brutal violence practiced against poor nations. This violence includes killing, destruction, plunder of wealth, and confiscating the future. The world is legitimizing usurpation and occupation based on the collective eradication of peoples. This is happening in Palestine where a Jewish state was instituted on the ruins of another nation under the pretense of religious historic rights.
Fifthly: We reject the method of thinking in our Islamic society that is based on canceling the other who is different in religion, sect, or politics. We believe the method of Takfir has been adopted by many secular parties against Islam and Muslims. If this method produces violence in the Islamic sphere, we see in the Takfiri Western movement a means for justifying any violence against Muslims in Western societies. These societies embraced them as citizens or residents. These calls have been accompanied by warnings from the Israeli President a few years ago. He warned Europe that its states might become Muslim and that the number of Muslims will amount to 30 millions in a few years.
Sixthly: We should be aware that some campaigns in the Western media might be instituted by a Jewish instigation movement. It aims to erect barriers against any serious international Muslim-Christian rapprochement. Those who sought Christian acquittance regarding their historic aggression against Jesus Christ have also been working on facilitating the acceptance of a Muslim-Christian clash. We mention this because we believe establishing a united Islamic-Christian spiritual and humanitarian front based on values represents a challenge to the Zionist project based on violence, arrogance, and despise of other nations.
Seventhly: It is known that these aggressions against Muslim sacred symbols could induce reactions in nobody's interests. It could provide a pretense for Takfiri movements to justify its violence among Muslim communities in the West. It could deploy young enthusiastic Muslims by focusing on retaliation against aggressions targeting Muslim sacred symbols in the name of freedom of expression. This same freedom falls short of accepting any criticism of any Israeli, Jewish, or Zionist claim.
Thus, the Dutch government and all others should assume their responsibility regarding this offending film or similar ones. This applies now and, in the future, to safeguard the peace we seek for the entire world.
Eighthly: We call upon all Muslims in the world, especially Muslim communities in the West, to challenge all movements that try to distort Islam or offend its sacred symbols under any pretense. We ask their intellectuals, elites, religious scholars, and all popular powers to shoulder their responsibilities. They must act on media, political, legal, artistic, and literary levels to stop these offending movements and reveal their goals. They must attempt to create a rift between Muslims and their Western societies. They should resort to civilized means that their countries' laws guarantee. These means increase public opinion sympathy with our just causes.
We also call for a wide artistic movement to present Western public opinion with Islamic civilized values. We must introduce Islam as a religion that opens up to all other religions. It has contributed greatly to human civilization. It is not a religion that makes aggression; it defends itself against aggression.
We emphasize the need for conscious Muslims to take the initiative to build broad relations with Western thinkers and researchers. This is to thwart attempts to misguide Western public opinions about our Islamic issues.
Lastly, we ask the United Nations and its member states about their commitment to reject anti-Islamism. The former UN Secretary General emphasized this, in addition to anti-Semitism, so there will be no double standards. We have called for international friendship among all humans. All religion followers should meet on the basis of the values of justice, love, respect, and good for all mankind.
Source: Al-Hayat Newspaper- Date: 04/09/2012 A.D 08/11/1433 H