Love the Prophet Day

Love the Prophet Day

 

Tolerating an intolerant religion certainly poses its challenges.  Protests over a crude, amateurish video produced in California has spread, thanks to Media exploitation and the exhortations of mullahs around the world, to Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Kashmir, Malaysia, Tunisia, and France, which has closed its international schools and 22 of its embassies.

 

According to Reuters, tens of thousands of Pakistanis joined protests encouraged by the government in several cities including Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Multan and Muzaffarabad.

 

The bloodiest unrest erupted in the southern city of Karachi, where three policemen and two protesters were killed and 112 people wounded, according to Allah Bachayo Memon, spokesman of the chief minister of Sindh province. He said about 20 vehicles, three banks and five cinemas were set on fire.

 

Crowds set two cinemas ablaze and ransacked shops in the northwestern city of Peshawar, clashing with riot police who fired tear gas. At least five protesters were hurt and the ARY television station said an employee had been killed.

 

Muslims take exception to the portrayal of their prophet, Mohammed, in any form, but particularly showing him in satire.   The Muslim is particularly suspicious of movie theaters; they were banned in Iran.  In fact, Saudi Arabia bans a whole host of damaging Western influences from alcohol to dolls.

 

This was yesterday’s State Department warning for travel to Pakistan:

 

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer all non-essential travel to Pakistan. This Travel Warning replaces the Travel Warning dated August 27, 2012, to remind U.S. citizens of ongoing security concerns in Pakistan.

Protests have taken place across Pakistan against the United States, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and NATO. There have also been widespread demonstrations and large political rallies condemning drone strikes, Pakistan's ongoing energy crisis, and Pakistan's July 3, 2012, decision to reopen NATO transit routes to Afghanistan. These protests and demonstrations are likely to continue. U.S. citizens in Pakistan are strongly urged to avoid protests and large gatherings

                                                                                                                      

No word about the anti-prophet video.  However:

 

Saudi authorities do not permit criticism of Islam or the royal family. The government prohibits the public practice of religions other than Islam. Non-Muslims suspected of violating these restrictions have been jailed. Homosexual activity and adultery are considered to be criminal offenses and those convicted may be sentenced to lashing, prison, or death.

 

Saudi customs and postal officials broadly define what is contrary to Islam and therefore prohibited. Christmas decorations, fashion magazines, and "suggestive" videos may be confiscated and the owner subject to penalties and fines. Electronic devices may be subjected to inspection upon entry or exit.

According to Reuters and the Muslim News website:

The world Islamic body signaled on Wednesday that it will revive long-standing attempts to make insults against religions an international criminal offense.  But it appears unlikely to win acceptance from Western countries determined to resist restrictions on freedom of speech and already concerned about the repressive effect of blasphemy laws in Muslim countries such as Pakistan.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said the international community should “come out of hiding from behind the excuse of freedom of expression,” a reference to Western arguments against a universal blasphemy law that the OIC has sought for over a decade.

He said the "deliberate, motivated and systematic abuse of this freedom" was a danger to global security and stability.

Separately, the Human Rights Commission of the OIC, which has 57 members and is based in Saudi Arabia, said, “growing intolerance towards Muslims” had to be checked and called for “an international code of conduct for media and social media to disallow the dissemination of incitement material.”

Western countries have long argued that such measures would run counter to the UN's core human rights declaration on freedom of expression and could even open the door to curbs on academic research.

As if to underline the point, a conference in Geneva of the World Council of Churches (WCC), which groups the world's major Protestant, Orthodox and Evangelical churches, urged Pakistan to abolish its blasphemy law, which carries a possible death penalty.

Critics say the law is widely misused to persecute non-Muslims, and cite this month's case of a Muslim cleric detained on suspicion of planting evidence suggesting that a 14-year-old girl had burned Islamic religious texts.

Pakistani Christians and Hindus at the WCC gathering said a global law against blasphemy, or “defamation of religion,” would only endorse on an international scale the religious intolerance seen in Pakistan and in other Islamic countries.

But Western countries have also come under criticism for stifling free speech, with Iran previously highlighting the criminalization of doubting the Holocaust in a number of Western states.

The State Department has officially denounced the video, but also condemned the violent reaction to the video.   Obama, the Idiot-in-Chief, compared their protests and their revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“None but infidels gainsay the signs of Allah:  but let not their prosperity in the land deceive thee.

“The people of Noah, and the confederates after them, have brought the charge of imposture before these Meccans; each nation schemed against the apostle to lay violent hold on him and disputed with vain words to refute the truth.  Therefore did I lay violent hold on them; and how great was my chastisement!” The Koran: Sura 40.

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book:  If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in the book.

“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:18-19.

Mocking someone else’s religion probably isn’t a very nice thing to do.  Criticizing it or rejecting it is another matter.  Where will the blade of Islam’s blasphemy laws fall?  In the most radical of the countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, the penalty is death to speak against the Prophet, much less make a crude drawing of him.

There are fools who mock Jesus, even today.  He would not want anyone to retaliate with violence or hatred, but forgive the fools.  The countries of Mohammed boldly display the sword on their flags and crests. 

Protestors in the Middle East have not been showing a lot of love for the West these days; their demonstrations illustrate why East will never meet West.