The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogsphere. The selected posts reflect different deviations in opinions and reactions related to the infamous Danish Cartoons.
Dalya Younis of Geraldine Kingdom blog writes:
أقول.. أن أبسط شيء لم نفعله هو التعريف.. فلو أمسكت دانماركيًا يمشي في الشارع وعزمته على كوب قهوة عربية ساخنة وحدثته عن كنه محمد هذا الذي يتحدثون عنه لتغيرت أمور كثيرة.. على الأقل سيدرك أن العرب ليسوا كلهم -وأشدد على الكلمة الأخيرة..للأسف!- أهلاً للسخرية.. وأن محمدًا هذا ليس مجالاً للسخرية لأنه رجل عظيم (بغض النظر عن إيمانه بنبوته من عدمها).. وربما يدمن القهوة العربية كذلك ويطلب منك المزيد من العزايم.. والمزيد من المعرفة !
I say.. we haven't done the simplest thing; educating.. if you hold a Danish person walking down the street and invite him for a hot cup of ‘
Arabian Coffee‘ and talked to him about who is
Mohammed (the prophet) that everyone is talking about, a lot of things would have changed.. at least he will know that not
all Arabs - emphasizing on the word ‘ALL'.. unfortunately!- should be sharp-fanged.. and that
Mohammed should not be subject to sarcasm because he is a great man (regardless if one believes in his message or not).. who knows, he might get addicted to the ‘Arabian Coffee' and ask you for more treats and more to learn!
Ahmed a Syrian-hardliner blogger writes:
و يؤسفني جدا اعتذار الحكومة السورية للسفارتين و الذي لا يعبر عن رأي الجماهير بتاتا ، أنا لا أعتذر ، و كل شعب سوريا لا يعتذر عما حدث ، بل إننا ندعوا إلى تكرارها في كل بلاد العالم .. ينبغي أن يدرك الجميع أن الخط الأحمر لا يُتجاوز …
أنا مدرك أنه ينبغي علينا التعامل بطرق سلمية بعيدة عن هتك الأرواح ، أو التهديد بهتكها ،، و قد فعلنا ، لكنني لا أفهم هذا الاصرار الوقح و البغيض من الحكومات التي بدأت بالاعتداء عندما احتضنت هذه القذارات تحت مسميات مجملة ، لذلك فيجب أن يفهموا لماذا نحرق سفاراتهم .. و لماذا نريد القصاص منهم .. و لماذا سوف نلجأ إلى خيارات غير سلمية في بعض الأحيان .. ينبغي أن يفهموا أن السبب هو هذا التجاهل و الذي لن نرضى به ، حتى لو وضع السيف في أعناقنا ، و حتى لو اضطررنا إلى نحرق الدنمرك و النرويج و من فيها !!
I feel sorry that the Syrian government apologized to the burned embassies, an apology that does not does represent the mass, and I don't feel sorry for that, nor the Syrian people feel sorry for burning the embassies. In fact we call to repeat the same all over the world.. everyone should understand that crossing the red-lines is not acceptable…
I understand that we should deal with the matter in more peaceful manners and avoid any human casualties, or threatening lives, and we did that, but I can't understand the ugly and impudent reactions of the governments which started the attack by accommodating this rubbish under different names, therefore, they should understand why we burned their embassies and why we want to revenge… and why we will use violence sometimes.. they should understand that the reason is their ignorance, which we do not accept, even if a sword is held on our necks, and even if we have to burn whole of Denmark and Norway and all what's on them!!
Raed Al Saeed from Saudi Arabia links to the live survey of MSNBC, which at the time of writing this post had 241612 responses to the question: “Are Muslims justified in staging worldwide protests over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad?”
57% said Yes, 41% said No, and 2% said I don't know.
Raed then writes, Shame on you Damascus and Beirut:
يا عيب الشوم يماً حولتم جهود الملاين من المقاطعة السلمية إلى مظاهرات همجية لتقلبوا وضع المسلمين من منتصرين إلى همجيين متخلفين لا يعرفوا الفرق بين الدنمرك وشيلي والسويد.
كانوا يبحثون عن أمثالكم لقلب انتصارنا لهزيمة ولدعم الدول والمنظمات الغير إسلامية لاعتراضنا لينقلبوا ضدنا!
بعملكم هذا دعمتم رسومهم يا من تحبون الحروب والدمار!
ماذا تركتم للقاعدة بعملكم هذا؟
يا من أشعلتوا النار في السفارات وشوهتوا الإسلام أنتم لا تمثلوننا ولا تمثلون الإسلام!
ولا تحملوا علم السعودية في مظاهراتكم
Shame on you. You turned the efforts of millions from a peaceful actions like the boycotting to this barbarism, to turn the Muslims from peaceful protestors to ignorant barbarians who do not know the difference between Denmark, Chile and Sweden.
They were looking for people like you to turn our peaceful victory to a defeat, and to lose the support of the non-Muslim countries and organization who supported us!
What you have done is nothing but support to the depicting cartoons; you warmongers!
You, who ignited the fires and burned the embassies, you do not represent us, and you do not represent Islaam.
And don't carry the Saudi Arabia flag in your protest.
Zayed Al Saidi from Oman asks:
لماذا لم يكن المسلمون هم صناع الحضارة الحديثة ؟
هل حقق العالم الاسلامي الأمن الغذائي ؟
هل نتسطيع أن نستغني عن الغرب؟
لماذا لا يستثمر العرب و المسلمين أموالهم في أوطانهم ؟
هل بالفعل يمكن أن تقوم دولة اسلامية ؟
Why Muslims were not the leaders of modern urbanization ?
Did the Islamic World reach to acceptable food security level?
Can we live sufficiently without the West?
Why Arab and Muslims do not invest their wealth at home?
Is it really possible to have an Islamic State?
Humiliation is the title of the bi-monthly Arabic Bloggers Magazine published by the Arabisk Blog! The PDF (Arabic) file is here.
Mohammed Alameen from Somalia writes:
إذن الإساءة موجهة لنا كأمة وليست لذات الرسول صلى الله عليه وسلم ولكن الله أرادها أن تكون من خلال هذه الرسوم الشنيعة لأننا استسلمنا استسلام الخانعين فلا يحركنا شيء. ولو أن الأمة انتفضت في كل ما ينتقص من قدرها هي لانزجر المبطلون الذين يودون أذاها ولا يرقبون في ذلك إلا ولا ذمة. خذ مثلا فوز حماس في الانتخابات وتهديد الولايات المتحدة ومن ورائها الاتحاد الأوروبي وغيرها لحماس بقطع المعونات عن الشعب الفلسطيني إذا شكلت حماس الحكومة الفلسطينية. إذا تحركت الأمة كلها عن بكرة أبيها للدفاع عن حماس وعن خيار الشعب الفلسطيني الديمقراطي وقالت إنها تقاطع منتجات جميع الدول التي تقطع المساعدات عن الشعب الفلسطيني. وسارت مظاهرات في العواصم والحواضر الإسلامية تنديدا بمثل هذه المعاملة. ماذا كان سيكون رد الفعل الدولي؟ وهل الدول العربية والإسلامية عاجزة عن توفير المبلغ الذي تقدمه الولايات المتحدة والإتحاد الأوروبي للسلطة الفلسطين
So, the insult is directed to us as a nation, not to Prophet (PBUH), but God well is that this be through these ugly drawings because we surrendered, so nothing moving us. If the nation moved after any insult, no one would have dared to harm us. Take for example Hamas case after they won the elections and the following threats from U.S. and EU to stop all aid for Palestinians if Hamas form the new government. If the whole nation moved to support Hamas and Palestinians democratic selection; by boycotting all those who would stop the aid, and if protest went on streets for that, what would have been the International reaction? And is the Arab and Muslim world poor enough to not provide the aid to Palestinians instead of the U.S. and EU aid?
Finally, Eve from Lebanon says:
أشعر بالاشمئزاز من الطّريقة التي تتحوّل فيها المظاهرات في بيروت اليوم، ضدّ القنصليّة الدّانماركيّة، إلى همجيّةٍ خالصة وجهل
I feel disgusted by the way that protests in Beirut turned today to a barbarian and ignorant reactions against the Danish Consulate.
Note:
None of the above mentioned blogs or bloggers represent by any means, the country that they belong to or blog from. Each is a personal opinion, and does not necessarily talk on behalf of anyone but themselves.
I would like to add the following to Claus’ reply
———————
It is very important to acknowledge that there never was any offence intended in the publishing of the cartoons. The Danish newspaper that originally published the cartoons commissioned them after the author of a book about Islam said he was unable to find a single person willing to provide images of the Prophet.
The newspaper’s culture editor, Flemming Rose, says he did not ask the illustrators to draw satirical caricatures of Muhammad. He asked them to draw the Prophet as they saw him. As there is a long Danish tradition of biting satire with no taboos, provocing muslims and nations was never the goal, and Muhammed and Islam are being treated no differently to other religions.
The images have raised the profile in Denmark of a constructive debate on integration of religious minorities. Most danes now have a clearer perspective on what to say about other religions, and what not to – not in the name of “freedom of speech” but as a curtesy to other peoples beliefs.
3asal ya dalia
3asal geddan
thx deedee
i think u r a great writer and u will be something
its very touching and i loved it
thx dalia
best regards from REWESH
Can i say something?
The whole point of the cartoons was, the west, particualrly in Europe, feel betrayed by our Muslim friends. The cartoonists where asking “why is Islam immune from criticism?”. That had stemed from the bombings in London and Madrid, and the death of film maker Leo Van Gough, who with the help of a Muslim women, made a documentry asking why women in Islam where abused and inferior. The filmmaker was killed, the women needs armed protection for the rest of her life and everyone was afraid to make some justifiable criticism in Islam.
Now the portrayal of the Holy Prophet was unnecasry. But it was a decision made by cartoonist and the a newspaper. This is the West, papers are not run by the state. To punish a whole country for it is nothing short of BULLYING.
Muslims preach religious tolerance. But the hyprocrisy here is shocking. In Saudi Arabia, the official policy of the state is to be arrest Christians and to burn bibles! Incredible. In europe especially, Muslims have been free to run business’s and go about thier own lives, but still they try to impose THIER taboo’s and thier religious beliefs, when MILLIONS in europe died for the right to state that NOTHING is taboo. Remember Muslims came to the west to escape persecution, not to impose it ungratefully on your welcoming host! That is not democracy. That is Islamic Law. If i tried to impose my taboo’s to an Islamic country i would be shot.
So why cant Muslims just admit thier is some serious problems with thier religion! The problems with the world are 50/50, problems from the west, problems with the east. But Islam a fundemental problem behind all this. Why cant anyone see that without death threats, being called a racist, or be called a Jew? If you dont like the rules of your host country, you are democraticly entitled to leave for a country eith rules you like.
it’s a shame what some muslims all over the world are showing just because of a satirical cartoon. it’s a over reaction to say the least. why don’t you just go march in protest, file a lawsuit or what have you. you do not see christians, buddhists etc. storming and burning embassies whenever their god is portrayed in a cartoon. these violent reactions only adds to the tarnished reputation of islam as a religion of peace. you’d hate to see what would happen if someone actually made an animated cartoon of the matter *sheesh*. i say keep an open mind people tsk tsk.
I find it interesting how so many people insist that Islam is a religion of peace, not violence. Really? Hmmm…let’s see. Every year,during the holiest of pilgrimages, hundreds of people get trampled and killed. Islamics flew planes into the World Trade Towers in New York city, killing thousands, and Muslims in the Middle East laughed and cheered. Jihad is thought to be noble and wonderful; killing ‘infidels’ a good thing. Islamics regularly kidnap people and cut their heads off while someone films the event for posterity. Suicide bombing is encouraged and the families of suicide bombers rewarded. The Ayatollah Khomeni’s funeral was so ‘peaceful’ the body was bounced out of the coffin into the street, where people tore it apart in order to take home a piece of this ‘holy’ leader’s corpse. Hmmm, yes, a religion of peace, indeed.
April
“Every year,during the holiest of pilgrimages, hundreds of people get trampled and killed”
it is not every year, but 2 milion people gathering in one tiny place in the same time causes some times accedents which lead to the death of some of them.
Islamics flew planes into the World Trade Towers in New York city, killing thousands, and Muslims in the Middle East laughed and cheered.
They do not reprent muslims nor they represent islam. But in the other hand, when some of muslims died in mecca last month look how christian & jews has celebrated that tragedy on yahoo news!!
“Jihad is thought to be noble and wonderful; killing ‘infidels’ a good thing”
Yihad is to fight those who attack muslims. it is not killing anyone weather infidals orn not. For god sake, how many innocent people have been killed by American troops in Iraq? and how many killed in Palistine by israelis ??
“The Ayatollah Khomeni’s funeral was so ‘peaceful’ the body was bounced out of the coffin into the street, where people tore it apart in order to take home a piece of this ‘holy’ leader’s corpse”
They were idiots and their acts does not represent islam. Islam forbit such a thing.
حبيبى يا محمد يا رسول والله حب يزيد بطريقة غير عادية وأقول للدنماركين
(( ربا درة نافعة ))
محمد هذا شخص غير عادى أيهــــــــــــــــــــــــا الناس ولو تتعرفوا علية سيتغير الحال وجربواااااا