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MENA: To Draw or Not to Draw Muhammed

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Technology

May 20 has come and gone, but the fire ignited by the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day [1] on Facebook, is still raging, fueled by discussions on freedom of expression, freedom of religion and beliefs, and the standards – or double standards – employed by Facebook.

While Pakistan is up in arms over the controversy, with a court order to block [2] Facebook, and shut down even more sites, reactions in the Middle East have been slow. Only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have reportedly blocked the ‘offensive’ Facebook page, which calls on people around the world to draw Prophet Muhammed and post their pictures online, in a stark reminder of the Danish cartoons controversy, whose dust is yet to settle.

Israeli Yael shares her opinion on the day and writes [3]:

So I went over to check out the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day [4]
page and was surprised to see that there were quite a lot of muslims
taking part, arguing that just because something may offend some
people, be vulgar, in poor taste, and so forth, this is a free speech
issue and people have the right to act in poor taste, they have the
right to say, write and draw offensive things. I agree with this
position. Because others have the right to use their free speech to
condemn such acts, to call them vile or offensive etc.

She further explains:

Offensiveness, is, however, all in the eye of the beholder. Some
people find depictions of scantily clad (or totally unclad) people
offensive –should all such images be banned? Some people, for instance
here in our ultra-ultra (really really ultra) orthodox communities find
the depiction of women AT ALL offensive and so they ban all pictures of
any sort with a female in them from their newspapers and magazines and
have tried to get billboards and so forth that depict women in them
banned from gracing our highways, buses and so forth. Once you start
saying, “no you can’t say, or write, or draw, or show images of X,”
then where does it stop?
And who decides?

Global Voices Online‘s Morocco author Jillian York writes [5] from Boston, US, adds:

Following Pakistan’s block on Facebook [6] today, I decided to take a look at the blog to see what the reaction was.
Front and center, on the blog [7]’s header was that now-infamous depiction of Mohammad wearing a turban-shaped bomb.  The Facebook group was full of nastiness: depictions of the Prophet as a dog, slurs about Muslims and Islam, etc.

Now, in the case of the Mohammad cartoons, four years ago when it
happened up till now, I will defend the cartoonists’ right to draw what
they please, no matter how repulsive I personally find it.  In that
same vein, I defended Iran’s Holocaust cartoon competition [8].

York continues:

With that in mind, I’m incredibly disappointed with this new
campaign.  Rather than calmly and peacefully defend free speech by
whimsically portraying the Prophet as a teddy bear or a toaster, the
group and blog’s admins have chosen to provoke, thus alienating plenty
of supporters of free speech who might otherwise have backed them.  The
project is a work of immature Americans who feel that asserting their
right to free speech–by any means necessary–is more important than
showing an ounce of respect (and for that matter, dignity) by finding a
middle ground.

In a comment on her post, Mahmud writes:

The bigger question is WHY ????….why at the first instance initiate an
act which has intimate feelings by another group…Im positive there are
numerous subjects available in the world which can prove freedom of
speech and liberty….JEWS all over the world react to denial of
holocaust ..a stance which is accepted by the world…so why not apply
similar format for muslims…what really is intended to be achieved from
this act or where the quality of life will improve…in actual it will
fuel anti west sentiments and make the task of moderate muslims
difficult in containing militancy….

And Tarek Amr, from Egypt, shares his ideas on the initiative in this post [9] (Ar). He writes:

قصه شبه يومية و قد كتب علينا أن نقرأها و نشاهدها و نسمعها حتى مللناها,
و القصة هي قصة الغباء و السخافة و أثرهم في تصرفات البشر. دعوني في
البداية أقسم أفراد القصة إلى فريقين شبه متكافئين في الغباء, و لنسمهم
فريق الأغبياء ألف, و فريق الأغبياء باء.
فريق الأغبياء ألف, يقرر أن
يرسم الرسول الكريم بصوره غير لائقة, فيجيبه فريق الأغبياء باء بالتهديد و
الوعيد, فيتمادى الفريق ألف في غباؤه و تشتد نبرة التهديد و الوعيد للفريق
باء, و تضج القاعة بالتصفيق و الضحك المتواصل.

ربما الجديد هذه المرة أن فريق الأغبياء ألف قرر تخصيص يوم عشرين مايو من كل عام لرسم الرسول الكريم [10]. و في الواقع فمن شكل دعوتهم و من كم السخافات الموجودة في قسم التعليقات هناك, فمن الواضح أنهم يودونها ان تكون رسوم مسيئة فقط.

It seems to be a daily occurrence, and our destiny is to read, hear and watch it to boredom. They story is that of stupidity and its impact on the behaviour of people. Let me start with dividing the characters of this story into two teams, which are equality compatible in their stupidity. Let's call them Stupid Team A and Stupid Team B.

Stupid Team A decides to draw the Prophet in an inappropriate way. Stupid Team B responds with threats, so Stupid Team A continues with its stupidity and Stupid Team B heightens the tone of its threats, and the audience continues to clap their hands and laugh.

What may be new this time, is that Stupid Team A has decided to mark the 20th of May as the annual day to draw the Prophet. In reality, from their call, and the amount of ridicule and insults in the comments section, it is obvious that they want the drawings to be insulting only.

Amr continues:

أنا لا أحب تصنيف نفسي كشخص متدين, بالعكس فربما رد فعلى الأولى على رؤية
الدعوة و التعليقات عليها لم يكن رد فعل ديني من نوعية الإستغفار و
الحوقلة, لكنه كان رد فعل سوقي به الكثير من ألفاظ السباب لأبو أم الغباء
الذي يدين به هؤلاء. فصحيح أن فريق الأغبياء ألف يتهكم على أكثر شخص أحبه
في هذا العالم, لكن ما يثير حنقي أكثر شئ هو غباء فريق الأغبياء ألف,
فغباؤهم هو نتيجة طبيعية للعند المتولد بدوره من تهديدات فريق الأغبياء
باء. و رغبتهم في توجيه الإسائة ليست نتيجة أيديولوجية معينة و لكنها كما
أسلفت مجرد نوع من العند الموجه ضد رفاقهم و نظرائهم في الغباء.
I don't like to categorise myself as a religious person. On the contrary, my first reaction when I saw the invite and comments was not a religious reaction like those who would pray to God for forgiveness for such sins. It was an opposite one, with a lot of cussing for such a level of stupidity which those people enjoy. And while it is true that Stupid Team A are insulting the person I love most, what is annoying me more is the level of stupidity, which stems from stubbornness – a natural reaction to the threats they are getting from Stupid Team B. Their desire to insult is not a result of a particular ideology but just a reaction against their comrades in stupidity in Stupid Team B.

The blogger ponders on the choices bystanders have saying:

لذلك نحن أمام أحد الخيارين, إما أن ننضم لفريق الأغبياء باء, أو أن نتجاهل كلا الفريقين و نتركهم لغبائهم فهو خير عقاب لهم.

This is why we face two choices, either to join Stupid Team B or ignore the two teams and leave them alone in their stupidity.

Amr, however, devises another plan:

لكن لحظة, لم لا نذهب إلى حل أكثر جنونا و نرسم نحن الرسول الكريم
بالصورة الموجودة في أذهاننا نحن؟ لم لا نستغل الموقف لنعرفهم به و بقدره
الذي عجزت عقولهم عن رؤيته؟ فكما يقولون, العند يولد الكفر, لذلك
بإنضمامنا لحملتهم و تطويعها لوجهة نظرنا نحن ستنكسر موجة العند و لن
يجدوا أصلا من يوجهوا عندهم ضده. أعلم أن فكرتي المجنونه هذه لن يكتب لها
الحياة و ستقابل بسيل من الفتاوى التكفيرية و الشتائم, و ربما لذلك أطلقت
عليا لفظ مجنونة.
Wait a minute! Why can't we find a more crazy solution and draw the Prophet the way we see him? Why don't we use this opportunity to introduce them to him, and show them the characteristics, which their minds failed to see? As they say, stubbornness breeds apostasy, so joining their campaign and showing their our point of view may break their stubbornness when they don't find anyone to direct it against.

I realise that my idea will not see the light of day and will be met with a fatwas and swear words, and this may be why I called it a crazy idea.

And crazy solution or not, others seem to embrace the thought. Khalid at The Bahyeldin Dynasty writes [11]:

My solution? What this wise young Muslim man has said: Muslims should participate in this event, and should support a cause as well. Watch his video [12].

Here is another perspective [13] from Chicago by a Muslim, Qasim Rashid.

Meanwhile, some bloggers took the high road and quit Facebook in protest against leaving the page up. Among them is Syrian Ahmed Zaidan, who writes [14]:

هنا أود أن أعلن مقاطعتي لهذا الموقع الذي تجرأ على ذلك وأدعو كل أحبابي وأصدقائي ومحبي النبي محمد عليه أفضل الصلاة والسلام ومحبي احترام المقدسات حفاظا على السلم والأمن العالمي، أدعوهم جميعا إلى مقاطعة الفيس بوك والتوقف عن تصفحه وفتحه، فقد تمادى كثيرا وأصابه الغرور ربما بعد ما تحدثت بعض استطلاعات الرأي عن تبوئه المرتبة الأولى في العالم تصفحا …
أن تغلق  محطة الاتصالات الباكستانية بطلب من المحكمة الباكستانية إغلاق موقع الفيس بوك في باكستان فذاك تطور مهم واحترام لمشاعر الشعب المسلم ليس في باكستان فحسب وإنما في العالم كله، وهي خطوة ينبغي على القضاء العربي والإسلامي أن يحذو حذوها، وإلا فإن حملات التحريض هذه من قبل مواقع كالفيس بوك وغيرها  لن تؤدي إلا إلى مزيد من التوتر بين الشعوب ..
I would like to announce that I am boycotting Facebook, which had dared to (insult us) and would like to call upon all my friends and dear ones, and all those who love Prophet Muhammed, and would like to maintain world peace and global security to boycott Facebook, and stop browsing and using it. Facebook has gone too far, and may have become conceited, especially after all the polls which placed it as the world's top site…

When the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority shuts Facebook, following a Pakistani court order, this is an important development – one which respects the feelings of the Muslim people, not only in Pakistan, but across the world. It is a step which the Arab and Muslim judiciary should follow, because the tensions caused by Facebook and similar sites, will only create more animosity between people.

Egyptian Engineer, who also quit Facebook, writes [15]:

دا غير إن الفيس بوك بيآخد وقت كتير و فوائده قليلة مقابل طوفان من الكلام اللي ملوش لازمة بالنسبة لي
غير إن الفيس بوك بيستهبل و لغى كذا جروب إسلامي كنت مشترك فيهم فلقيت إن البقاء فيه تضييع وقت

Facebook takes a lot of time and its benefits are few, when compared to the flood of words which are useless to me. Also Facebook is acting up and they have deleted a number of Islamic groups I was a member in so I realised that staying there is just a waste of time.