| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
11 Feb 2006 03:22:18 PM |
| Object: |
Saudi cleric demands trial over drawings |
Saudi cleric demands trial over drawings
AP on Yahoo ^ | 2/11/06 | Abdullah Shiri - apI
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's top cleric called on the world's
Muslims to reject apologies for the "slanderous" caricatures of
Islam's Prophet Mohammed and demanded the authors and publishers of
the cartoons be tried and punished, Saudi newspapers reported
Saturday.
Thousands of Muslims, meanwhile, took to the streets in London and
several other European cities to protest the drawings that were first
published in a Danish newspaper in September and recently reprinted in
other European publications. One depicted the prophet with a turban
shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.
Denmark also announced it has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors
from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the
wake of the controversy.
Speaking to hundreds of faithful at his Friday sermon, Sheik Abdul
Rahman al-Seedes, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia,
called on the international community to enact laws that condemn
insults against the prophet and holy sites.
"Where is the world with all its agencies and organizations? Is there
only freedom of expression when it involves insults to Muslims? With
one voice...we will reject the apology and demand a trial," Al Riyad,
a Saudi daily newspaper, quoted al-Seedes as saying.
Al-Seedes said the cartoons "made a mockery" of the Islam and the
Prophet and called them "slanderous."
A diverse crowd ranging from teenagers in jeans and T-shirts to women
in head scarves gathered in Trafalgar Square in central London. Many
carried placards reading "United Against Islamophobia."
"It was absolutely wrong to publish the cartoons," said Ihtisham
Hibatullah, media director for the Muslim Association of Britain, one
of the protest organizers.
But he said demonstrators also wanted to send the message that "the
clash of civilizations is only promoted by fringe minorities. We see
the future as one of dialogue between practices, cultures, faiths and
ideologies."
Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear
they could lead to idolatry. No major British newspaper has reproduced
the caricatures, and the country had seen only small demonstrations
before Saturday.
Noisy but peaceful rallies also were held in Turkey, Indonesia, the
Netherlands, Germany, France and elsewhere, although the Middle East
was largely calm, a day after demonstrations by thousands of Muslim
worshippers emerging from Friday prayers.
Protesters in the Turkish capital of Ankara stomped on Danish flags
and shouted, "We will not forgive the ones who humiliated our
prophet!"
Arab governments, Muslim clerics and newspaper columnists have been
urging calm in past days, fearing that recent weeks of violence have
only increased anti-Islamic sentiment in the West.
So far, eleven people have been killed in the protests — all during
three days of riots this week in Afghanistan. A 12th person died in
Nairobi Friday when he was hit by an ambulance rushing away a wounded
person.
Denmark's embassy buildings in Syria, Iran and Indonesia had been
targeted by angry mobs and the Foreign Ministry said it was
withdrawing Danish ambassadors from all three countries.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published the cartoons in
September, has apologized for offending Muslims but stood by its
decision to print the drawings, citing freedom of speech.
The newspaper's culture editor, Flemming Rose, who was in charge of
the drawings, went on indefinite leave Thursday but many Muslims said
that would do little to quell the uproar.
The paper has denied that Rose was ordered to go leave because he
suggested reprinting Holocaust drawings solicited by an Iranian
newspaper, setting off a dispute earlier this week with
Jyllands-Posten's editor-in-chief.
"He was not forced out," said the paper's spokesman, Tage Clausen.
"He's on vacation, that's all."
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the controversy
over the cartoons has created unprecedented tension between the
Islamic and Christian world.
"For the sake of global peace and safeguarding of our commonly held
values, I believe it has now become essential that the statesmen and
politicians act with wisdom and commonsense," he said in a letter
published in Turkish media and sent to U.N. member nations, the
Organization of the Islamic Conference and NATO.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reiterated that many
Muslims consider the cartoons an insult to their faith, but he called
on Muslims to forgive those who have sincerely apologized.
"Reprinting the cartoons in order to make a point about free speech is
an act of senseless brinkmanship," he said in a commentary in the
International Herald Tribune.
"It is also a disservice to democracy. It sends a conflicting message
to the Muslim community: that in a democracy it is permissible to
offend Islam. This message damages efforts to prove that democracy and
Islam go together."
--
"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing
their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit by and
let them rewrite history." -- ***** Cheney 11/16/2005
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Saudi cleric demands trial over drawings |
11 Feb 2006 03:25:57 PM |
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Hey - Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Seedes, the imam of the Grand Mosque in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia - get over it.
Dumbass.
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| User: "old hoodoo" |
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| Title: Re: Saudi cleric demands trial over drawings |
11 Feb 2006 03:35:56 PM |
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wrote:
Hey - Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Seedes, the imam of the Grand Mosque in
Mecca, Saudi Arabia - get over it.
Dumbass.
Let's try the Shiek over the excesses of Islam...
The cartoons have indeed done some good...they are
showing just how ignorant the Muslim world still is...
they still "can't take a joke", a sign of intoleration
that is not compatible with democracy.
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