Why Muslims Cannot Poke Fun at Muhammad
In a recent piece in the Asia Times, economist David P. Goldman analyzes why Muslims—unlike Jews and Christians—have such a hard time poking fun at their prophets.
In a recent piece in the Asia Times, economist David P. Goldman analyzes why Muslims—unlike Jews and Christians—have such a hard time poking fun at their prophets.
On May 3rd, a contest to draw the best cartoon depiction of the Prophet Muhammad was held in Garland, Texas, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative. It closed with a violent end.
“The first thing you notice is the warm and welcoming smile. Any brother standing in the doorway is sure to get a big smile, hearty handshake, and some sort of kind conversation,” Kawthar Ijai wrote in a February 2010 Arizona Muslim Voice profile of Elton Simpson, the man who officials said carried out a terrorist attack in Garland, Texas on Sunday.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American Muslim advocacy group with deep ties to the global Muslim Brotherhood, advised Muslims to “use caution” when talking to the FBI about its 2010 investigation into Elton Simpson, who on Sunday carried out a jihadist attack on a “Draw Muhammad” free-speech event in Garland, Texas.
A Saudi court has sentenced a young man in his 20s to death for posting a video online that purportedly showed him ripping up a Koran and then striking it with a shoe before cursing Islam’s Muhammad, according to the Saudi Gazette.
Shouting the jihadist battle cry declared by Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, “Allahu-akbar” (“Allah is greater”), on Saturday, February 14, 2015, a Muslim gunman opened fire on participants at a Copenhagen, Denmark, conference on freedom of expression, killing 1 and wounding 3 others.
On Thursday, Iran launched its second international competition based on the theme of Holocaust denial. The 2nd International Holocaust Cartoons Contest was organized by Iran’s House of Cartoons and the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex in reaction to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s publication of Muhammad.
During the weekend, riots broke out throughout the Islamic world in demonstration against the recent publication of a Muhammad cartoon by France’s Charlie Hebdo, several of which resulted in death and destruction.
The newest Charlie Hebdo magazine, which went on sale throughout France Wednesday, reportedly sold out almost immediately. The three million copy print run has now been boosted to five million, AFP reports.
Throughout many schools in France, Muslim students refused to comply with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. While some spoke obnoxiously loudly during the 60 second period, others yelled “Allahu Akbar!” or “God is great.” In another incident, a group of young Muslims dishonored the moment of silence, telling their teacher, “You reap what you sow,” the Washington Post reports.
An Imam in Peshawar, Pakistan hosted a parade on Tuesday to honor the two Al Qaeda-linked brothers who were responsible for carrying out the jihadi retribution killings of twelve at the offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Lee Keath describes those who question the link between Islam and jihadist violence as “increasingly brazen.”
CNN president Jeff Zucker told staffers Thursday that “the safety of our employees” is the reason the cable news network is not broadcasting the Charlie Hebdo Muhammad cartoons on the air or across any of the network’s other platforms. THR
On Wednesday night, CNN International Correspondent Jim Clancy entered full meltdown mode on Twitter after critics fired back at his assertion that magazine Charlie Hebdo’s Prophet Muhammad cartoons did not criticize the prophet. Clancy went on a conspiratorial and borderline anti-Semitic tirade, accusing those who disagreed with him as being propagandists for Israel.