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Friday, April 21, 2006




CLARITY ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION

a welcome change from the kinds of reaction we saw over the Danish cartoons, is expressed by UPI journalist Claude Salhani in a viewpoint at Middle East Times:

WASHINGTON -- When a Danish cartoonist conjured a handful of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed in an unflattering light, the Muslim world erupted in sometimes-violent protest, leaving a trail of dead bodies from the Middle East to the islands of Indonesia.

But when a Muslim convert was recently sentenced to die in Afghanistan for choosing a different path to his God, the majority of the Muslim world remained silent. There were no demonstrations in Karachi, Peshawar, Damascus or Beirut. There was only silence - a noticeable silence that was, quite frankly, disappointing.

Missing from the debate were loud and unequivocal condemnations by the leaders of predominantly Muslim countries. But blaming the absence of good leadership has become an all-too-convenient proxy for indirectly condoning Muslim apathy toward many issues. One assumes that the majority of people remained silent for fear that they too would find themselves accused of heresy. But while self-preservation is everyone's right, it is questionable whether we can, as a global community, disregard the wider implications of not putting the principle first at such a critical time on the world stage.

The Holy Koran teaches that "there is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clear from the wrong way," (2:256). Additionally, many Hadiths, or sayings, of the Prophet are clear about respecting "non-believers":

"Whoever hurts a non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys God." (Bukhari)


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