Blasphemy and critical evaluation of Mohammed’s character have always been forbidden, and have been a highly sensitive issue throughout the history of Islam.
Blasphemy and critical evaluation of Mohammed’s character have always been forbidden, and have been a highly sensitive issue throughout the history of Islam
It is quite appalling to see how some western media figures have responded to the Paris attacks.
Some have blamed the cartoonists for provoking Muslims and inciting religious hatred, while others like Robert Fisk have blamed historic western policies for the murders.
Fisk claimed that the disenfranchisement of youth, economic deprivation, and past atrocities experienced by Algerians led to the Paris events.
Others on the far left like the inveterate anti-American journalist Glenn Greenwald started with Soviet style whataboutism and connected the Paris events with Israel, while the annoying Assange, still languishing in the Ecuador embassy, tweeted some five-year-old Telegraph report to obfuscate the Paris shooting issue.
It’s beyond absurd to blame French occupation of Algeria for the shootings. This is the kind of apologism that facilitates radical Islam. This strategy only results in appeasement of puritanical radical Islamic ideology and only offers one solution: ‘the West is evil’.
If past grievances and atrocities are considered to be the reasons behind these attacks then by this logic all Indians living in the UK would be retaliating to avenge the suffering their ancestors faced during British Colonialism. Bangladeshis would carry out attacks against Pakistan since they once ruthlessly persecuted Bengalis, killing more than a million of them and raping 200,000 of their women.
If Fisk were right, Vietnam and Japan would not be some of the most pro-American countries in the world today.
However the most pathetic and dismal response that came from the western press was from those who castigated Charlie Hebdo and blamed the cartoonists for provoking Muslims.
If one follows this flawed narrative then all liberal Muslims struggling against radical Islam on a daily basis in their own Muslim majority countries should only have themselves to blame whenever they are brutally attacked by extremist clerics and their zealot followers.
The Saudi writer and activist Raif Badawi who is currently being publicly flogged by repressive Saudia Arabia should be denounced for criticising the rabid misogynist clerics of the Wahabbi sect. All Pakistani liberals fighting against draconian blasphemy laws should also be condemned for inciting the wrath of terrorists.
Even a cursory examination of blasphemy killings in Pakistan can tell us that the real reasons why the cartoonists were attacked were not because of Western foreign policy, the Iraq War, or colonialism, but because of an ideology that has always been fanatical and dogmatic in nature and that is responsible for the misery of thousands of people, particularly in Pakistan.
This ideology has the power of igniting vigilante justice and provoking mobs into indulging in violence and vandalism. It’s the same ideology which sent Salman Rushdie into hiding for a decade, and that burnt 37 people to death after a mob set fire to a hotel building in Turkey.
It’s the same ideology that killed prominent Pakistani politician Salman Taseer after he questioned the concept of the country’s brutal blasphemy laws.
According to this ideology, any person who doubts the origins of Islam, draws caricatures of Prophet Mohammad or satirises revered Islamic figures is liable to be punished by death. The basis for this blasphemy belief is not the Quran but the Hadith, the second main source of Islam.
Many sects within Islam have varied views in relation to the blasphemy issue but almost all sects believe in the prohibition on images of Mohammed.
Apart from images, many sects of Islam also consider even questioning or doubting the origins of Mohammed as blasphemous. British Historian Tom Holland had his academic documentary on the origins of Islam cancelled by Channel 4 after he and his family received death threats and over 1200 complaints were received by Ofcom and Channel 4.
To blame this ideology on recent western policies is nothing short of the murder of history. Blasphemy and critical evaluation of Mohammed’s character has always been forbidden and a highly sensitive issue among Muslims in the history of Islam. It is not a new issue.
In 1929, Ilm-ud-din, a Muslim living in British India, took offence at a book published about Prophet Mohammed. He killed the publisher and was sentenced to death by the Indian Penal Code.
Consequently he was considered a martyr; 200,000 people attended his funeral and he was praised by the ideological founder of Pakistan Allama Iqbal. Even today in Pakistan, Ilm-ud-din is used as an inspiration for those who would kill in the name of Islam.
As Douglas Murray said on BBC Big Questions, the attack on 7 January was an attempt to introduce blasphemy laws in Paris.
In the aftermath of this attack, the western media has two options. The first is to reprint these cartoons and continue the unflinching quest of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists, as a way of paying tribute to their legacy. The second option is to take a step back and not criticise Islam or Mohammed, to accord Islam different treatment to other religions.
If the media follows the latter option, it will be a victory for the attackers and their ideology of blasphemy, and will set a dangerous precedent. I hope that the steps we take and our future course of action will not defer to this ideology. But as the responses so far have shown, not everyone is ready to stand up to it.
Anas Abbas is an accountant and investigative Counter Terrorism analyst. Follow him on Twitter or read his blog
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145 Responses to “Why it’s wrong to blame western policies for the Paris attacks”
SabraNott
See my comment above where I debunked his examples.
Todd Fewer
Next , your statement that “What’s going on in the world today has nothing to do with religion” and ” that the vast majority of Muslims vehemently reject the killings” ( in reference to the French journalists killed for depicting Mohammed in satirical cartoons ) Both these statements although commonly believed by what i call “ultra liberals ” that have taken political correctness to the point of absurdity …where any statement or open discussion about Islam or Muslims or their ideology in a negative way will have one labeled Islamophobic or racist . For some reason to criticize this particular ideology is now not allowed in the current lexicon when it is more than ok to do so to any other ideology often with quite ugly and bold generalizations, including my own Atheism.
To say that what is happening in the world today has nothing to do with religion is quite frankly ,ridiculous and shows an absolute state of denial and lack of understanding of the truth.. ( no offense intended ) although I will agree with your statement that greed is involved and add to it more so “power”. Firstly …the most recent attack in France was undeniably about Religion. It was a direct retaliation for the paper publishing what all Muslims , moderate to extremists find unforgivably offensive to their religion and of which the majority of Muslims feel should to varying degrees be punished even Shia Muslims which technically have no objection to at least visual representation of the prophet unlike Sunni who have strict adherence to depictions of any prophets. The attackers in France made it completely clear that it was about Religion as they shouted “revenge for the prophet Mohammed” as they brutally executed the people directly responsible for creating the offensive material . I ask you in what way was this attack about greed ? or for that matter power ? there was no gains to be had here , just simply brutal enforcement of religious doctrine or ideology. Now one can not disagree that outside climate change the biggest most dangerous sociological problem the world faces is Religious fundamental extremism of which Islam and Muslim Theocracies are the main concentration of this problem. Much of this started and can be blamed on Saudi Arabia and the former King Al Saud and others for returning Saudi Arabia back to Wahhabism a very strict and brutal and quite literal interpretation of the Quran …founded by Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab in the early 1700’s . The return and intense promotion or even forced belief in Wahhabism and Salafism is directly the cause of virtually all the problems related to Islam and the Muslim ideology today. completely wiping out any modernization that the Muslim world had been making until the 1940’s except to some extent Iran and Bahrain which remain mostly Shia and opposed the Sunni majority based in Saudi Arabia . With 85 to 90% of Muslims being Sunni and Saudi Arabia their Motherland and head of their religion ,varying degrees of Wahhabism eventually spread throughout the entire Islamic world til of course we are where we are today. Now we have ,like it or not an Islam that has been infected by this strict interpretation of the Quran. To say the vast majority of Muslims are moderate and on par with the consensus of what the civilized world deems acceptable in as far as human rights , treatment of women , tolerance toward non believers , gays ,Atheists, acceptance of scientific facts and the brutality of Sharia Law is completely false . No other ideology that accepts these things would be tolerated in any other country outside these Theocracies and I am ashamed personally that a much greater world wide responds to the atrocities committed by this Ideology is not taken more seriously… . that being said yes i am quite aware that there is a large segment of the Islamic faith that does not follow or adhere to the more extreme parts of their religion but generally speaking they do not take a stand of significance against it either . This in my view is unacceptable as well and to tolerate or turn a blind eye to these issues and allow them to continue is very telling about the true levels of Moderate Islam.
A recent Pew study ,as quoted by Sam Harris on an eps. of Bill Maher’s Real Time that was done by some of these so called more moderate theocracies ….their own studies now! shows , and i must stress these numbers admitted by these countries are indeed conservative . 20 Islamic countries where taken into this study they found results that are quite staggering. now instead of writing this out Ill post the clip of Sam Harris on Bill Maher (sorry Paula …please allow your ban on Bill to be dropped for 10 mins here…if you would do me that courtesy ) as he explains this much better then I. (( Real Time with Bill Maher: Ben Affleck, Sam Harri…: http://youtu.be/vln9D81eO60 ))
It is high time we address this and acknowledge that yes it is Religion that is the problem and a very large one at that. i am pointing out Islam here because it is the worst current offender but the problem of extreme religious fundamentalism is also happening on a less violent level but equally as dangerous level right in our backyard with The Evangelical Christian far right in the US which has now gain enormous power in the Congress and Senate and all areas of government infecting it radical beliefs in political ,judicial and educational systems to the point where 6 states now are being forced to teach Creationism over Evolution ! CREATIONISM over Evolution a theory of which there is more evidence than even gravity!! Hobby Lobby’s recent supreme court win to discriminate on religious bases its hiring practices and deny access to contraception based again on the owners religious believes. the problem is so deep and the lobby so powerful that they are influencing foreign policy …successfully forcing the government to send huge amounts of money to Israel making no bones about their believe that they must usher in the second coming of Christ by ensuring the fulfillment of biblical prophesy in the book of Revelation. so much more is happening then most are aware and it proves that Religion Fundamentalism and its ideologies are indeed the cause of most of the worlds problems. Religion itself has and is responsible for most wars and problems since its very conception ….the greed and power you speak of is the very reason religion even developed ,it from day one was used to gain power and wealth not for what many believe it to be. It is not about peace and love it is about power and war …Jesus himself says in Matt 10:34 “Do not suppose that i have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring Peace ,but a sword.” All religious writings and anthropological evidence shows nothing but evil and death. the God of the bible himself is a Malevolent viscous god that himself commits or allows in his name over 24 million acts of murder est. in the bible. 100’s of millions more have died in his name since …Why? where does it end? the current situation in the world is far more serious then we care to admit …for wars waged over economics and for political reasons can quite easily be solved and solutions found that benefit all….but wars over Religion or Ideological differences are not so easily solved they are for the very type of existence we wish to have. I fear an Ideological war that will dwarf all others is inevitable if we do not leave our ancient obsolete belief systems behind and except the undeniable evidence of science, logic and reason which has proven that no creator is necessary for the universe to exist. right now the lines are being drawn and sides chosen and unfortunately i think it will only escalate now as the two main ideologies can find no middle ground. its incredibly frustrating for those of us who are Atheist and secular that the world is being torn apart by neanderthals that can not move on from ancient myth. So in closing yes Religion is the cause , its indoctrination of over half the planet for 1000’s of years has made it virtually impossible for humanity to evolve away from the most ridiculous insane belief system before it destroys itself. We not only should rid the world of Religion and religious ideology but we have to if we are to survive as a species. Thanks for reading
David
Thank you so much for this piece! This was very
necessary. This is the first piece I’ve read on the attack that hasn’t
pissed me off.
Mark
So it’s that silly “interpretation” thing again is it? Funny how so many keep getting wrong. Maybe a clearer re-write is needed. And it’s interesting you originally state that there is nothing in the Hadith for killing “non-Muslims” for depictions of Muhammed. Why the qualification?
Rukhsana Asad
Does freedom of speech allow one to raise the issue of occupation of Palestine and ghettoisation of Jerusalem as well as killing of children in Gaza?