Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais: Punish Mockers of the Prophet … confront the smear campaigns against Islam.

Makkah Imam unish Mockers of the Prophet

P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH,11 February 2006 — An influential imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah yesterday called for the imposition of stiff punishment on those daring to mock the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Delivering his Friday sermon, Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais also emphasized the need to activate international resolutions that condemn and punish such crimes as defamation of religions and prophets.

“All Islamic countries have condemned this act of crime,” Al-Sudais told the faithful who packed the large mosque complex, referring to the blasphemous cartoons published by Western newspapers.

“We make a call from the podium of the Grand Mosque and the birthplace of Islam, on behalf of Muslims all over the world, that tough punishment should be imposed on those who make a mockery of the Prophet,” the imam said.

Sudais said Western countries and organizations were adopting double standards on the issue of Danish cartoons allowing abuse of Muslim sanctities and their Prophet.

“The repulsive cartoons depicting the Prophet have violated the sanctity of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world and their feelings…. This has exposed those who are actually promoting extremism, violence and hatred between peoples,” Sudais said.

He praised Muslims all over the world for standing up to the challenge and protesting the publication of cartoons.

Sudais told Islamic scholars and intellectuals to do more to spread themessage of the Prophet and his noble qualities and ideals. “We must seize this opportunity to spread the correct perspective of his noble life through publications and programs in various languages,” he added.

The imam called on wealthy Muslims to use their money to confront the smear campaigns against Islam.

Source : Arab News … 2006.02.11

Hamshahri newspaper: It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust

Cartoon contest
Tuesday, 07 February 2006

Iran’s largest selling newspaper announced yesterday it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

“It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust,” said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri newspaper – which is published by Tehran’s conservative Municipality.

He said the plan was to turn the tables on the assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression.

“The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let’s see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons,” he asserted.

Iran is supportive of Holocaust revisionist historians, who maintain the slaughter by the Nazis of Europe’s Jews during World War II has been either invented or exaggerated.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the systematic slaughter by the Nazis of mainland Europe’s Jews as a “myth” used to justify the creation of Israel.

Mortazavi said today’s edition of the paper will invite cartoonists to enter the competition, with “private individuals” offering gold coins to the best 12 artists – the same number of cartoons that appeared in the conservative Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Last week the Iranian foreign ministry also invited British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Tehran to take part in a planned conference on the Holocaust, even though the idea has been branded by Blair as “shocking, ridiculous, stupid”.

Blair also said Ahmadinejad “should come and see the evidence of the Holocaust himself in the countries of Europe”, to which Iran responded by saying it was willing to send a team of “independent investigators”.

Source : http://www.7days.ae/regional-news/cartoon-contest.html

Would the UN security council issue a resolution demanding apology from denmark

For tansgressing on world peace, denmark should be held guilty by the security council.

If Denmark politicians do not offer a good apology, then maybe the security council should impose sanctions on Denmark, for no less crime than disturbing world peace!

Cairo, EGYPT: Egyptians pass a sign declaring a boycott of Danish goods in a supermarket in Cairo 02 February 2006. Four months after the fact, Muslim anger over the publication in Scandinavia of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed has snowballed into a full-fledged crisis threatening Nordic trade and security. Cartoons including a portrayal of the prophet wearing a time-bomb shaped turban were published in a Danish newspaper last September and reprinted in a Norwegian magazine in January, sparking uproar in the Muslim world where images of the prophet are considered blasphemous. AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI (Photo credit should read KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

thanks for the photo!