As the tragic events of the brutal assassination of two visitors and eight staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo unfolded, a friend of mine sent me a message asking, 'What is your take on events in Paris?', and I replied,"tragic, innocent lives have been violated". Then he sent another message that read, 'Are you happy with what is happening?. Another friend with whom I was at the moment felt scandalized and outraged by this brazen insensitivity, which the message carried and he said to me, "Your friend has gone below humanity to suggest that you could be happy for the wanton killing of journalist in the name of religion, even beasts don't devour(have empathy) members of their own specie. He therefore counseled that I don't respond else I would have also descended down bestial plain.
I was not surprised by the inquisition of my friend as I have seen so many other people advertently or inadvertently sought to build a stereotypical caricature of a Muslim; as a backward, warmongering and sadistic beast who has taken the form of a human, and it is only through this 'straightjacketed stereotype' lenses that every Muslim is seen, regardless of the content of his character and previous record. He is guilty by association, such that whenever any Muslim from any corner of the world is sighted for negative behavior or conduct regardless of whether they share any other tie, all other Muslims must share in the guilt of the action.
The only ingredient needed to prove the guilt of a Muslim is his association with the Islamic faith regardless of racial, national or geographical connection with the perpetrator of the criminal act.They demand that Muslims apologise for and condemn acts that they have neither committed nor condoned. and therefore anytime any Muslim anywhere does a wrong, every Muslim is then under obligation to prove himself worthy of the trust of others and as such obliged to condemn such act even when he is not connected with the perpetrator of the crime in any way.
"I want real Muslims to make it crystal clear that these terrorists don't act in their name If I can accept that the Paris murderers aren't real Muslims why won't the MUSLIM world say so too?" wrote Piers Morgan in an article .
" they must be held responsible ... until they recognise and destroy their growing jihadist cancer".Wrote the international media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
This view is regurgitated by numerous news outlets and by countless industry colleagues, many of whom have used the Charlie Hebdo attack to fan propaganda about the "Islamification" of Europe and the inherent violence and backwardness of Islam. As in the past, there is more discussion of Muslims than with them. An example is the BBC's flagship political debate programme, Question Time, which fielded a panel of five talking about the Paris attacks without a single Muslim.
Even in the face of abundant condemnation from Muslim leaders across the world, people likes of Morgan chose to either remain ignorant or refuse to listen, they rather choose to make the religion of the Paris attackers an integral part of their story to suite their stereotypical caricature of Muslims as backward and bloodthirsty.Muslims must reject this onus placed on them to prove that they are not as guilty as the perpetrator crimes they are not connected with in anyway. Innocent Muslims must not and cannot answer for the sins of others.
The history and practice of Islam and the contributions of the Islamic Civilisation to the cause of humanity bears testimony against such crude stereotypical caricature.
But my assurance come from the fact that even in the midst of this Islamophobia current,there are people who are not confused by the concerted Islamophobic broadcasts from Western Capitals, there are people who have not been swayed by this negative depiction of Islam. It is to this group especially that I wish to clarify some few issues regarding where Islam stands on certain issue.
Islam values and upholds the sanctity and the inalienability of the right to life. The Islamic position on killing of an innocent person is summed up in the following verses of the Quran:
Quran 6:151:"and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully."(ie .murder is forbidden but the death penalty imposed by for crime is permitted )
Quran 2:256:"There is no compulsion in religion."
Islam does recognize and celebrate multiculturalism as multiplicity of religions and the right of all to practice their religion. In fact the constitution of the State of Madina-the first Islamic City-which Prophet Mohammed himself-written in the year 630CE- was very unequivocal in granting and protecting the right of the Jews ,Christians and other religious minorities who lived in Madina, for instance
Article 20 of the Constitution of Madina read:
Non-Muslim minorities (Jews) have the same right of life protection(like Muslims).A Jew, who obeys us(the state) shall enjoy the same right of life protection as the believers do),so long as they (the believers are not wronged by him(the Jews),and he does not help (others) against them.
Article 30 reads:
Guarantee of freedom of religion for both the Muslim and non-Muslim minorities(the Jews)
The Jews of Banu Awf(non-Muslim minorities) shall be considered as a community along the believers. They shall be guaranteed the right of religious freedom along with the Muslims. The right shall be conferred on their associates as well as themselves except those who are guilty of oppression or the violators of treaties. They will bring evil only on themselves and their family.
Article 62:
All peaceful citizens would be in a safe and secure protection.
Verily, whoever goes out (on a military expedition) shall be provided with security and whoever stays in Madina shall have(likewise,except those who commit oppression and violate the contents of this constitution).
These are the standards that the prophet and founder of Islam set with regards to peaceful coexistence with people of other faith.
The Prophet of Islam in his lifetime wrote a letter to the Christians of his time , the original of which can be found in the Topkapi Museum in Turkey.I produce the content theletter below
"This is a message from Muhammed ibn Abdullah ,as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I ,the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.
No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries.
No one is to destroy a house of their religion ,to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' house. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.
No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not prevented from visiting her church to pray.
Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation(Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day(end of the world)."
Similarly, Umar Ibn Khatab-The second Caliph of Islam- in the year 638CE made a pact with the Christians of Jerusalem, who were under the leadership of Patriarch Sophronius,the chief magistrate for the surrender of the city, part of which read;
"This is an assurance of peace and protection given by the servant of Allah Omar, Commander of the Believers to the people of Illia(Jerusalem).He gave them an assurance of protection for their lives ,property, churches and crosses as well as the sick and healthy and all its religious community. Their churches shall not be occupied, demolished nor taken away wholly or in part. None of their crosses nor property shall be seized. They shall not be coerced in their religion nor shall any of them be injured."
The position of Islam with regards to seeing the whole of humanity as one big family as this article has articulated thus far is as clear as a crystal, especially to the seekers of truth and to the reflective.
Therefore, those gunmen who shot and killed staff of the newspaper in Paris transgressed and were not following the dictates of Islam. Vigilante justice is never Islamic Justice, Islamic law is very clear on that.And the Kouchi brothers acted alone and that should be made clear.
Freedom of Speech or hypocrisy
Without discounting the enormity of the Pari killings,notice should however be taken that it happened on the same day that more than two thousand people were killed in Nigeria, yet the all the major news networks proved to the world that in their world, less than twenty European lives are more precious than two thousand African lives.In fact African lives count for nothing; in their sight.
The cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, which the gunmen –we are told-pointed to as their reason for the killings were supposed to be expressions of the newspapers right to freely express themselves and the subsequent rallies and republications of the cartoons were also done in the name of freedom of expression.
Charlie Hebdo-the Paris newpaper whose staff were killed- claims to be an "equal opportunities offender", abusing all religions alike. The reality, as one of its former journalists put it, has been an "Islamophobic neurosis" that focused its racialised baiting on the most marginalised section of the population. This wasn't just "depictions" of the prophet, but repeated pornographic humiliation.
The same paper fired one of its historic figures, Maurice Sine, for publishing a cartoon on the marriage of Nicolas Sarkozy's son, Jean, to a Jewish retailing heiress, which he considered anti-Semitic.
I agree with, Henri Roussel,a founding members of Charlie Hebdo when he accused its slain editor, Stéphane Charbonnier, or Charb, of "dragging the team" to their deaths by releasing increasingly provocative cartoons, Henri Roussel, 80, who contributed to the first issue of the satirical weekly in 1970, wrote to the murdered editor, saying: "I really hold it against you.".
Rights have limits,no right is limitless and it is in recognition of this that many countries have sought to direct the exercise of these rights. In France for instance, freedom of expression "is limited by strict defamation and privacy laws. Wearing religious signs or clothing in schools is forbidden, as is the face veil in public places, and Islamic prayers in the streets, women are bundled into police vans because of the way they dress. The media has largely glossed over such limitations in France and other countries that claim unrestricted free expression."
In the midst of all the talk of freedom of expression being a non-negotiable right, Holocaust denial is outlawed in France, and the black comedian Dieudonné was arrested and charged for posting,"je suis Charley Coulibaly,which authorities regarded as anti-Semitic. As if there are different standards for measuring freedom of speech depending on who the subject of the inquiry is.
It is possible to stand neither with the provocateurs at Charlie Hebdou nor with the gunmen who murdered them. I stand with neither of the two extreme groups and I condemn both the act of provocation and the inordinate vigilante madness that took away their lives. To anyone who gets provoked by the actions of another person.You become an object of manipulation in the hands of your provocateur, he decides when to make you happy, as well as when to make you sad. So the way forward is for you to be provoked no matter how nasty the attempt is.
As people whose shared interest is peace and prosperity of the human race,we must endeavor to be culturally sensitive to the sentiments of other people and cultures even as we see things from different perspectives, and we must also strive to tolerate the conducts and actions of others even as we strive for better understanding and dialogue across nations, cultures and faiths; without the negative stereotypical caricatures that so abound in our world today, especially in an age when the world is more connected and more integrated than ever before.
Yusif Mustapha
superyusif@yahoo.co.uk
-Freelance writer-
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