It's Only A Cartoon!

It's Only A Cartoon!

'' Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths, what their hearts conceal is greater still. We have made plain for you the revelations if you will understand.'' (3:118)

Fourteen hundred years on and we are now beyond mouths. Hatred has appeared from their pens and their drawing boards. As with everything else, here too we see movement with the times, with the latest attacks on Islam employing more sophisticated tools than those used by the contemporaries of the Messenger (SAW). The end, without a doubt, is the same.

Calling it an attack on Islam is going a bit too far you may think. For the believers the 'aqeedah (creed) is the foundation. It is the most important aspect of Islam. From it emanates Islamic jurisprudence, spirituality, moral codes and societal organisation. It is the root from which the branches rise and the Messenger of Allah is an integral part of it. Belief in his Prophethood is required. Loving him, above anyone else, is obligatory. His Sunnah is a source from amongst the sources of Islam, an example for humanity and an explanation of the Book of Allah, which he conveyed.

Making a mockery of Allah's Messenger, as done recently by publications in Denmark, followed soon after by other Western States, is indeed an attack on Islam. Yet it is not the first.

The French Scholar Count Henry Du Castry wrote in his book 'Islam' in the year
1896, ''I don't know what Muslims would say if they knew the tales of the Middle Ages, and understood the content of Christian song, for all our songs, even those which appeared before the twelfth century, originate from one notion which was the cause of the Crusade wars.''

This notion was overloaded with a feeling of resentment against Muslims due to a complete ignorance of Islam. As a result of these songs, Christian minds absorbed all the distortion about Islam and Muslims and had them implanted in their minds until now, for the songs all portrayed Muslims as infidels, idolatrous pagans and heretics.

This enmity continued even after Europe benefited immensely from contact with the Islamic Lands. Professor Leopold Vice writes, in 'Islam on the Cross Road': ''The Renaissance or the resurrection of European Sciences and arts during their wide adaptation of Islamic and Arab sources confess that such efforts are due to the materialistic contact between the West and the Orient. Europe won more than the Islamic world but with no gratitude and no minimising of its hatred towards Islam. The case was vice versa. This hatred enlarged by time and was changed into a habit. Such hatred was at the mouth of their peoples especially when the word 'Muslim' was uttered. It entered into their popular sayings and into the heart of every European man or woman. The strangest thing of all is that this hatred lasted all through the steps of cultural change which took place in Europe.''

Even when we come to academic study and critique, the Orientalists have ventured where no group calling themselves academics can venture. Professor Vice writes in the same book, ''The Orientalist pioneers during modern times were Christian missionaries engaged and active in Muslim countries. The false picture they had already fabricated about Islam and its history was originally organised to guarantee the effect on the European attitude towards the heretics (i.e. Muslims). Such false pretension continued through the orientalist science and (even) after it freed itself from missionary influence and had no more excuse for continuing such false practice.''

This inherited antagonism still enkindles the flames of hatred in the Western spirit against Muslims. In modern times we have had no shortage of examples showing what the breasts of the colonialists carry. Britain installed Israel in the heart of the Muslim Lands in spite of the fact that such a move had no legal or moral justifications whatsoever. America then took over in standing by Israel as it slaughtered the Muslims of Palestine, plundering their land, raping their women and killing their sons. The hypocrisy is as clear as day. In Denmark it is against the law to deny the holocaust but as we now see it is more than legal to ridicule Islam.

The mass destruction and utter disregard for human life with which the invading Western forces hit Iraq again uncovers their deep enmity towards Islam and those who adhere to it. And the examples abound, our ink cannot suffice them. The difference of late in Western policy towards Islam is that things now are out in the open. It is all out war. 'Terror' being the codeword for 'Islam'. After having lost the ideological war, where Islam was distorted, made to look redundant and backward in order to get the Muslims to renounce it, now it is time for bully tactics. The West has adjusted styles in its war on Islam adopting forceful material actions (the distortion of course remains). So all the Islamic movements working to revive the Muslims are extremists and radicals, regardless of 'how' they choose to go about the revival. All those calling for the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger to become the sources of legislation in the Muslim Lands are extremists. All those who reject secularism are extremists. In sum, any Muslims who faithfully adheres to his/her Islam in all affairs of life is an extremist.

Back to the most recent manifestation of Western hatred for Islam as it is, not in the diluted forms in which Western leaders are full of praise for it. Next time someone says that they're only cartoons, let him or her know the noble position of the Messenger in the hearts of Muslims. Let them know that we love the Messenger more than we love our fathers and mothers, even more than ourselves. Narrate to them, specifically to your fellow Muslims the examples of the Companions and their love for the Messenger.

When Khubaib was being tortured by Quraish and prepared for execution, Abu Sufyan asked him ''I adjure you by Allah, don't you wish that Muhammad were here in your place so that we might cut off his head, and that you were with your family?'' Khubaib answered, ''By Allah, I do not wish that Muhammad now were in the place I occupy or that a thorn could hurt him, and that I were sitting with my family.''

On accompanying the Prophet (s) on the Hijrah, Abu Bakr with great anxiety would sometimes would go ahead of the Prophet and sometimes behind him. The Prophet asked him about his, ''O Abu Bakr, What is the matter? Sometimes you are walking behind me and then sometimes you go ahead of me.'' He replied, ''O Messenger of Allah, when I think of the enemies that they might be pursuing you, I walk behind you, but when I think of some ambush I go in front of you.'' So he said: O Abu Bakr! Do you wish that something happened to you rather than to me? He said, ''Yes, by Him Who sent you with truth, I wish no hardship but occur to me rather than to you.''

For Muslims, two things need to be very clear.

First, to know the enemies of Allah and not to be tricked into taking them as friends or as neutral by-standers, whilst at the same time our 'aqeedah is insulted and our blood spilt by the very same group. To know of their devious plans to hit at Islam in an attempt to make the Muslims not adhere to it, exhausting all efforts in the quest to suppress the Islamic revival that is well on its way around the world.

Second, that Islam exhorts them to undertake vocal but non- violent actions. More importantly, the Muslims must understand that without the Amir of the believers, they have no real way of defending Islam from being slandered and attacked, from having their brothers' and sisters' blood being recklessly split around the globe, from having their resources plundered and their lands divided rendering them weak and impotent. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, ''The Imam is a shield. The people (Muslims) fight behind him and are protected by him''. Having this Imam in place is obligatory upon the Ummah by the clear texts of the Qur'an, the Sunnah and Ijma as-Sahaba. This, the Muslims must wake up to, working towards it as the vital issue that it is.


To those in authority that seek to fan the flames of ignorance and insult in the name of freedom, we remind you of the response of the Caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid II to the French play which ridiculed the Prophet(SAW). The play was quickly shelved when it was clear that the Khilafah state was readying itself for war. Indeed the re-establishment of the Khilafah is only around the corner. Having an open discussion about the Islamic faith is welcomed, but insulting it is not.

To the masses of the non-Muslims, we extend an invitation to the critical study of Islam and its creed from which emanates a comprehensive system embodied in the Khilafah State which will not treat those who do not agree with its foundational ideology in the degrading manner in which Western States treat minorities. All citizens living under the shade of the Islamic State are equal and treated with respect and basic human dignity. The fulfillment of their needs is the responsibility of the State, just as those of the Muslims.

It is now becoming clearer to all that Islam is the only viable alternative to Capitalism with its shallow sloganeering of freedom, democracy and human rights. It is Islam that truly liberates. It is Islam that gives authority to the people to choose their leader and organises society in the best ways bringing harmony and tranquility to all. At the same time, it is Islam that ties the hands of the tyrants, keeps the oppressors in check and spreads justice to all. Hence the Bush's and Blair's of the world do their utmost to keep it suppressed in a vain attempt to prolong their transgressive way of life.

'' They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths but Allah will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers detest (it).'' (61:8)

Source: http://www.adduonline.com/articles/page2.htm