Chowrangi

Blasphemous Caricatures of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) published in Various European Newspapers have stirred the Muslim World and resulted in protests in various Muslim countries. These cartoons were first published in Jyllands-Posten in September Last year but reprinted again in several European Publications.

Muslims reacted strongly against what they see as attack on their religion. Violent protests have resulted in loss of lives in Pakistan and Afghanistan while Muslims across the world have boycotted Danish Products. Norway, where cartoons were reprinted apologized to Muslims but Denmark is stick to what they say, there right to freedom of expression while the European Parliament which debated the cartoon controversy, strongly supported Denmark and opposed violent protests. European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso strongly condemned violence against EU offices and missions abroad over the cartoons.

Anger and destruction has widened the gap between Islam and the West but people are still confused as why Denmark chose to humiliate more than 1 billion people and why insisting on an issue which is sacred to Muslims around the world. Why threatening peace; Is it going towards clash of civilization and what could be the hidden motif behind all this?

The issue is not resolved yet and the pace of event shows that the effects will go a long way in widening the gap between West and Muslims.

Is there any hidden motive? The most important question rising in the Muslim world is about the possible hidden motives of those who designed this controversy. There might be many conspiracy theories but in the age of media manipulations, truths are often taken as a conspiracy theory. President Bush termed his reaction to 9/11 a ‘Crusade’ referring to historical wars between Muslims and Christians. Later, he took back his words but not intentions. He invaded Iraq on pretext of possessing WMD which he still needs to find in Iraq. These days he could be seen busy threatening Syria and Iran. Already US occupy Iraq, Afghanistan and is present in major Islamic Oil Producing Countries. ‘US is after their natural resources’, that was common perception among Muslims around the World but though US has condemned the Blasphemous Cartoons, it is still being looked as an aggressor. Release of Pictures of prisoners being abused in Iraq by US forces adds insult to the injury. Israel’s designs against the Muslim World are not a secret and row between Israel and Iran is also growing. So was all this exercise meant to test the resistance of the Islamic World or to demoralize the Muslims who lack technology, arms or means to defend themselves. Muslims have seemingly accepted superiority of the West but still unable to compromise on the honor of Prophet as they Love the Prophet more than anything else. Unable to doing anything, they resorted to protests.

But surely West has achieved what it wanted. It has achieved dominance on the world resources which is accepted by the Muslims, now it wants them to accept dominance of western values over Islamic principals. First they portray Muslims as a threat to the ‘freedom’ of western lifestyle and then they force their own values on Muslims. Its quite unfortunate as history is full examples when dominant societies, in their pride over wealth and power, have tried to transform weaker societies which resulted in big wars and creation of U.N but bypassing U.N and reversing to old way of forcing one’s beliefs on others or attacking on other’s beliefs may result in clash of civilization.

Other posts by Muhammad Dawood

• Dreams and their interpretations - April 18th, 2007
• Celebrating Eid e Milad un Nabi - March 29th, 2007
• An Iceberg Right Ahead! - March 19th, 2007
• Multan - City of the Saints - February 21st, 2007
• The Men Invisible - February 16th, 2007
• War Drum Getting Louder and Louder - February 13th, 2007
• Richest 2% Owns Half of World Wealth - December 7th, 2006
• Women Rights Bill passed. Say GoodBye to MMA - November 17th, 2006
• Consumption threatening Modern Civilization - November 16th, 2006
• Pakistan - A dream gone sour? - November 15th, 2006