Global Focus

FJ EDITORIAL: A Misinterpretation Too Far?

FJ Editorial, United Kingdom, Wednesday 28 November 2007

What a truly sad state of affairs that we Muslims live in currently. In the midst of the current global political environment, where we Muslims should be driving for freedom from the corrupt kingdoms/ dictatorships across the Middle East, or attempting to improve the social imbalances in our nations, or to strive and bring peace amongst fellow man - we instead allow ourselves to be truly ridiculed by the world.

Fellow citizen journalists, we bring up the following situation because it is time we begin to stand up to the ignorance we are facing perpetrated by our certain fellow Muslims. There doesn't seem to be a single week go by when we allow ignorance by a fellow Muslim to fly by whilst we sit in silence. Last week - a teenage Saudi girl was multiply raped, and was punished to lashing for going to the authorities. New cases of women being killed in the name of Islam under the guise of 'honour killings' go on continuously. And from time to time, and we still sometimes get absurd guidance from our Imams - who continue to perpetuate ignorance to the masses.

British schoolteacher, Gillian Gibbons, who gave up a prosperous life, travelled to Sudan to educate impoverished Muslims schoolchildren. This is a lady who sacrificed, who travelled hundreds of miles to what at best can be considered an unstable and war torn nation. This is a lady to whom we should be honoured by, that she should spend her time in such activities. To give joy to the schoolchildren, she gave a teddy bear as a gift to the classroom, and allowed the children to choose a name. A young boy of seven years of age, named the teddy after himself, Muhammed. Enraged Muslims claim 'blasphemy', and the consequences - she is arrested and charged, and face potential lashing and a lengthy jail term. This is a lady who had no intention to cause offence, and at worst being guilty of naivety.

Are we Muslims this insecure with our faith that we have this type of reaction in such a negative and ignorant manner? On every level, this action by the Sudanese authorities is truly reprehensible and quite frankly, absurd. One may ask, what strange interpretation of Islam is this, that teaches us to punish innocent people that have come to help us for an action which they truly did not intend.

Do we not have enough on our plate to combat in regards to the negative stereotypes that we must add to this? According to the Sudanese authorities, the school teacher broke Article 125 of the criminal code, which supposedly upholds Islamic law. May I ask the Sundanese authorities, where was your Article 125 when your government backed militia slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Dafur? Where was your Article 125 when your government shows flagrant acts of corruption and nepotism? The hypocrisy is truly remarkable and outstanding. We as Muslims must stand and say 'enough is enough' - we have stood idly by for far too long whilst certain sections of our society have twisted our faith through either ignorance (in this case) or connivance. Not in our name.

There are many amongst us that say that they are proud of our faith, and by being proud this means defending the honour of our Prophet over a teddy bear. But any such act or thought truly show ignorance of immeasurable proportions.

At the most very basic level, we should ask ourselves, what would our Prophet (pbuh) have done in this situation? Would our prophet have wanted this lady to be jailed? Would our prophet have wanted this lady to be punished? We all know the answer, so we will not continue further. Let us not forget the incident of the lady always throwing garbage and hurling abuse at the prophet (pbuh) everyday, and yet the prophet (pbuh) did not react in any negative way. And the one day in which there was no abuse, was the day the prophet (pbuh) became worried for the lady, and went into the house to see if the lady was sick or ill. To compare these actions against the actions we see today shows the true state of ignorance we live in.

There was a time when our peoples interpretations of Islam was true - when true justice and wisdom prevailed. There was a time when we were the pioneers of science and art, a time where we were truly the light of civilisation - but now, certain sections of our society find more importance in teddy bears.

We at FJ call upon the Sudanese authorities to release this lady, if not for the sake of humanity, then for the sake of Islam.