News Opinion

The Danish Cartoons on Muhammad Republished

Omnia Wasfy, Egypt, Thursday 6 March 2008

The first time the Danish cartoons picturing the messenger of Islam, Muhammad-peace be upon him-were released, I wasn’t sure what to think or how to react, especially that during his lifetime, Muhammad (pbuh) has been insulted and hurt by his enemies, but he’s never retaliated.

I couldn’t stop wondering if that cartoonist/cartoonists have ever read what the teachings of Islam are. Why don’t they read the Quran, the main source of all Islam’s teachings and the Sunnah which contains each and every word and action Muhammad (pbuh) has said and done throughout his lifetime and then make a fair opinion about him?

Putting myself in others shoes, I realized I’ve been searching for a few years for a proper translation of the Quran in English to read and share with people who are interested in knowing about Islam, but I have to say that up till now I didn’t find one.

The translations I found are attempts to translate the Arabic verses of the Quran into English verses, in the form of word-by-word translation. Since Arabic is my mother tongue, and I have a somewhat fine knowledge of the English language, I can say that the English versions I found don’t cover even 5% of the message the Quran has to deliver.

So, how are non-Arabs supposed to know anything about Islam through reading the book of Islam?
Actually, I started wondering on what basis non-Arabs at any point of history decided to embrace Islam.

Two verses of the Quran clearly stress on the fact that the Quran is an Arabic language book [41:3 and 43:3], that’s why even the Arab Muslims have to possess a certain amount of knowledge of the Arabic language to be able to properly understand the Quran. And this is why Islamic scholars dedicate their lives for the study of the Arabic language and other sciences necessary for the process of being able to maintain the continuity of the message that Allah has chosen Muhammad (pbuh) to start with.

That leaves us with the behaviours and manners of Muslims as the main means of reflecting the teachings of Islam. And relying mainly on that made me somewhat understand that our attempts to converse with the West, to try and explain our teachings and to talk about the amazing characteristics of Muhammad (pbuh), would be useless and a waste of time, if we don’t show that we believe in what we say by simply applying the teachings of Islam in our daily lives.

As kids, we used to study in history how Islam has reached far away regions of the world, like China, merely by the manners and behaviours of Muslim merchants and traders.

I also remembered how a great man, who was one of Egypt’s muftis, and is currently the President of Al Azhar University in Egypt, changed the life of his French hosts during his university years in France only by his manners during his stay with them.

I find it quite hypocritical how we Muslims could be annoyed by insults towards our prophet when we ourselves have done worst by neglecting his teachings.

But also, people who criticize a person, a theory, a belief, anything at all, in ignorance are also wrong. Yes, unacceptable actions which have been performed by a few people who claim to be Muslims have largely contributed to the image of Muslims and Islam as a whole, but taking the whole by the few is dumb in itself. We can’t assume all Dutch people are stoned, or all Italians are mafia. That would be really dumb.

The cartoons have recently been republished which makes me question how smart is it to provoke millions of muslims (who are assumed to be “terrorists”) around the world for the sake of publishing cartoons?