Insults to Islam Ignite Violence in Pakistan, Six Killed

REUTERS.COM: Muslim protests against insults to the Prophet Mohammad turned violent in Pakistan, where six people were killed on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, but remained mostly peaceful in Islamic countries elsewhere.

In France, where the publication of cartoons denigrating the Prophet stoked anger over an anti-Islam video made in California, the authorities banned all protests over the issue.

"There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up," said Interior Minister Manuel Valls.

Tunisia's Islamist-led government also banned protests against the images published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Four people were killed and almost 30 wounded last week when the U.S. embassy was stormed in a protest over the film.

Many Western and Muslim politicians and clerics have appealed for calm, denouncing those behind the mockery of the Prophet, but also condemning violent reactions to it.

At street level, Muslims enraged by attacks on their faith spoke of a culture war with those in the West who put rights to freedom of expression above any religious offence caused.

"They hate him (the Prophet Mohammad) and show this through their continued works in the West, through their writings, cartoons, films and the way they launch war against him in schools," said Abdessalam Abdullah, a preacher at a mosque in Beirut's Palestinian refugee camp of Bourj al-Barajneh.

Muslims generally consider any depiction of the Prophet blasphemous. » | Aisha Chowdhry | ISLAMABAD | Friday, Sep 21, 2012

New Dark Age Alert! Free Speech at Risk as U.S. Synchronizes With Islam
TOWNHALL.COM: What's wrong with the following Associated Press headline? "Charlie Hebdo cartoon spurs French gov't to order embassies, schools to close."

Cartoons of Muhammad in the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo didn't send France into lockdown. Their publication this week was a simple exercise in free speech on Islam, which Muslims in France and everywhere else in the world oppose as a violation of Islamic law (Shariah). It is Islamic rage over the fact that Islamic law is not dominant everywhere, all the time -- Muslims' signal weapon against a timid West -- that drove French authorities to take security precautions, not the publication of cartoons.

What's wrong with the following headline? "Cinemaniac: Feds question loon who set Muslim world on fire." Again, this headline in the New York Post leaves the actual pyromaniacs out of the picture, instead demonizing an individual who made a film about Muhammad -- his lawful right. Muslims set "the world" (American embassies) on fire in one more fit of jihad to punish a violation of Islamic law. Like other cycles of Islamic rage before it -- whether the pretext is a Miss World pageant in Nigeria or cartoons in a Danish newspaper -- this one, too, will temporarily abate, ready to flare up next time the point must be driven home: Criticism of Islam and its prophet is verboten.

This is no media flap. This is war. Islam is attempting to dominate the West by attacking the basis of the West -- freedom of speech. Our leaders won't tell us that because too many of them have already surrendered. They deplore the violence against our people and our sovereign territory, yes, but their priority is not to defend free speech but to see that Islamic speech codes are enforced. They have already decided to discard liberty for Shariah. The U.S. government and the Islamic bloc known as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) couldn't be more in sync on this vital issue.

How to get around the First Amendment? Through "some old-fashioned techniques of peer pressure and shaming," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last year. She was speaking about the so-called Istanbul Process, the international effort she and the OIC are spearheading to see Islamic anti-"blasphemy" laws enforced around the world. » | Diana West | Friday, September 21, 2012

Islamic Protests Sweep Pakistan Over Anti-Mohammed Video and Cartoon
Protesters took to the streets of several Muslim countries as demonstrations gathered pace over a low-budget anti-Islamic video and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a French magazine.

Read the article here | Rob Crilly, in Islamabad and Devorah Lauter in Paris | Thursday, September 20, 2012

Protesters Target France Over Prophet Cartoons, Anti-Islam Film

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS: Anti-France protesters marched in countries ranging from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka, after a satirical magazine published cartoons depicting Prophet Mohammed. In anticipation of potential protests on Friday, Paris planned to shut its diplomatic missions, cultural centres and French schools in around 20 Muslim countries.

France was swept up Thursday in the wave of anger washing over the Muslim world as protesters in Afghanistan and Iran denounced a magazine's publication of obscene cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Chanting "Death to France! Death to America!", hundreds demonstrated in the Afghan capital Kabul against the cartoons and a US-made anti-Islam film that has sparked widespread outrage.

In Tehran, up to 100 people protested in front of France's embassy, chanting "Death to France!" as dozens of police deployed around the compound prevented the crowd from approaching.

France has been bracing for a backlash following Wednesday's publication of the cartoons -- two of which show the founder of Islam naked -- by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

In anticipation of potential protests on Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, Paris said it would shutter its diplomatic missions, cultural centres and French schools in around 20 Muslim countries.

More than 30 people have been killed in attacks and violent protests linked to the film "Innocence of Muslims", including 12 people who died in an attack by a female suicide bomber in Afghanistan and four Americans, among them the US ambassador, killed at the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Afghan demonstrators block a road during a protest against an anti-Islam movie in Kabul on September 20. » | AFP | Thursday, September 20, 2012

'Charlie Hebdo' Editor in Chief: 'A Drawing Has Never Killed Anyone'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The editor in chief of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo insists that their publication of Muhammad caricatures was no provocation, but a signal that free speech is alive and well in the country. Come what may, the magazine won't stop criticizing whatever it wants, he says. But his office remains under police protection.

The eye of the media hurricane is in a nondescript office building located between manicured tennis courts, a cultural center and the Paris ring road. A couple of advertising firms are located here, as is a department of the city police which is responsible for traffic tickets. The location is, above all else, discreet. There is no nameplate that refers to the weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo. The publication, which has around 25 employees, is listed on the intercom under a different name. The only difference to the normally quiet atmosphere is that a riot police van is parked outside the building.

It is here, in the far east of the French capital, that the publisher and editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo have worked since their former editorial offices were destroyed a year ago in an arson attack. Although no one claimed responsibility for the crime, it was apparently motivated by cartoons about Islam that the magazine had published in a special issue under the polemical title "Charia Hebdo," a reference to Islamic Sharia law.

Now the magazine and its editor in chief Stéphane Charbonnier, who is also a cartoonist himself, are back in the headlines. The satirical magazine has triggered a storm of indignation with its publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad this week. Representatives of the French Council of Muslims, prominent imams and French government officials have all criticized the professional polemicists, who violate political, social and religious taboos on a weekly basis. France has stepped up security at its embassies and other institutions abroad as a precaution.

The US government also expressed concern at the publication of the cartoons. "We don't question the right of something like this to be published, we just question the judgment behind the decision to publish it," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. » | Thursday, September 20, 2012

Muhammad Cartoons: How Freedom of Expression Is Curtailed Across the Globe
THE GUARDIAN: UN declaration supports free speech but this has been subject to many legal qualifications

Hate-speech crimes, and offences under blasphemy, sexual equality, defamation or racial abuse laws vary around the world. But absolute freedom of expression is curtailed in many countries.

Article 19 of the UN's universal declaration of human rights in 1948 envisaged few restrictions. "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression," it stated. "This right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

In practice there are lots of legal qualifications. A 1994 judgment of the European court of human rights in Strasbourg involving a Danish journalist tried to define the overarching principle "that tolerance and respect for the equal dignity of all human beings constitute the foundations of a democratic, pluralistic society".

So, "it may be considered necessary in certain democratic societies to sanction or even prevent all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify hatred based on intolerance (including religious intolerance), provided that any formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties imposed are proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued". » | Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent | Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Charlie Hebdo Row: Cartoons Divide French Press
BBC: Many French newspapers have rushed to the defence of Charlie Hebdo after the weekly satirical paper published cartoons showing the Prophet Muhammad.

Others, however, accuse the paper of acting irresponsibly in the current context and run front-page headlines warning of the consequences.

'Sacred right'

A front-page editorial in the centre-left daily Le Monde says the "fundamental" principle of freedom of expression outweighs any other concerns, including religious ones.

The fact that religions may be subjected not just to criticism but also to ridicule has been "clear since Voltaire", it says.

"Whatever people may think of Charlie Hebdo's editorial choices... the only conceivable limit to its freedom is that which the courts might judge to be justified," the paper concludes.

The left-leaning Liberation takes a similar stand, asking "Blasphemy - a sacred right?" in its front-page headline.

"Appealing to the sense of responsibility of cartoonists, asking them to think twice before publishing, exhorting them to take into account the geopolitical context as if they were the foreign ministry spokesperson means getting caught up in a cycle whose first stage is self-censorship and the last, capitulation," an editorial by Nicolas Demorand warns.

An editorial in the regional daily L'Est Republicain insists that "the freedom of expression suffers no exception" other than the limits imposed by the law.

Ivan Drapeau in La Charente Libre ventures that Charlie Hebdo "has not broken the law, has not disturbed public order, has not incited to hatred or discrimination and has not undermined respect for people". » | Thursday, September 20, 2012

Far-Right Provocation: Berlin Worried About 'Muhammad Cartoon Contest'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: A far-right group in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is running a 'Muslim cartoon contest' and plans to display the works outside mosques. The move has alarmed authorities which fear it could incite violence and hurt German interests abroad, similar to the backlash that followed the 2005 publication of cartoons in Danish newspapers.

The German government has voiced concern that far-right activists in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia may incite violence with plans to hold a so-called "Muhammad cartoon contest" and to stage demonstrations outside mosques in the run-up to a regional election there on May 13.

SPIEGEL has learned that Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich warned of a confrontation between Salafists and right-wing extremists which he said could have unforeseeable consequences for public safety.

Pro-NRW, which has been categorized as an extremist right-wing group by the domestic intelligence agency, has said it plans to display the cartoons outside 25 mosques in the state. » | SPIEGEL/cro | Monday, April 30, 2012

Prophet Cartoon Paper Bomb Target
DAILY EXPRESS: A man hurt in an explosion at a Copenhagen hotel was preparing a letter bomb, police have said.

Officers in Denmark claimed that the bomb was likely to have been intended for a Danish newspaper which published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. >>> | Friday, September 17, 2010

Cartoonist behind 'Draw Mohammed' Facebook Page Goes into Hiding
THE TELEGRAPH: The satirical cartoonist who inspired the controversial "Everybody Draw Mohammed Page" on Facebook has gone into hiding on the advice of the FBI.

Everybody Draw Mohammed page on Facebook. Photo: The Telegraph
Molly Norris, of Seattle, Washington, has moved and changed her name following a call for her assassination by US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The Seattle weekly newspaper said: "You may have noticed that Molly Norris's comic is not in the paper this week. That's because there is no more Molly.

"The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI she is, as they put it, 'going ghost' - moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity." >>> Nick Allen, Los Angeles | Friday, September 17, 2010

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Cartoonist in Hiding After Death Threats: A cartoonist in Seattle who promoted an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” last spring is now in hiding after her life was threatened by Islamic extremists. >>> Brian Stelter | Thursday, September 16, 2010

Pakistan Bans YouTube, Facebook in Crackdown on 'Draw Muhammad Day'

Cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad courtesy of Google Images
Pakistan Blocks YouTube in ‘Sacrilege’ Row
TIMES ONLINE: Pakistan blocked access to YouTube today because of “growing sacrilegious content” on the video-sharing website. It is the latest twist in an escalating international row over Islam and freedom of speech online.

The move came a day after the Pakistani Government responded to a court order by temporarily blocking Facebook over a page advertising a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Everyone Draw Muhammad Day page and several spin-offs invite users to send in caricatures of the Prophet today – infuriating many Muslims who regard any image of him as blasphemous.

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority did not say specifically which material on YouTube was deemed sacrilegious, but there are several clips relating to Everyone Draw Muhammad Day. >>> Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent | Thursday, May 20, 2010

Facebook Blocked in Pakistan Over Prophet Images


Related article here

Pakistan Court Blocks Facebook Over Mohammed Page
AFP: LAHORE, Pakistan — A Pakistani court Wednesday ordered authorities to block Facebook temporarily over a competition encouraging users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the social networking site.

The depiction of any prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam as blasphemous and Muslims across the world staged angry protests over the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006.

Controversy erupted in the conservative Muslim country last month when a Facebook user set up a page called "Draw Mohammed Day", inviting people to send in their caricatures of the Muslim prophet on May 20.

The move angered thousands of young people and Muslim faithful in Pakistan, unleashing an online campaign and isolated protests that grabbed the government's attention and the controversial page was blocked on Tuesday.

But a group of Islamic lawyers went a step further Wednesday and petitioned the court to order a blanket ban on Facebook in Pakistan. >>> Waqar Hussain, AFP | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

UK Courts May Hear Mohammed Case
THE COPENHAGEN POST ONLINE: Justice minister calls it unacceptable that proposed lawsuit against Danish newspapers could be heard in British court system

Because EU member states generally recognise the authority of each other's legal systems, Denmark may be forced to pay damages through the British courts if plaintiffs win their lawsuit over the printing of the Mohammed cartoons.

Saudi lawyer Faisal Yamani has taken the case to court in London – claiming to have done so on behalf of some 95,000 descendants of the prophet Mohammed – saying the drawings amount to defamation against them and the Islamic faith.

In August last year, Yamani requested that 11 Danish newspapers remove all the relevant images from their websites and issue apologies along with promises that the images would never be printed again.

Politiken was the only newspaper to agree to the demand, having acquiesced last month.

But justice minister Lars Barfoed has now asked the European Commission to step in to stop the case from being heard in the UK. Barfoed said that while he respected the legal cooperation among EU member states, the proposed lawsuit amounts to a restriction on the freedom of expression.

‘It’s fundamentally reasonable that judgments in the EU can often be exercised across borders,’ Barfoed told Berlingske Tidende newspaper. ‘But it would be taking it to the extreme if a UK court could rule against the Danish media and then require compensation and court costs to be paid.’ >>> RC News | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Related:

THE TELEGRAPH: Defamation Case Over Prophet Mohammed Cartoons 'To Be Held' in Britain >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Iran Urges Sweden to Take Action on Cartoons
PRESS TV: Iran has urged Sweden to “seriously deal with” a Swedish newspaper which has republished a sacrilegious cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

“Iran strongly denounces the reprinting of the disrespectful cartoons,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on Monday, adding that Tehran was concerned about the negative consequences of such “provocative acts.” >>> AKM/HGH | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Defamation Case Over Prophet Mohammed Cartoons 'To Be Held' in Britain
THE TELEGRAPH: A Saudi Arabian lawyer has threatened to use British courts to overturn a Danish free speech ruling by bringing a defamation case over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that depicted Islam's founder as a terrorist.

Faisal Yamani, a Jeddah based lawyer, is planning to take a case to London's libel courts on behalf of over 90,000 descendants of Mohammed who have claimed that the drawings have defamed them and the Islamic faith.

Cartoon caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were published in Danish newspapers in 2006 triggering violent protests across the Muslim world and riots which claimed the lives of over 50 people.

According to Danish press reports, the case can be heard in the [sic] Britain because the images, including a caricature of Mohammed with a bomb shaped turban, have been freely accessible via the internet.

Danish politicians and publishers are furious that European Union rules reward "libel tourism" by enforcing British defamation rulings across Europe.

Ebbe Dal, managing director of Danske Dagblades Forening, the Danish national newspaper association, is concerned that Britain's tough libel laws could be used to restrict free speech in liberal countries such as Denmark.

"The Danish courts have decided that the case is not actionable and that we are allowed to print the drawings in Danish newspapers and websites," he said.

"It would be very odd if a civilised country like Britain could go against that. If this succeeded we would have to pay a lot of money to Saudi Arabians misusing the British courts to make it difficult for freedom of speech." >>> Bruno Waterfield in Brussels | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Two Muslim Men Charged Over Alleged Plot to Kill Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks
Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks was allegedly the subject of a murder plot after depicting the Prophet Muhammad's head on the body of a dog in 2007. Photograph: The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: Two Muslim men were charged last night in the Irish Republic in connection with an alleged plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, whose artwork outraged many Muslims after he depicted the Prophet Muhammad's head on the body of a dog in 2007.

Algerian Ali Charafe Damache and Abdul-Salam Mansour al-Jehani, from Libya, were brought before a specially convened court in Waterford, south-east Ireland late last night.

Damache, 44, was charged with sending a menacing text message while al-Jehani, 32, was charged with an immigration offence after allegedly giving a false name. Both men were remanded in custody until Friday after Irish detectives said they were not convinced of the authenticity of the men's identities.

The men, who both gave Waterford addresses to the court, were among seven people arrested last Tuesday morning over an alleged conspiracy to kill Vilks. >>> Aidan Jones | Tuesday, March 16, 2010

In Solidarity: Lars Wilks’ Cartoon
Muhammad as roundabout dog. Image: Google Images

Muhammad Cartoonist Had $100,000 Bounty on Head
THE GUARDIAN: Lars Vilks's sketches drew a furious reaction from Muslim groups and countries, and death threats from al-Qaida

Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist at the centre of an alleged assassination attempt, was put under police protection in 2007 when al-Qaida offered a reward for his "slaughter". Vilks's depiction of the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in a series of drawings prompted the terrorist group to put a $100,000 bounty on his head.

The sketches had sparked a furious reaction from Muslim groups and countries including Pakistan and Iran. Some Islamic traditions consider it blasphemous to make or show an image of the prophet, and Vilks's drawings were regarded as especially derogatory as dogs are a symbol of filth for many Muslims.

In 2006 there were riots over Danish cartoons of the prophet, including one by Kurt Westergaard depicting Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb. Westergaard was subjected to death threats and attempts on his life. >>> Matthew Weaver and agencies | Tuesday, March 09, 2010