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Protest is peaceful in NY
They chanted, "Shame, Shame," and waved placards protesting "European bigotry.""This is hate speech, plain and simple," declared Nahid Noori, 19, of Fresh Meadows, describing the caricatures of the prophet Muhammad in several European newspapers. Like many of the 400 New York-area Muslims who a braved biting wind yesterday to join a protest at the United Nations, Noori viewed the cartoons as not just blasphemy, but proof of rising Islamophobia. "There are atrocities happening to Muslims every day," said Noori, a Hunter College student, who stood with several dozen women at the back of the plaza, separated from the men at the front. "Even in New York, people stereotype me because of my head scarf. ... It's too much and we have to put a stop to it."
"We don't want a clash of civilizations," said Ghazi Khankan, a former Islamic Center of Long Island spokesman, who emceed the rally. "We want a dialogue among civilizations. ... Islam champions freedom of speech, but you cannot offend the religious beliefs of another person. It's like yelling 'fire' in a theater." Generally, the reaction by American and Canadian Muslims to the cartoons originally published in the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten has been more muted than overseas. Islamic teachings forbid depictions of the seventh-century prophet as a form of idolatry; however, non-satirical representations of him are seen in some art by Shia and Sufi sects. At the rally yesterday, a few speakers suggested that responding with angry mobs and violence simply played into the stereotypes of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim groups. "We can't act like a mob and destroy people's embassies," said Wissam Nasr, head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New York. "We have to remind all Muslims of this. And we have to educate America about our prophet." The crowd erupted in chants of "God is great," and waved placards that read, "Hate Speech is not Free Speech," "European Bigotry Ignorant of History" and "Prophet Taught Kindness, Not Violence." A half dozen police officers stood on the sidelines, but there were no disturbances. Nearly every speaker expressed the conviction that the Muslim community was, in fact, under assault by the West. "An attack on Islam is nothing new," said Shafee Behzad, of The American Muslim Alliance in New York, which seeks to engage Muslims in the political process. "It has been going on and will keep going on, until we show them that we are not as weak as they think. We should do everything in a peaceful way. But we will not tolerate any insult on our religion or on our prophet. Enough is enough." When a reporter asked about the demeaning caricatures of Jews and sometimes, Christians, that appear in Middle Eastern newspapers, a group of teenage girls holding picket signs said the comparison was a false one. "We do not protest against drawings of imams or Muslim leaders," said one girl. "It is the difference between a demeaning cartoon of a priest, and one of Jesus Christ, who is the prophet. This would be like showing Jesus Christ as a pimp."
Posted by: lotp 2006-02-06 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=141821 |