A draft article written for the Rochdale committee for Islamic Affairs (RCIA) for submission to the Rochdale Observer Newspaper
What started off as a little local difficulty about community integration in Denmark following the publication of the famously controversial cartoons has now escalated into a worldwide chasm. It would be naive to suggest that the journalists involved did not know what they were getting themselves into. On the contrary, they knew that it would spark off some form of controversy, as the man who was in the spotlight was none other than the bearer of the Message of Islam, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). A man, whose influence covers over 1.3 billion people in the world today.
News stations have beamed in images to our living rooms of protests in the Muslim world; venting utter disgust at the freedom which allowed such an act to take place. The UK saw mass mobilisation of people, addressing the matter at hand in local communities, newspapers, media and organised demonstrations.
It may seem surprising for everyone. What’s the big deal? Don’t celebrities get ridiculed in the press at their antics, their love and sex lives exposed on the front sheets of the tabloids, footballers wives spilling out their venom against their husbands, politicians getting caught in sleazy deals. This is the way the world works doesn’t it? So why make an exception when Cartoons of the Prophet of Islam are published in Europe. Its as the Editor of the newspaper put it, “Caricatures are part of European Culture”. Britain’s own newspapers can testify to that too.
