Bessho 2-16-3-702, Hachioji-Shi, Mobile: 09033566207, Phone: 0426-76-4982, Fax: 0426-57-3551 email: muslim@muslimreviva ------------ To His Excellency Mr. Freddy Svane, Ambassador of February 27, 2008 Subject: Request for getting an official reply from your government By the time of our appointment, if possible Your Excellency, Thank you very much for your acceptance of our request for appointment. We want to send our Protest Letter and all other related documents by email, which may be more than 13 pages and a list of Danish products in color we are campaigning for boycott by the Muslims all over the world. Please send us your email address so that we may email all this information to you before our meeting. The purpose of all our protests is to get an apology and an affirmative reply about the positive intentions of your government to frame necessary laws to restrict freedom of speech with regard to humiliation of our most-revered Prophet of Islam, Mohammad (peace be upon him) in your country. There are already laws in other European countries like After our emailing the documents, we will be very much obliged if we can get a positive reply from Your Excellency by the time of our appointment, if possible. Looking forward to your favorable reply in this regard, we remain, Sincerely, For Hussain Khan, Coordinator,
Bessho 2-16-3-702, Hachioji-Shi,
Mobile: 09033566207, Phone: 0426-76-4982, Fax: 0426-57-3551 email: muslim@muslimreviva
------------
To
His Excellency Mr. Freddy Sbane,
Ambassador of
February 26, 2008
Subject: Request for an appointment to present a Protest Letter
Against the publication of provocative cartoons in 17 newspapers of your country
Your Excellency,
We take this opportunity to thank your previous ambassador for granting an appointment to our delegation last time at your embassy about two years ago and for having a dialogue with the undersigned in Foreign Correspondents Club in
We are holding a demonstration on Friday, 29th February, 2008 at 3 p.m. in
Looking forward to your favorable reply for the appointment, we remain,
Yours Sincerely,
Hussain Khan,
Coordinator,
----- Original Message -----From: Abdel-rahman MohamedSent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:09 PMSubject: Protest letter, slogans and Danish Prdoucts (It is your duty) Finall.Dear BrothersAsslam Alikum,
It is the final information after getting permission.
Please convey this message to whoever you know from Muslims in Japan.1- Protest letterWhich Associations and Muslim organizations are ready to put their names on the Protest letter.
Please find Attached file.
2- Demonstration
As regards demonstration, there will be no rally or procession but only a gathering at EBISU KOEN , a few minutes from JR Ebisu station.
It will be at 3 p.m. on Friday on February 29, 2008.
Please note that there are two parks near Ebisu JR station. We got permission from Japanese of meeting for demonstration at EBISU KOEN and not at EBISU HIGASHI KOEN
After the demonstration at the park, a delegation of 7 persons will go to the embassy for presenting the Protest Letter.
Attched the slogans for the demonstration
I love my motherI love my fatherI love Muhammad moreHe taught us to loveHe saved us from slavery of menHe gave freedom to womenHe safeguards legal rights of womenHe called for Women rightHow can he be against women ?He taught respect for eldersHe taught affection for youngHe taught right of the ruledHe taught duties of the rulersHe gave institution of ZakatHe taught way to fight povertyHow can he be a terrorist ?How can he preach killing ?How can he be against humanity ?- Denmark You dishonor over loved one- Denmark You broke our hearts- Denmark You have freedom of speech� Denmark You are free to hurt and insult- Denmark You are free to kick and bite- Denmark We will only seek help from God� Denmark You keep your milk, butter and cheese- Denmark We will not take your milk- Denmark We will not touch your butter- Denmark We will not eat your cheese- Denmark Learn to respect humanity
============ ========= ========= ========= ========= ========= =
3- Danish Products
Find attached file and you can download the list from the following link
You can click on the following link to retrieve your File. The link will expire in 7 Days .
Link: http://download.yousendit. com/03F305A52DC1 FF6E
Wasslam Alikum
Assalam Alikum
1- As you know that the caricature and cartoon of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and mercy of Allah be upon him) was repiblished by 17 news papers in
2- Muslim organiztions here in
According to the meeting. Muslim organizations and Muslim community in general, in
Please find Attached file the protest letter and a copy of the Ambassador's letter, who has accepted our appointment request for 7 persons.
As regards demonstration, there will be no rally or procession but only a gathering at EBISU KOEN , a few minutes from JR Ebisu station.
It will be at 3 p.m. on Friday on February 29, 2008.
After the demonstration at the park, a delegation of 7 persons will go to the embassy for presenting the Protest Letter.
3- Danish Products
Find attached file and you can download the list from the following link
You can click on the following link to retrieve your File. The link will expire in 7 Days .
Link: http://download.
4- For further information please findthe main points of Friday meeting.
1- Islamic Center Japan
2- Japan Islamic Trust
3- Muslim Student Association Japan
4- Islamic Circle of Japan
5- Pakistan Association Japan
6- Islamic mission Japan
7- Indonesian Muslim Student Action (KAMMI)
8- Indonesian Muslim Family Association (KMII)
9- Japan Muslim Peace Foundation
10-International Muslim Center Japan.
11- Yashio Mosque
12- Toda Mosque (Raeis Siddiqi)
Our brothers in the meeting suggested several points:
1- Establishing Muslim Action Committee to defend prophet Mohamed and to carry this responsibility with helping and collaboration of all Muslims organizations in Japan .
2- Write letter to Danish embassy
3- Write letters to different Muslims embassies asking them to take action and to participate Prophet Mohamed (Peace Be upon Him) Campaign.
These items not yet finalized (I hope Br.hussain next week we start to finalize these items:
1- Write letters to different Muslims embassies asking them to take action and to participate Prophet Mohamed (Peace Be upon Him) Campaign. (Dr. Imran said that he can write this letter) please all brothers as Mr. Hussain asked to give suggestions as to what shall we request the ambassadors to do in this regard?
2- Hold a symposium her in Japan about Prophet Mohamed PBUH (suggested date at the end of Abril) If so we have to start as soon as possible.
(also we can print one Book in Japanese and distribute in the symposium).
3- Write letter to all head of states of the OIC countries requesting that Danish products be bycotted at governmental level.
Yours
Saitama University
Bessho 2-16-3-702, Hachioji-Shi,
Mobile: 09033566207, Phone: 0426-76-4982, Fax: 0426-57-3551 email: muslim@muslimreviva
To
His Excellency, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen,
The Prime Minister of
Through The Danish Ambassador in
February 29, 2008
Your Excellency,
Subject: Protest Against Anti-Muslim Prejudice Of Danish Government
And Against Publication Of Provocative Cartoon In 17 Danish Newspapers;
Make laws to prevent humiliation of our Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him)
On behalf of the Muslims living in
We regard it a matter of great regret that deserves full condemnation from all Muslims of the world that your government is determined to pursue anti-Muslim policies reminiscent of 11th and 12th century Crusades of Christians against Muslims. You are not preaching Christianity to us, but in the name of the so-called "freedom of speech", your government has embarked upon a campaign of abusing Islam and its sacred prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him); and for which you have never expressed any regrets.
Unfortunately, your government is hiding its secret desire to abuse Muslims under the plea that the media in your country is free and not under your control. This is absolutely a false plea. Suppose your media starts an anti-Danish campaign and invites some foreign country to militarily attack
Please have a look on the attached document under the caption, "Hypocrisy of the Freedom of Speech in the West". It documents many cases showing there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech in the West. We give here a few excerpts from it. In your own country,
Your Excellency, from all the examples given above it is clear that all countries of the West have put restrictions on freedom of speech whenever it was something inconvenient to them or when it was against Christianity or against Jews. Why you cannot make similar laws to restrict the freedom of speech, if it goes against Islam and especially when it is something against Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him), the most revered personality by 1.2 billion Muslims of the world?
A Western scholar, a leading British commentator on religious affairs and author of Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Karen Armstrong says, "..........I think it was criminally irresponsible to publish these cartoons. They have been an absolute gift to the extremists - it shows that the West is incurably Islamophobic. It sends a very bad message. But, more seriously, it is letting ourselves down. We trumpet abroad about what a compassionate culture we are. But these cartoons depicting Muhammad as a terrorist are utterly inaccurate, feeding into an Islamophobia that has been a noxious element in Western culture since the time of the Crusades. It can only inflame matters at this very crucial juncture of our mutual history. And now we are all living in this multicultural society cheek-by-jowl with one another, not even within a single country but we are linked to one another in our global village. We have to learn to live side by side better than this………"
George Bernard Shaw said about Muhammad (peace be upon him), "He must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness."
The distinguished French Marxist orientalist Maxine Rodinson has told us in his book, Mohammed, that "The Comte de Boulainvilliers, early in the eighteenth century, hailed him as a free-thinker, the creator of a religion of reason. ……The eighteenth century as a whole saw him as the preacher of natural, rational religion, far removed from the madness of the Cross. The academies praised him. Goethe devoted a magnificent poem to him, in which, as the very epitome of the man of genius, he is compared to a mighty river."
In the concluding chapter of his book, the Frenchman goes on to say that Thomas Carlyle put Muhammad among the heroes of humankind in whom the spark of divinity is to be seen. Rodinson tells us the nineteenth-century Arabist Hubert Grimme "saw Muhammad as a socialist who was able to impose fiscal and social reform……….."
In the inimitable words of Alfred de Lamartine, "Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness my be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he? (Historic de la Turquoise, Paris, 1854, Vol. II pp. 276-77). Stanley Lane-Poole, who hails Muhammad (SM) as "the most excellent of the creations of God" provides us with a beautiful graphic description of the tender virtues of the towering personage: "He was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling. `He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain', it is said of him. He was most indulgent to his inferiors, and would never allow his awkward little page to be scolded for whatever he did." "There is something so tender and…., and withal so heroic, about Muhammad,
The significance of the Prophet in the life of a Muslim can not be over-emphasized, as the renowned South Asian poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938) said: "You can deny God, but you can not deny the existence of the Prophet." Muslim scholars have written extensively on how the Prophet's love for all invites any believer from any tradition to him. Nevertheless, place of the Prophet in the daily lives of Muslims is at the center of their increasing their knowledge of Allah and surrendering themselves to the creator.
Your Excellency, we are not making any baseless allegations against your government. You have never asked your newspaper editors to stop acting against the very interests of
Your Excellency, in a recent televised speech to the nation, you have called for a halt to the violent protests which have ravaged schools and private property for more than a week in your country. According to a report in the
Your Excellency, why such a small incident against an elderly Palestinian Muslim in your country goes out of proportion? It is simply because your prejudice against Muslims could not remain hidden for long and the Muslim youth in
While your government has always been insensitive to Muslim resentment, other non-Muslim and Christian countries like
Even in a much more free country than your
The Editor-in-Chief, Carsten Juste, of the main culprit newspaper, Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten, who initiated reprinting of abusive cartoon in alliance with 16 other newspapers, speaks of Danish media ethics code and Danish media traditions, while showing his sympathies with his Cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. But in his self-styled ethical code and media traditions, it appears alright to punish over 1.2 billion Muslims for an uncommitted, unproven, hypothetical crime of 3 would-be Muslim assassins of his Cartoonist. Punish the entire Muslim Ummah for an uncommitted would-be crime of 3 persons and never apologize for it! Your government is exposing its secret anti-Muslim bias by remaining a silent spectator to all this drama!
You have no supporting evidence for trying these 3 would-be assassins in any Danish court of law, as you have no proof of their alleged murder plot. You have already freed one Danish Muslim suspect after interrogation and would deport the other 2 Tunisians without any trial. Why don't you prosecute the criminals instead of punishing the entire Muslim Ummah? You are taking revenge, not from those 3 suspects, but from the Muslims all over the world. What a mockery of Danish justice! What a laughable standard of Danish ethics and media traditions!
Guardian Unlimited reported that in April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten. Zieler received an e-mail back from the paper's Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: "I don't think Jyllands-Posten'
As a matter of fact, the West as whole and your prejudiced anti-Muslim government in particular has double standards for the Muslims. You value the freedom of your editors but do not care for those who are hurt by the abuse of such a freedom.
In Islam, we have been taught to respect leaders of all religions and all cultures. But your ethical code allows abusing them just for the satisfaction of your anti-Muslim prejudices. Do your moral teachings allow you to hurt the feelings and sentiments of the people who have never hurt your elders, leaders or heroes?
In a multi-cultural global village of 21st century, we urge your government to come out of the narrow confines of prejudices against Muslims and apologize for the needless provocation by all leading 17 newspapers of your country and make such laws that do not allow freedom of speech to humiliate Islam and our beloved Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) ensuring that such provocations against Muslims will never happen again.
Sincerely Yours,
For Muslim Organizations in
Bessho 2-16-3-702, Hachioji-Shi,
email: muslim@muslimreviva
PRESS RELEASE FOR MEDIA IN
------------
(Draft prepared by A. R. Siddiqi (International Muslim Center-Japan)
------------
On Friday, 29th, Feb. 2008, under the umbrella of Japan Muslim Peace Federation, the Muslim organizations and Muslim community in general, in Japan will stage a peaceful and well organized gathering at Ebisu Higashi Park at 3 p.m. and a delegation of 5 persons will go to the Embassy of Denmark in Tokyo to present a Protest Letter to the ambassador.
The Muslims will be protesting the reproduction of the caricature and cartoon of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and mercy of Allah be upon him), by 17 news papers in
In the past about 2 yrs back the same mischief was committed by some newspapers in
The Muslims in
The Muslims in
Hypocrisy of the Freedom of Speech in the West
By: Sherif Abdel Azeem Mohamed
(Excerpts from an article by Sherif Mohamed. Please click below for the full article: "http://www.ummah.
"……..As a matter of fact, the overwhelming majority of Westerners would justify the West's attitude by citing the magic phrase "Freedom of Speech." If one argues with them "Do you mean absolute freedom of speech even offensive and hurtful speech?", they would proudly affirm: "Yes unconditional freedom of speech. Anyone is entitled to express his/her views regardless of whether others will be pleased or offended by these views." If you ask them: "Is this theory practiced unconditionally in the West today?" So many would not hesitate to give an affirmative answer. At this stage one should say "It is not the first time in history that so many have been so wrong for so long." The truth of the matter is there is no such thing as absolute freedom of speech neither in the West nor any where else. Skeptics would, rightly, demand evidence for this claim. Here are some haphazardly collected examples that I have mostly encountered by chance while reading Western newspapers, magazines, and books in the last few months.
Let us start with
A German publisher based in
In
In
In
In
In
In
In June 1995,
This comment led to a storm of protest from the Armenian community in
In Aug. 17, 1995, A book published in
In the
The American Media has a long history of voluntary censorship. For example, a series of films which explained why Muslims were growing more furious with the West, were taken off-air in the
House speaker Newt Gingrich has dismissed a House historian when it was brought to his knowledge that she has once written: "The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view, and is not presented."
In the summer of 1995, The War Veterans Lobby (one of the most powerful lobbies in
In 1986, author George Gilder (whose book Wealth and Poverty was a worldwide best seller in 1981) had a great difficulty in finding a publisher to republish his earlier book, Sexual Suicide, because of protests from feminists who think (as one of them has recently said on ABC) that "Sexual differences should not even be studied."
Oxford University Press rejected Professor John Vincent's book, A Very Short Introduction to History, which it had previously welcomed. The reason was that Vincent had not been politically correct. He had used the word "men" instead of "people", referred to historians as "he" thereby excluding women historians, etc.
Michael Jackson's latest album generated a wave of protest because some of the words therein were deemed racist by some American Jews. Charges of anti-semitism prompted
In Canada, CTV Television network on its popular morning show "Canada AM" has, on Oct. 15, 1994, hosted Josef Lepid, a leading Israeli political commentator, who, on the air, called for "a decent Jew in Canada" to assassinate Victor Ostrovosky (a former Israeli intelligence officer and author of two books exposing Israeli intelligence secret operations). The incident received conspicuous silence in the Canadian media. The very same commentators who had clamored for Rushdie's right of free speech uttered no words in support of Ostrovosky's same right.
A couple of years ago, a British historian was giving lectures in
A university professor wrote on his campus journal that a woman who had been raped by her partner should bear some of the responsibility for the rape especially if she was improperly dressed. His comments prompted a huge outcry on campus. He was forced into early retirement.
It seems that the West does not only lack absolute freedom of speech, it lacks absolute freedom of thinking as well. One might enjoy the hospitality of German prisons (for 5 full years) for 'believing' that the Holocaust has never happened. In
The seldom acknowledged fact is that thought control does exist in the West. It is practiced by the governments, the media, the universities, and more importantly by the politically correct crowd. Several insightful Western intellectuals have recognized this fact. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville described
It should not be construed however that freedoms of thought and speech are nonexistent in the West. Such a conclusion would be untrue and unfair. As a matter of fact, the West does enjoy more freedom of speech than anywhere else in the world today. One cannot ignore the freedom to protest, demonstrate, and strike provided by Western constitutions. One cannot disregard the relatively open and free discussions and debates taking place in parliaments and lecture rooms throughout the West. One cannot dismiss the role of Western media in exposing politicians misdemeanor as insignificant. For example, one cannot forget the role of the Washington Post in the Watergate affair. Nevertheless, these freedoms are neither unlimited nor unconditional. Opinions which might irritate powerful groups, important interests, or significant segments of the population are silenced by many 'nonviolent' means. George Orwell in his article, The Freedom of the Press, has eloquently described the status of Western press: "Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark without the need for any official ban...[the] press is extremely centralised and most of it is owned by wealthy men who have every motive to be dishonest on certain important topics. But the same kind of veiled censorship also operates in books and periodicals, as well as in plays, films and radio. At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question...Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the highbrow periodicals.
Let us now try to honestly address the ticklish question of free speech. Should there be freedom of speech? Certainly. Absolute freedom of speech? Certainly not. Why? Offensive speech has disastrous consequences affecting individuals and the society at large. It leads to the spread of hatred, animosity, and divisiveness. For example, how many human beings would accept others to accuse their mothers of being whores ? Should the society protect the freedom of speech of the accuser or the freedom from offensive speech of the accused? If one whole group in the society is denigrated as 'niggers' by another group, should the society protect the freedom of speech of the offending group or the freedom from speech of the offended group ? If non-Jews accuse Jews of conspiring to exterminate all other races, whose freedom should be protected? If men describe women as sources of all evil, whose freedom should be protected? When a group of women, whom one billion Muslims revere more than their own mothers, have been gratuitously defamed by Rushdie as whores, whose freedom should have been protected? In general, societies have little to lose and so much to gain by proscribing outrageous speech. In fact, all human societies have, to one degree or another, practiced freedom from speech. However, not all societies have been honest to admit what they practice. The Quran has been unequivocal in forbidding all kinds of insulting speech: "O you who believe; let not some men among you ridicule others: it may be that the latter are better than the former. Nor let some women ridicule others: it may be that the latter are better than the former, nor defame nor be sarcastic of each other, nor call each other by offensive nicknames...
However, in limiting freedom of speech for the purposes of social peace and harmony, no society should go to the extreme of "outlaw ... questioning.
To sum up, the whole Rushdie affair and its protracted aftermath has never been a mere question of free speech in the West as any simple comparison between the fate of professor Lewis in France and the treatment professor Schimmel received in Germany would clearly reveal. The support which Rushdie has received in the West and the defamation which Dr. Schimmel has been subjected to in Germany have more to do with Western "Islamphobia" than with absolute freedom of expression. The Western blatant indifference towards the feelings of Muslims is due to intense Western misunderstanding, suspicion, and fear of Muslims and Islam. Had the West really believed in and practiced absolute freedom of speech, then Muslims would have been very wrong to demand a ban on the Satanic Verses since it would have been a violation of a well-established Western tradition. But the West has never practiced this imaginary absolute freedom of speech and probably never will……... Muslims in the West are the least studied, the least understood, the least trusted, and the least respected minority group. According to a nationwide poll conducted for the American Muslim Council, 67% of Americans had favorable opinions of Roman Catholicism, 52% of Judaism, 39% of Christian fundamentalism and only 23% had a favorable opinion of Islam. Muslims in the West, especially in some European countries such as Germany, France, and Britain, live under conditions that can at best be described as contemptuous tolerance.
Profile: Sherif Abdel Azeem Mohamed has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Queen's University (
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