More than 200 Muslims gathered Thursday night at the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge to observe Ashura, a day of fasting to expiate their sins. But the purpose of the evening expanded from breaking fasts to planning responses to the blasphemous images of Prophet Muhammad recently reproduced in a Norwegian Magazine.
After the friendly chatter over a dinner of chicken, rice and guava nectarine, the focus turned to an Arabic powerpoint that presented the incidents of the past five months regarding the illustrations of Muhammad originally published in the Danish magazine Jyllands-Posten last September – four days before Ramadan.
One of the 12 pictures illustrated Muhammad as a terrorist with a bomb in his turban.
Omar Suleiman, coordinator of Islamic Circle of North America, said it is blasphemous to portray any prophet in print, but illustrating their most sacred prophet as a terrorist is “adding wood to the fire.”
“If a newspaper published cartoons of Martin Luther King, Jr. doing insulting things, the African American community would explode,” Suleiman said. “Freedom of speech comes with responsibility.”
Suleiman said many Muslims are concerned about the illustrations because people aren’t educated about Islam.
“They won’t take it just as a cartoon,” Suleiman said.
Shirien Elamawy, mass communication freshman, said the cartoons fueled a false image of most Muslims.
“I’ve never seen the media depict Muslims the way they really are,” Elamawy said. “It’s disappointing when people want to label Islam as a violent religion. People who adhere to Islam are the most peaceful people.”
Suleiman said several Muslim scholars have condemned the riots and violent protests of extremist Muslims in Denmark. He said many of the scholars were trying to stop the violence as it was occurring.
Yasmine Alhoda, political science graduate student, said the reaction of extremist Muslims was to be expected.
“If you provoke extremists, don’t be surprised when they burn down buildings,” Alhoda said.
Alhoda said she understands the importance of the First Amendment but said, “if you want to prove a point about freedom of speech, you don’t have to prove it with hate speech.”
After the presentation, members of the Islamic Center proposed ways for local Muslims to respond.
Asif Hoda, Islamic Center member, suggested two contests targeted for children.
The first contest is an essay for children to write about the qualities of Muhammad. The second contest asked parents to take their children to local stores and malls and compile a list of products made in Denmark. All the products will be presented to the Muslim community and boycotted until “a time of unconditional apology” from Denmark.
“The purpose is to teach our children that we will not stand for anyone who will insult the Prophet Muhammad,” Hoda said.
 
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