Lighten Up, Fellow Muslims

This is the title of a nice piece by Irshad Manji, published in The Age:

Article

Full Text:

(Islam can take a joke, even a bad one, at
the prophet's expense, writes Irshad
Manji.)

At the World Economic Forum last month, I
observed something revealing. In a session about the US religious right, a cartoonist satirised
one of America's most influential Christian ministers, Pat Robertson. In the audience, chuckling
with the rest of us, was a prominent British Muslim. But his smile disappeared the moment we
were shown a cartoon that made fun of Muslim clerics.
Since then, a fierce fight has erupted over caricatures of the prophet Muhammad published by
the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. One showed Islam's messenger wearing, among other
things, a turban-turned-time bomb. Although the paper has apologised, the controversy has
metastasised. A Norwegian magazine and French paper recently reprinted the drawings, as have
other broadcasters and publications while covering this story.
In response, Muslim rioters torched Scandinavian missions in Syria, Lebanon and Iran. Bomb
threats have hit the offices of more than one European newspaper. Various Arab countries have
recalled their ambassadors from Copenhagen. Boycotts of Danish products are sweeping across
supermarkets in the Arab world, and Muslims as far away as India and Indonesia are pouring
into the streets to burn Danish flags - which feature the cross, among the holiest of Christian
symbols. Last week, thousands of Palestinians shouted "Death to Denmark!" Copenhagen has
evacuated Danish citizens from the Gaza Strip and has sternly warned nationals in the West
Bank to get out as well. Muslims themselves are getting pummelled in the riots: four died in
Afghanistan on Monday alone.
Arab elites love such controversies, for they provide convenient opportunities to channel anger
away from local injustices. No wonder President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon insisted that his
country "cannot accept any insult to any religion". That's rich. Since the late 1970s, the
Lebanese Government has licensed Hezbollah-run satellite television station al-Manar, among
the most viciously anti-Semitic broadcasters on earth.
Similarly, the Justice Minister of the United Arab Emirates has said that the Danish cartoons
represent "cultural terrorism, not freedom of expression". This from a country that promotes its
capital as the "Las Vegas of the Gulf", yet blocks my website - muslim-refusenik.com - for
being "inconsistent with the moral values" of the UAE. Presumably, my site should be an online
casino.
Muslims have little integrity demanding respect for our faith if we don't show it for others. When
have we demonstrated against Saudi Arabia's policy to prevent Christians and Jews from
stepping on the soil of Mecca? They may come for rare business trips, but nothing more. As long
as Rome welcomes non-Christians and Jerusalem embraces non-Jews, we Muslims have more to
protest against than cartoons.
None of this is to dismiss the need to take my religion seriously. Hell, Muslims even take
seriously the need to be serious: Islam has a teaching against "excessive laughter". I'm not
joking. But does this mean that we should cry "blasphemy" over less-than-flattering depictions
of the prophet Muhammad? God, no.
For one thing, the Koran itself points out that there will always be non-believers, and that it's for Allah, not Muslims, to deal with them. More than that, the Koran says there is "no
compulsion in religion". Which suggests that nobody should be forced to treat Islamic norms as
sacred.
Fine, many Muslims will retort, but we're talking about the prophet Muhammad - Allah's final
and therefore perfect messenger. However, Islamic tradition holds that the prophet was a
human being who made mistakes. It's precisely because he wasn't perfect that we know about
the so-called Satanic Verses; a collection of passages that the prophet reportedly included in the
Koran. Only later did he realise that those verses glorified heathen idols rather than God.
According to Islamic legend, he retracted the idolatrous passages, blaming them on a trick
played by Satan.
When Muslims put the prophet on a pedestal, we're engaging in idolatry of our own. The point of
monotheism is to worship one God, not one of God's emissaries. Which is why humility requires
people of faith to mock themselves - and each other - every once in a while.

Irshad Manji is a visiting fellow at Yale University and author of The Trouble with Islam.
This comment first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

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