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Islam and Free Speech

Posted September 22nd, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

My first impulse was to join this declaration, organized by The American Muslim magazine, as a signatory.  Then I realized that oops, I’m not Muslim.   So am running it in full here instead.

The background story:   Molly Norris is the Seattle cartoonist forced to “go ghost” (in FBI parlance) after protesting threats against ‘South Park’ creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker for their gentle ribbing of the ban on depictions of Muhammad (which, incidentally, is far from universal in Islam).    Her protest took the form of declaring an ‘Everyone Draw Muhammad Day’ — a really dumb idea, as she quickly realized, since it only invited hatemongers to ratchet up the rhetoric, and led to threats on her life from Muslim fundamentalists.

But the penalty for dumbness is neither death nor exile.   And as this declaration clearly states, death threats against those who insult Islam are, in fact, anti-Islamic:

A DEFENSE OF FREE SPEECH BY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN MUSLIMS

We, the undersigned, unconditionally condemn any intimidation or threats of violence directed against any individual or group exercising the rights of freedom of religion and speech; even when that speech may be perceived as hurtful or reprehensible.

We are concerned and saddened by the recent wave of vitriolic anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic sentiment that is being expressed across our nation.

We are even more concerned and saddened by threats that have been made against individual writers, cartoonists, and others by a minority of Muslims.  We see these as a greater offense against Islam than any cartoon, Qur’an burning, or other speech could ever be deemed.

We affirm the right of free speech for Molly Norris, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, and all others including ourselves.

As Muslims, we must set an example of justice, patience, tolerance,  respect, and forgiveness.

The Qur’an enjoins Muslims to:
* bear witness to Islam through our good example (2:143);
* restrain anger and pardon people (3:133-134 and 24:22);
* remain patient in adversity (3186);
* stand firmly for justice (4:135);
* not let the hatred of others swerve us from justice (5:8);
* respect the sanctity of life (5:32);
* turn away from those who mock Islam (6:68 and 28:55);
* hold to forgiveness, command what is right, and turn away from the ignorant (7:199);
* restrain ourselves from rash responses (16:125-128);
* pass by worthless talk with dignity (25:72); and
* repel evil with what is better (41:34).

Islam calls for vigorous condemnation of both hateful speech and hateful acts, but always within the boundaries of the law. It is of the utmost importance that we react, not out of reflexive emotion, but with dignity and intelligence, in accordance with both our religious precepts and the laws of our country.

We uphold the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  Both protect freedom of religion and speech, because both protections are fundamental to defending minorities from the whims of the majority.

We therefore call on all Muslims in the United States, Canada and abroad to refrain from violence.  We should see the challenges we face today as an opportunity to sideline the voices of hate—not reward them with further attention—by engaging our communities in constructive dialogue about the true principles of Islam, and the true principles of democracy, both of which stress the importance of freedom of religion and tolerance.
SIGNATORIES:

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, PhD, Director, Minaret of Freedom Foundation
Prof. Akbar S. Ahmed, PhD, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University
Prof. Parvez Ahmed, PhD, Fulbright Scholar & Assoc. Prof. University of North Florida
Barbara Al-Bayati, Co-Founder, Orphan Whispers
Wajahat Ali, playwright, journalist, and producer of “Domestic Crusaders”
Sumbul Ali-Karamali, JD, LLM (Islamic Law), author of “The Muslim Next Door”
Salam al-Marayati, Pres., Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)
Shahed Amanullah, Editor-in-Chief, Altmuslim
Aref Assaf, PhD, President, American Arab Forum
Hazami Barmada, Pres, American Muslim Interactive Network (AMIN)
Farah Brelvi, Board of Directors, ACLU-NC
M. Ali Chaudry, PhD, President, Center for Understanding Islam (CUII)
Robert D. Crane, JD
Almoonir Dewji, blogger – “That We May Know Each Other”
Lamia El-Sadek, political and human rights activitist
Mohamed Elsanousi, Director of Communications and Community Outreach for the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)
Mona Eltahawy, journalist
Prof. Mohammad Fadel, PhD
Fatemeh Fakhraie, Editor-in-Chief, Muslimah Media Watch
Mike Ghouse, President, World Muslim Congress
Iftekhar Hai, President, UMA Interfaith Alliance
Hesham Hassaballa,  M.D., author, journalist, blogger – “God, faith, and a pen”
Arsalan Iftikhar, author, human rights lawyer, blogger – “The Muslim Guy”
Jeffrey Imm, Director, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
Nakia Jackson, writer
Prof. Muqtedar Khan, PhD, author of several books, Blogger – “Globalog”
M. Junaid Levesque-Alam, writer, blogger – “Crossing the Crescent”
David Liepert, M.D., blogger and author of “Muslim, Christian AND Jew”
Radwan A. Masmoudi, PhD, President, Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy (CSID)
Melody Moezzi, JD, MPH, writer and attorney
Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, author of many books of poetry
Ebrahim Moosa, Assoc. Professor of Islamic Studies, Dept. of Religion, Duke University
Sheila Musaji, Editor, The American Muslim (TAM)
Aziz H. Poonawalla, PhD, scientist and blogger – “City of Brass” on Beliefnet.com
Hasan Zillur Rahim, PhD, journalist
Prof. Hussein Rashid, PhD, blogger – “Religion Dispatches”
Robert Salaam, blogger – “The American Muslim”
Raquel Evita Saraswati, activist, writer, blogger
Sarah Sayeed, President of One Blue
Jafar Siddiqui, blogger – “Penjihad”
Prof. Laury Silvers, PhD
Pamela Taylor, Co-founder Muslims for Progressive Values, Panelist for On Faith
Tayyibah Taylor, Editor, Azizah Magazine
Tarik Trad, writer, humorist, photographer, artist and activist
Asma T. Uddin, Attorney, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Editor, Altmuslimah
Amina Wadud, PhD, consultant on Islam and gender, visiting scholar Starr King School for the Ministry
Svend White, blogger – “Akram’s Razor”, activist, writer
G. Willow Wilson, author of “Butterfly Mosque” and “Air” graphic novel series

NOTE:  If you would like to add your signature, please send an email with your name, title, and organizational affiliation (if any) to tameditor@aol.com.

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File under: fundamentalism, Islam, sanity | Tagged: Tags: cartoons, free speech, Molly Norris, Muhammad, Quran, South Park, The American Muslim | 4 Comments
  1. Nancy McClelland says:
    September 22, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    I love it — but feel compelled to point out that the same type of defense could (and probably should) be written by the members of almost any religion. Certainly, the Bible and the Torah/Talmud express many of the same tenets; we could say “As [fill in the blanks], we must set an example of justice, patience, tolerance, respect, and forgiveness.” But it is just as easy to pick out all the “bad parts” of any religious book, and come up with a letter stating the opposite. My point is that it’s not the religion itself that condemns or hates or tolerates, but people. No matter the background, belief system, culture — we all have an obligation as members of the same race and neighbors on the same planet to act with respect for each other.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      September 22, 2010 at 1:19 pm

      An excellent point indeed.

  2. Dalbir Singh says:
    January 19, 2011 at 5:30 am

    Dear Lesley Hazleton,

    I watched your video on TED and read this post I am truly amazed at your theological approach towards religions. I wish to ask could you do a review on Sikhism as well there is much about Sikhism on http://www.sikhnet.com by American converts (3HO) and http://www.sikhiwiki.org on stories from Sikhism and the Sikh scripture http://www.srigranth.org and http://www.sridasam.org as well as http://www.sikhitothemax.com
    I would much appreciate the conclusions and ideas you may draw from it please do email me when you have reviewed I would be much greatful for your insights into this. How a divine revelation begins to take place to Guru Nanak in the mists of the meeting of two oceans of Hinduism and Islam where Guru Nanak is seen to be a Hindu avtar (Guru) and a Muslims holy man (pr/fakir) and a Buddhist lama – Lama Nanak who goes on a journey by foot around the world trying to bring renaissance to previous existing religions having his message continued by his successor Guru Angad and the tradition being carried to Guru Gobind Singh which is further carried to Guru Granth Sahib.

    Thanks
    Mr Singh

  3. Lorenzo says:
    June 19, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    I have some doubt, if this approach to free speach is representive for a majority of muslims. What Im often wondering is, that it seems to me that many muslims fight for their right of freedom of religion, speach, thinking etc. and take it as a matter of course to attract for their religion (make “dawa” – often offending others world views quite hard) on the one hand, but on the other hand they feel hurted and resist very hard when its the other way round – not to mention the (mostly very gross) punishments in islamic countries for trying to convert people (what makes it difficult or even impossible to talk about one’s own convictions – nice homonominal).

Is Islam Really Against Satire?

Posted April 26th, 2010 by Lesley Hazleton

An American convert to Islam issues a passive-aggressive death threat against an American icon — South Park — and presto, we have our very own Muhammad-cartoon controversy, with Comedy Central running for cover and otherwise intelligent bloggers demonstratively parading their courage with a chorus of knee-jerk “fuck you’s.”

The South Park ruse of not showing Muhammad by having him hidden in a bear suit, to emerge in the end as Santa Claus, was definitely on the gentle side of satire.  But what’s left unsaid is how un-Islamic intolerance of satire actually is.  In fact, tolerance of it is built into the Quran.

The Quran is nothing if not repetitive.  Again and again, it refers to Muhammad being mocked, sneered at, taunted, laughed at, and derided by his opponents in Mecca and Medina.  It continually cites previous messengers of God, from Abraham down to Jesus, being similarly mocked and derided.  Such mockery becomes almost an honorable tradition, a kind of inverted proof of the truth of the message.

This obsessive harping on the issue is a way of comforting Muhammad, telling him to persevere.  With the same obsessiveness, he is told to “be patient,” to ignore those who mock him, and to “turn away” from his tormentors.  Their punishment will come on the Day of Judgment, God tells him.  Punishment is God’s to wield, not Muhammad’s.

But since the Quran is as contradictory as any other religious text (the first two chapters of Genesis being a prime example), it also contains the infamous “sword verse,”  telling believers to “strike the unbelievers wherever you find them.”

If you’re a literalist, you don’t even care that there’s a historical context for this verse, which is a response to Muhammad’s followers asking if they are allowed to fight within the sanctuary of the city of Mecca.   So you ignore the qualifications — and the Quran is full of them.   Yes, you can cut off the hands of thieves, but if they repent, forgiveness is better.  Yes, you can kill Meccan opponents, but only if they try to kill you first, and only if they’ve broken an existing agreement with you, and even then forgiveness is better.   It’s as though Muhammad — or God, depending on your point of view — was searching for a way to ease the transition from traditional tribal law to the radical new post-Christian law of Islam for his seventh-century followers

Some of his twenty-first-century followers are clearly far less sophisticated, especially new converts eager to prove themselves more Roman than the Romans, as it were.  Selective and literalist reading is the modus operandi of all violent fundamentalists, whether Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.  But while we’re under no illusion that fanatical West Bank settlers represent Judaism, or doctor-killers represent Christianity, we still tend to understand Islam solely through its most ignorant proponents — and through its most conservative, humorless, and soul-less interpreters.

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File under: Islam | Tagged: Tags: fundamentalism, Muhammad, Quran, satire, South Park | 13 Comments
  1. George R. Walczak says:
    April 26, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    Hi Lesley –

    Many people do understand Islam through its most ignorant proponents the same way that many people continue to believe that
    Obama was born on foreign soil. Though all the claims made by the “Birthers” that Obama is a foreigner have been shown to be patently absurd and false time and time again, the birther movement continues in its mad campaign to discredit the president. Just as some Middle Eastern scholars have taken the stage to provide an alternative view of an Islam dominated by mad Jihadists, so too has their message fallen on deaf ears. The majority of the public continues to think of Muslims in the narrow bandwidth of terrorism and holy war.
    Why? The answer is that public discourse is no longer governed by critical thinking. People are entitled to their opinions but not to their own “facts.” The American public has outsourced the truth to such propaganda outlets as FOX news.

    Many rational and reasonable arguments have been made -mainly in the alternative media – trying to present a more moderate and complex portrait of the Muslim world but to no avail. As Al Gore pointed out, we are living in an age that has mounted an assault on reason. Which brings me to my next point. Ultimately, we should be questioning the very foundations of religious belief rather than arguing that it’s just the fundamentalists who have hijacked religion and are now running away with it.

    Religious moderates will argue that it is not faith, but rather man’s baser instincts that inspire terrorism and violence. But could even the most blinkered religious believer contend that the Inquisition or the Crusades would have occurred and persisted in the absence of their mythical foundations? Sam Harris writes, “Even ordinary people cannot be moved to burn genial old scholars alive for blaspheming the Koran, or to celebrate the violent deaths of their children, unless they believe some improbable things about the nature of the universe”

    best,

    George P. Walczak

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      April 27, 2010 at 7:03 pm

      George — your point here being, I believe, about the nature of belief. Which is something I’ll be posting on soon.
      Keep tracking! — Lesley

  2. infideldelight says:
    April 27, 2010 at 1:06 am

    Everybody Draw Mohammed Day will be on May 20.

    http://tinyurl.com/draw-mohammed-day

  3. Bonnie says:
    April 27, 2010 at 3:26 am

    What I appreciate, Lesley, is the background you provide in the way of historical, social and cultural foundations for the religious dogma that is propounded today. Your perspective is valuable to those of us who have only a superficial understanding of the Koran and, perhaps, only slightly more knowledge of Christian biblical texts, &c.

    As for fundamentalists of any sort, it doesn’t feel to me so much like religious fervor as prescriptions for thinking for those who can’t do it for themselves.

  4. lavrans says:
    April 27, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    So, Lesley- my question about the whole thing relates to the prohibition against representing Muhammad- where is it and what’s the context?

    I keep reflecting that there’s a tradition of avoiding pictures, and I have this nagging suspicion that it’s probably written to prevent people from worshiping Muhammad, rather than Allah. But that’s an assumption I can look up easier than finding the “why”.

  5. lavrans says:
    April 27, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    Ok, I think I answered part of my question- it’s just religious arbitrariness. The addition of later rules- since pictures of any person or animal are forbidden by the hadiths but not the Quran… And there are large groups with posters of their favorite heroes… and their horses and various birds, etc.

    Still- the context is interesting: what’s the justification?
    The poster-makers can’t “breath life” into their creations (sounds like someone was jealous of others artistic abilities) any more than the illustrator of Muhammad.

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      April 27, 2010 at 7:07 pm

      Lavrans — Some speculate that the word ‘religion’ is rooted in the Latin for ‘to bind oneself’. It’s interesting that as religions develop, they bind themselves around with rules. Maybe that’s how they survive. And sometimes they bind themselves literally, as with orthodox Jewish men laying tefillin, which are straps they bind around their forearms and heads. Will think more about this and maybe post on it. Thanks — Lesley

      • lavrans says:
        April 27, 2010 at 10:07 pm

        Re-reading, I didn’t need the “jealous” part- I suspect that would (rightly) be taken as a little too far.

        I read an article a while back looking at people- people working in customer service specifically- and how they would do things that they personally thought would help the company, even though it may be directly against company policy. Generally they would stall and attempt to prevent returns of bad product or broken items, wouldn’t file dissatisfied customer reports, etc. When questioned later almost all stated that they did it for the good of the company; to save money or the company’s image. Upon follow ups with the same people, even after retraining and being refreshed on company policy, most continued the same actions.

        I see something of the same thing in religious rules that evolve around the basic texts- rules that seem to be attempts to do something for the benefit of the religion, even though they may be against its core tenets. Some probably made a lot more sense when they were formulated than through our modern eyes.

        It’s sometimes hard to understand why a custom should be respected, and often they need to be for no other reason than the believer’s comfort. Some seem like they could go away without much damage, but change is hard I guess.

  6. Zunaid Talia says:
    April 27, 2010 at 8:13 pm

    Hi Lesley,

    The issue you raise here is a symptom of ignorant and agenda driven individuals. It is fermented by people who thrive on dividing people and creating social discord. They are intolerant and their bigoted views are nauseating to say the least.

    It is sad that during this age information, when people have access to such a wide variety of opinion and sources, they still choose to restrict their indulgence to what gives them comfort. As a result we find that people often begin with conclusions and then seek out all the facts to support their conclusions without confronting and attending to the issues and the evidence that challenge that perspective or belief.

    The time for a new debate is upon us. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we encourage and promote respect and tolerance for all people and their beliefs, irrespective of how ridiculous they may seem.

    I commend you on starting this blog and I am confident that this platform will go a long way to promoting respect and tolerance.

  7. Claude Cassidy says:
    May 27, 2010 at 2:47 am

    Wow I’m literally the only reply to this incredible writing!

  8. Hashim says:
    February 16, 2011 at 8:21 am

    Allah Protect you Lesley Hazleton.
    I love your Blog.
    Thanks for the truth you share

  9. Hashim says:
    February 16, 2011 at 8:52 am

    O my God you are just wonderful!
    Each time I watch your video on youtube and i see how you explain the Truth of Koran my thears drop, I wish my english was better than this to write to you and explain how i feel (without using google translator).
    Best for you

    قُلْ هَلْ يَسْتَوِى الّذينَ يَعْلَمُونَ وَ الّذينَ لايَعْلَمُونَ إنّما يَتَذَكَّرُ اُولُوا الألْبابِ. (Zomar: 9)
    بگو: «آيا كسانى كه مى‏دانند با كسانى كه نمى‏دانند يكسانند؟ تنها خردمندان متذكر مى‏شوند.
    قُلْ رَبِّ زِدْنى عِلْما. (Taha: 114)

  10. Lavrans says:
    February 16, 2011 at 10:20 am

    So- reading Zizek when he made an interesting point about the responses to those cartoons: most of the Muslim world never saw the cartoons. So the uprising wasn’t about the cartoons, per se, as much as the concept that another would do something.

    What’s interesting there is that one will never know if everyone would have actually been offended by the cartoon(s) as much as by the idea that the West (as a big “Them”) would dare to do such a thing; and takes as fact the reporting of the few who did see them.

    So, truth only comes from the familiar, and the object of that truth doesn’t even have to exist as more than a concept. Face value is good enough.

    Of course, everyone’s guilty of that, not just Islam.

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