2/12/06 Providence Journal

Local Muslim leaders call for an end to the violence by mobs over cartoons mock-ing the Prophet Muhammad.

01:00 AM EST on Sunday, February 12, 2006
BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer


As the spiritual leader of the Providence-based Muslim American Dawah Center, Imam Farid Ansari has long been an advocate of improved relations between Muslims and members of other faiths.

So you can imagine his consternation at the unfolding drama that has come across on TV screens -- scenes of Muslims demonstrating by the tens of thousands in cities around the world, attacking embassies, killing non-Muslims and venting their fury at a series of cartoons that mock the Prophet Muhammad.

Among the illustrations is one depicting Islam's founder with a bomb growing out of his turban.

"I am not saying that those pictures don't offend me. They do. We hold the Prophet in high esteem," says the imam, a former New York City police officer. "But the kind of ignorance and savagery that we have seen going on these last few days at the hands of these mobs is outrageous. It's a sad commentary on the state of affairs in the Islamic world that people can be incited to such violence.

"It's another black eye for Islam being displayed on TV."

Imam Ansari's strong reaction appears to be in line with many other Rhode Island Muslim leaders, who last weekend gathered at a mosque in Pawtucket to hammer out a statement that appeals to those who exercise their freedom of speech, press and religion to be "responsible" and sensitive to others' faiths, and at the same time condemns the violence.

"We are calling all communities of faith to turn this troubling controversy into a positive experience of dialogue, bridging and education that honors the essentials of human freedom," say the leaders who gathered under the umbrella of the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement.

"During such unwise provocations there is no place for violence or overreaction. Violence only gives birth to more violence and bigotry to more bigotry."

Prof. Ali Hassan, an Egyptian by birth who teaches Middle Eastern studies at Brown University and oversees the Arabic-Islamic collection at Brown's Rockefeller Library, said Americans are probably finding it as difficult to understand why so many Muslims are upset, as it is for Muslims who do not have a tradition of press freedom to grasp why a society would allow publication of images they regard as hateful. Lack of understanding grows, he says, out of two very different world views and understandings about the relationship of state and religion.

"In the West, religion can mean going to church on Sunday, but keeping your religion private. The church and state here are two separate worlds. In the East, religion is deeply rooted, and an attack on one's religion is seen as an attack on one's identity."

For sure, not every Muslim in the world or through history has taken literally the teaching that pictures of the Prophet Muhammad are always prohibited. There are paintings of Muhammad to be found in some of the great museums of the world, including the national museum in Iran. Professor Hassan says that when he was studying at the University of California, his art history book contained an illustration of Muhammad.

But by and large, he says, such images are things most Muslims would rather not see. At the Yale University Library in New Haven, there are series of sculptures, he noted, that attempt to symbolize each of the great religions of the world.

"For Islam, they have a page from the Koran. I feel good about that. I can tell you that if they had put a statue of Muhammad there, I would have been very offended, because my religion says we do not show the Prophet."

Sandra Keating, a Providence College professor who is one of only two Americans to be appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations With Muslims, says while non-Muslims here might be inclined to look upon such renderings of Islam's founder, or even a cartoon illustration, as relatively minor infractions, they have always been a "very serious point of tension" for Muslims.

"Historically, when there has been violence against minorities, it's usually been under the pretext that someone has blasphemed or defamed the Prophet," Keating said. "A lot of times it's the thing that tips the balance. From the Muslim side, having any picture of the Prophet is intentionally aggressive. The cartoons are more problematic because people went ahead and published them knowing what kind of reaction it was going to get. It was a public insult."

Aggravating all of that, says Keating, is that European Muslims, despite their numbers, still feel like outsiders and have not been accepted or integrated as they have been in the United States. It has created tensions that can boil over at any time, such as in the latest episode.

Brown University's Hassan believes the crisis could have easily been averted had Denmark's prime minister not refused last fall to meet with a delegation of ambassadors from Muslim countries who had come to express their concerns about the cartoons.

And what might the prime minister have done? Hassan thinks the Danish leader might well have taken a cue from former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who, after the Brooklyn Art Museum put on display a portrait of the Virgin Mary made from elephant dung, turned up enough heat to make the museum take it down.

Judy Kaye, a member of the Jewish community who joined with Rhode Island for Community and Justice in organizing joint "breaking of the fast" for Muslims and Jews around the time of Ramadan and Yom Kippur, says she doesn't think it is too much to ask that people be more "responsible" and respectful of other people's religions.

"When people were telling jokes about priests molesting kids, I never laughed, and I told them why," she said. "It's not about censorship. It's not about political correctness. It's about acting reponsibly. Unless your purpose is to incite, why produce something that is so offensive and degrading that it will stir up anger? No one likes to be told what to do, but we should reflect and think about the choices we make, and challenge each other to be more responsible."

Imam Ansari, of the Dawah Center, said his concern for mutual respect cuts across all religions. For example, he says, when Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ was released two years ago, he avoided the movie because he felt it wrong that Jesus, who is also a revered figure in the Muslim religion though not seen as divine, would be shown in a tortured and degrading position.

"I would have been perfectly willing to support any protests in the Christian community against that movie because it showed one of the prophets of God being degraded."

On the controversy over the cartoons, the imam said he would like to encourage the Muslim community here and elsewhere to "step up to the plate" and stand up against the "criminal element" of "hooligans and thugs" who have manifested themselves in Islam with their violent protests.

"During the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him, he had entrails of animals being thrown at him while praying. He was attacked," Imam Ansari said. "But never once did he resort to any sort of retaliation. That should demonstrate to any knowledgeable Muslim what should be the path. What is to be accomplished by these protests, cursing America and Israel?"

Among the houses of worship that joined last week in endorsing the joint statement of communities of faith were the Masjid Zumratul-Jannah, the Muslim American Dawa Center of Providence, and the Muslim Community Center of Rhode Island (Masjid Ar-Razzaq), in Providence; the Muslim Community Center (Masjid Al-Huda) of Kingston, in South Kingstown; ; and the Muslim Society of Rhode Island (Masjid Al-Rahman), in Pawtucket.

The Islamic Center of Rhode Island (Masjid Al-Kareem) did not join, but the leader, Imam Abdul Hameed, said he was planning to discuss the matter with the other imams this weekend.

Also joining in the statement were representatives of the American Friends Service Committee; the Rhode Island chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation; the Islamic School of Rhode Island; diversity consultant Judith Kaye; the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias; the Rhode Island Committee for Nonviolence Initiatives; the Rhode Island Council for Muslim Advancement; the Rhode Island State Council of Churches; and Rhode Island for Community and Justice.

rdujardi@projo.com / (401) 277-7384