UK Muslims have waged war against an offensive website that publishes cartoons depicting Prophets Muhammad and Jesus (peace be upon them), demanding discharging Muslim Politician after republishing these cartoons.
The images were "extremely offensive to believers" of the two faiths and "potentially inflammatory," read the statement of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) which denounces the Prophets cartoons, Al-Ahram Online reported on Tuesday, January 21.
The criticism has been mounting against the offensive website, Jesus and Mo, which produces a weekly comic depicting the two prophets while wading into religious debate woven with sarcasm.
According to the site, the comics were introduced by the website in a series as a "weekly comic strip, dealing in religious satire".
The site has refused to take down the cartoons, showing no intention for future reconciliation.
Citing the uproar following the release of 12 Danish cartoons of prophet Muhammed (pbuh) in 2005, MAB warned that the depiction of the two prophets was “as insulting as those published in Denmark."
The Islamic organization, an affiliate to Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), asserted its adherence to freedom of expression.
MAB has also questioned “the wisdom of any individual or organization that places at risk the dignity and values of anyone else, even if they might not hold those values.”
Similar uproar was reported in 2012 when an atheist group in University College London published a cartoon depicting Jesus and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him) on a webpage.
In 2005, Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten daily published 12 cartoons, including one showing a man said to be the Prophet wearing a tomb-shaped turban.
Another caricature showed the Prophet as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.
The cartoons, considered blasphemous under Islam, were later reprinted by European newspapers on claims of freedom of expression, straining relations between the Muslim world and the West.
The cartoon crisis, however, has prompted Muslims worldwide to launch campaigns to highlight the merits of the Prophet.
Under Fire
Uproar surrounding the offensive cartoon has maximized after a British Muslim politician posting the insulting cartoons on his Twitter account.
Deeming it "inoffensive", Maajid Nawaz, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, has posted a photo of Jesus and Mo t-shirt on Twitter.
"Even if it was… I'm sure God is greater than to feel threatened by it," Nawaz defended himself on his Facebook page.
"Some are angry that I didn’t find an innocuous cartoon on the BBC as offensive and repeated my view that – as a Muslim – it wasn’t offensive to me on here,
“Others are angry that I am being censored and silenced. Please let’s all calm down.”
Nawaaz’s post was vehemently condemned by the Muslim Association of Britain, demanding the Liberal Democrat party to rescind his nomination.
Calls for excluding Nawaaz have escalated after about 7,000 people signed a petition requesting the Liberal Democrats to suspend the Muslim Politician.
“No Muslim will ever vote for the Liberal Democrats anywhere ever unless they ditch the provocateur Majid Nawaz, cuckold of the English Defence League (EDL),” said MP George Galloway.
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.7 million.
In July 2012, a report by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex found that Muslims are the most likely of all groups to be identified with the concept of ‘Britishness.’
In 2011, think tank Demo found that Muslims in the United Kingdom are more patriotic than the rest of population.
source : http://abna.ir
