
Hi, if we haven't met before I'm Marko the Werelynx here on Daily Kos. I was just plain Marko over when Street Prophets had a whole site all to itself. In most other places I'm even plainer Mark. I'm a self-employed artist living in Prague. I've been following the news from France with greater interest the last few days.
While looking for more information on the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo I stumbled across an al-Jazeera interview with Islamic scholar Moataz al-Khateeb from back when some people were upset over a video that depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a less than flattering manner. It contains the answers to a few questions people are once again asking. Some of Moataz al-Khateeb's answers raised a few questions in my own mind. Particularly these:
All the prophets - Muhammad, Jesus Moses and others [of the Abrahamic religions] - are highly respected figures in the Islamic faith. One cannot differentiate between them in terms of the reverence that should be given to each.
Depictions of the prophets is not blasphemous in Islam, And the problem is not depicting the Prophet, but rather the abuse of him. The Quran does not ban depiction of the prophets; it makes no mention of this point. But Islamic scholars have forbidden the depiction of the prophets out of respect to them.
I wanted to write something in response and ended up drawing and writing the cartoon in the Intro. Perhaps calling the attackers "idiots" is inflammatory language, but what else do you call someone who has done so much damage to the faith that they claim to be championing? My thoughts are with the friends and families of those who have been killed in this act of idiocy and I'm worrying about all the innocent people who will suffer because some other idiots will decide that Muslims or women wearing scarves or men wearing turbans are threats that need to be dealt with with more of the same bloody idiocy.
There are an estimated 20,000 Muslims living peacefully in the Czech Republic and my Facebook feed is lighting up with dim-witted idiots spewing their ignorance and fearful hatred at them.
The peaceful protests and vigils have been inspiring, but I fear that this isn't over.
Peace.