Another Blasphemous Cartoon Publication?? GIVE IT A BREAK PLEASE !

Here we go again. Another cartoon of the Prophet ( S.A.W.S) has been published. This time the perpetrator is the Atheist , Secularist and Humanist Society of University College London (UCL). It’s a cartoon, which shows Jesus and Prophet Mohammad in a bar.

This all has been done in the name of freedom of expression. I for one am a great believer in freedom of expression but this, my friends is not freedom of expression. Religion, generally hasn’t been my strong point so talks about religion don’t interest me, but when you talk about offending people in the name of freedom of expression then that really infuriates me, because it goes against every secular ideal I stand for.

We must ask ourselves, why do countries adopt secularism and not a theocracy? It is because secularism guarantees the freedom of expressing faith and the state guaranteeing the adherents of a faith or a belief its protection against attacks both verbal and physical. This much has also been mentioned in the 2005 World Humanist Congress that the state should intervene to protect human rights from gross violation, even if based on religious doctrine or enshrined in religiously based civil law.

Now, here we must highlight one point that humanists consider themselves as a separate religion and in The Humanist ((Vol. I, 1941, p. 5), Oliver Reiser, a signatory of the Humanist Manifesto, stated that:

The one great hope for democracy lies in the development of a non-super naturalistic religion which, unlike other intellectual movements, will be non-academic in its appeal to all civilized individuals. This new foundation for a coming world-order must be the emergent outcome of the thought-content of a universalized culture….

The god of this coming world-religion, that is, the object of reverence of scientific humanism, is the spirit of humanity in its upward striving.

This point is also supported by humanist like Burdette Backus and Kenneth Patton. Simply put, their “religion” is against “supernatural and theist religion”. Thus if they want their religion to be established as a state sponsored religion then they are going directly against the sacred principles of secularism which guarantees the freedom of religion under its umbrella and most importantly it abolishes state sponsored religion.

Resolution 7/19. Combating defamation of Religions, passed in the UN General Assembly on 28^th March 2008 asserts that any intolerant and xenophobic views against religions should be discouraged and actions taken against them because they incite violence. Well that is exactly what the Humanist society in UCL is doing. Thankfully, the UK government is taking action but sadly, the Muslim response is not up to the level of their opponents. Usually, threats are given which form the staple of most religions around the world, but importantly nobody is countering with logical arguments. However, I would like to draw attention to the Ahmaddiya Muslim Youth Association London that has taken a stand and is petitioning for the removal of the said cartoons. Very ironically, the current religious attitude of some Muslim countries like Pakistan is especially intolerant of Ahmadis, which is in direct opposition to the resolution 7/19. You will be surprised to read that Saudi Arabia was actually against the defamation resolution because it would lead the Muslims to “recognize pagan faiths” and a supposed “pagan faith” namely the Ahmaddiya faith is going for a petition against the publication of those cartoons, BBC reported. Now isn’t that one heck of a conundrum.

Therefore, the solution to the problem is that we should be logically advocating our concerns against the publication of such cartoons and raise public awareness that it is as much hurtful to the Muslims as it is hurtful to the Jews when Iranian leaders deny the holocaust (which to me is detestable). Unity among Muslims is of course lacking and is an area that must be worked upon. Lastly, the educated youth of Pakistan should take a stand against such blatant attacks against the freedom of religion and come up with a strong and united front against such ‘wannabe atheists”,