KUALA LUMPUR, 11 February 2006 — Tens of thousands of Muslims around the world vented their anger yesterday in a seething wave of protests over satirical images of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), torching flags and clashing with police as Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi warned of a “huge chasm” between the West and Islam. With Muslim anger boiling over across much of the world due to the drawings, first published in a Danish newspaper, Badawi had strong words for the West as he hosted an international meeting on Islam.
“They think Osama Bin Laden speaks for the religion and its followers. Islam and Muslims are linked to all that is negative and backward,” said Badawi, whose country heads the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
“The demonization of Islam and the vilification of Muslims, there is no denying, is widespread within mainstream Western society,” he said.
Badawi said Western nations wanted to control the world’s oil and gas, and blamed that desire along with colonialism and “the imposition of Israel upon the Arab world” for a rift with the Muslim faith.
The premier also said Muslims saw the “hegemony” of Western powers “manifested directly in the attack upon Afghanistan and in the occupation of Iraq.”
These “have all contributed in one way or another to the huge chasm that has emerged between the West and Islam,” he told the gathering of religious leaders and scholars in Kuala Lumpur.
From Cairo, Istanbul and Nairobi to Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, protesters took to the streets after traditional Friday prayers as politicians scrambled for answers to a crisis that has exposed cultural and religious divisions. Police in Egypt fired rubber bullets and tear gas, while Kenyan police also used tear gas as a few rallies turned violent, but there was no repeat of the mayhem that has so far left 13 people dead worldwide.
The furious reaction follows publication last Sept. of 12 cartoons by Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper, one of which depicted him with a bomb in his turban, but since reprinted in other countries and on the Internet.
Muslims regard portrayal of the Prophet as blasphemy, and the reaction has raised searching questions on where to draw the line between religious rights and free speech.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote to world leaders calling for reconciliation “for the sake of global peace,” saying the row had “created tensions ... between the Islamic and Christian worlds as never seen before in recent times.” He said the images and their justification as freedom of expression amount to “cultural arrogance,” but he also condemned the violence that has scarred many of the protests. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he regretted the offense caused, but insisted nothing justified the violent backlash.
“I understand the offense the cartoons have caused, we all regret that,” he told a party meeting, “but nothing, I repeat nothing, can justify the violent retribution visited on innocent people or on embassies around the world or the glorifying of acts of terrorism.”
