Adil Najam
This is a painful post to write.
Ideally I would have preferred not to have had to write this post. But I have over 300 messages in my in-box of people fussing over the so-called “Draw Muhammad Day” page on the social networking site Facebook and now the Lahore High Court’s decision calling for a ban on Facebook has forced the issue. And that is what pains me.
I hope that Facebook administration will remove the page. Not because of any “banning” movement and not because of the Lahore High Court. Just because the page and the idea behind the page is inflammatory and offensive. Regardless of what your belief or religion might be, to throw out offensive and hateful vitriolic for the simple and primary purpose of hurting someone else’s feelings – when you know that (a) those feelings will be hurt and (b) when hurting those feelings is really the only purpose of doing what you are doing – is inhuman, cruel, and clearly offensive. If Facebook does not recognize that, then it knows nothing either about “social” or about “networking” and certainly not about “community.”
But at one level, that matters little now. Whether Facebook removes the offensive page or not. The page and its creators have already fulfilled their purpose, met their goals. And it is we ourselves who have helped them do so. And that is what pains me.
I have not visited the offensive page in question and do not intend to. I had also not intended to help publicizing that offensive page, but by having to write this post that is exactly what I am doing. And that pains me. I am offended by the idea that page purports and the goals it seeks to achieve. So, why should I dignify it by a visit? Why should I publicize it? Why should I give it the attention it was created to seek. Yet, all of us (now me included, which is why writing this is uncomfortable) are doing exactly that.And that is what pains me.
Many of the emails I have received give me the link to that page and invite me to visit it so that ‘I can see for myself how offensive it is.’ I do not need to do that. Yet, that is exactly what we have been doing. We have been acting exactly as the creators of that page intended us to. Acting as the promoters and publicists of that page. And now having turned it into an international legal matter giving the attention seekers behind the page the exact thing they wanted: Attention.
But we have done more than that. With the Lahore High Court decision we have allowed the PTA and authorities another precedent and excuse to aggressively “manage” the internet; something that can and will be misused in the future.
I have not been receiving emails from the proponents of that page. The only ones who seem to be noticing us is us Muslims (and for some reason Pakistani Muslims more than any other). If we too had ignored the offensive page – as it deserves to be ignored – it would have gone the exact same way to oblivion as thousands of other sophomoric attempts at cheap attention seeking on the Internet. Instead we have now turned it into an international incident and given it far more limelight than it ever deserved.
Let’s think about it, what did the creators of the offensive page want to do when they set it up? First, they sought attention, and hits, and notoriety in a world where attention is too easily confused with fame. Second, they wanted to ridicule Muslims by the reaction they excepted from this. If you think of it, irrespective of whether Facebook removes the site or keeps it, the organizers of the page have achieved their goal. Well beyond what they expected. Now every other Islamophobic nutcase will get new ideas about how to have his little 10 minutes of fame spewing bigotry and hatred against Muslims.
But more importantly, they simply could not have done this without us. The only people who have turned this from nothingness into a huge issue is us. I am sure that those who set up the page are jumping up and down and thanking us for making their page such a huge success! And that is what pains me.
I am also pained by the sacrilege of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that this entire drama signifies. As pained as anyone else, and as pained as I would have been at the sacrilege of any other Prophet or religion. But unlike for many others, that pain is neither reduced nor resolved by protesting against Facebook. For me, the antidote to that pain is in the teaching of the Prophet (PBUH) themselves. What would the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) have done in such a situation.
The one thing I am absolutely positive of, is that the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would not have done what we are doing now: making an international public spectacle of ourselves. Most likely he would have just walked away and ignored (the ‘look the other way when someone throws garbage at you’ model), he might have negotiated with Facebook on the basis of their own stated rules (the Hudabia model), he might have reasoned with detractors (the discourse and discussion model). Nearly certainly Muhammad (PBUH) would have handled it with grace, with composure, and maybe even with a touch of good humor. Most importantly, the Prophet (PBUH) would have kept focusing on his own actions and proving his point with his own deeds rather than with slogans, banners and naara-baazi.
I could not agree more with your assessment! Muslims – and increasingly Pakistanis – seem to be their own worst enemies; and because we are so thin skinned we let our inflammatory emotions get out of control. If anything, we have shown these sanctimonious hypocrites how predictable we are. We are like the metaphorical hornet nest that everyone likes to insert a stick into because they know we will get angry. Patience and perseverance in the face of hardship is the biggest lesson Prophet Muhummad (PBUH) taught, and evidently we have forgotten.
Dear Mr. Adil Njam.
Its a poignant post.
Remembering Iqbal here:
Yae raaz kesi koo nahin maloom k Momin
Qari nazr atta hai haqeqat mein hai Quran
Best Practices is the name of the game.
Regards
Adil,why did you remove my comment in which I said freedom is not absolute?
There are sites which are banned in Pakistan like “Haq Chaar Yaar” and several other anti-Shia Sites? There are videos which re banned in which Rafidians(current Shias) history has been discussed but they were removed from youtube. I am sure Alqaeda might ask to lift the ban on all sites which promote their agenda
Please tell me why there is double standard? If Internet is free for All then it MUST be free for All.
I agree to all what was said by Abu Salmah with verses of Qura’n and Hadiths, but I would like to tell him that Qur’an orders us to talk with Non-Muslims (people of book) with most possible polite way, you called them filth, you are not a follower of Islam and Prophet (pbuh) when you do so. If you called those cartoonists filth, then yes they are, but you post shows that you divide mankind in Muslims and “filth”, which is again un-Islamic as according to Islam, mankind is divided in Muslims and Non-Muslims, this division in also only based on faith, otherwise in eyes of equality and justice, we are all one. I am also impressed with Non-Muslims’ attitude in replies, you are hasty to condemn and criticize Abu Salmah but you didn’t answer my questions on page 28, good choice, I must say, and positive attitude too.
Love and Respect :)
@Paul:
As Kashif Aziz of Chowrangi.com said on BBC:
“There’s a difference between freedom of speech and freedom to offend”.
As I read somewhere:
your right to free speech ends where it steps on someone else’s right. Just like my right to swing my arm ends before it connects with your nose.
How true!. I am free to stay in Pakistan or any part of the world but I don’t have right to force my siblings to go where I go. Second what I have learnt that most of atheists are away from civilization. Since they don’t respect any religion hence naturally they don’t know how to give respect to others.
Third thing, you non-Muslims MUST realize that Muslims are more touche about their Prophet than you guys would be for your girl friends or wives. Heck Even Muslims are more sensitive about their Prophet than their girl friends and wives.
For you religion is a Sunday School that you go in Church and that’s it. For Us Religion is practiced all time,24 hours a day. If I am giving a smile to my parents early in the morning, I am rewarded equivalent to reward of a Hajj. If I am removing stones and other obstacles from road while going office, I am being rewarded infinite times for that action. If I am saying Salam while entering in office, those who reply me,all of their rewards is multiplied by my own action. If I am asking my peer first before starting the meal, I am being rewarded. If I am saying Allah’s name before starting my work, my 9-5 job automatically converted into prayer. Heck! even if I am going toilet and say the “Dua” to enter in Bathroom, i performed a prayer hence got reward.
So kindly learn to make difference between other faiths and Islam. In Islam, more is emphasized on Human rights than God’s rights and this is why Muhammad(saw) had to say that He would prefer to destroy Kaaba(Muslim’s Holy place) than to break a heart. Now this single statement clarifies what Islam is all about. Whether Islam is true or a fake religion, I don’t give a damn but bring one faith on earth which have all such qualities and mind you I was just talking about “features” which pertain to individual. I did not even talk about How Islam talks about good governance and how Islam is more secular than secularism which exist in books today. I think, there’s some reason many non-Muslims have been embracing Islam. We born Muslims are usually ignorant about own religion and have no idea about its beauty, ask those who later embraced Islam, one would find a clear difference b/w them and us.
Even those cartoonists understand Islam better than us that’s why they are doing all such thing. Ironically a jew know about Islam more than a self-acclaimed Muslim. I was surprised when I read some “Moeen”‘s comment when he told that Muhammad would already got ‘Muqam-e-Mehmood” and Muslims should take care of them first. I wonder how many Muslims even have a clear idea of Muqam-e-Mehmood? Atleast I don’t have…
So don’t read Islam thru eyes of ignorant Muslims. You should study it to know what it is and why it’s unique. No wonder media which is usually controlled by my fellow Abrahamic faith;Judaism will never like to promote Islam in Good faith because after all their monopoly was tarnished when God appointed a prophet which did not belong to tribes of Issac and Jacob hence they have to do this anyway.
why freedom of speech is exercised on Islam only? Why doesn’t anyone make cartoons of Shiv,Om or Krishna? Why does not one mock Buddhism? I mean there is something which those fanatics know. I see such attempts as signs of weakness and helplessness. They used Wars, they declared Islam as a terrorist religion yet Islam spread more. They called our Madrassahs as hub of terrorism and used our “Mir sadiqs” aka Liberals as puppet to promote the idea, they failed, They ridiculed Islamic laws yet they failed. So I think such cartoon row and other future incidents are more exposing the failure of Western world.
It was iraq war that turned to a “liberal” guy like me to study Quran while in my 25 years of life till 2003 , I had just finished Quran only twice and that too without translation. Thanks to Mr.Bush,s war on terror that converted to a liberal guy like me to a person who later read entire Quran with translation and studied other things. Keep practicing such freedom of speech stunts, you are not only converting non-Muslims to Muslims but converting “away from religion” Muslims like me towards Islam. As Allah said in Quran:
They plotted and schemed, but so did GOD, and GOD is the best schemer(3:54)