What's so bad about Muhammad anyway?
I was reading this article this morning about a woman who was jailed for letting the children in her class name a teddy bear 'Muhammad'. To quote a little bit:
Ibrahim Mogra from the Muslim Council of Britain told BBC News 24 that the whole saga had been very damaging for the image of the Muslim faith.
"Each time we have stories like these, that distort what Islam stands for or misrepresents what the compassion of Muslim law stands for, then we have repercussions and people begin to feel that Islam has no place in modern society...
"I have not come across one single Muslim in our country who has supported what has happened."
The thing I found particularly frustrating about this article and, in particular, about the above quote, is that Mogra states that people often don't understand what Muslim law stands for. This article could have been a perfect opportunity to explain a little about the laws so we ignoramuses would henceforth be enlightened. Unfortunately, however, the article does not even explain why naming a teddy bear "Muhammad" would be a punishable offense, and I am still wondering exactly why it was such a big deal. I know I'm a dolt when it comes to worldly affairs (so maybe this is common knowledge that everyone (sauf moi) already knows and was therefore not mentioned in the article) but it seems to me that this article is a perfect example of how ignorance is perpetuated regarding Muslim law. If nobody explains it, how are we to know?
If you have any insights, please clue me in.
posted by Meghan @ 7:18 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
definitely not common knowledge. I'm thinking it may be kind of the same thing as the danish cartoon scandal, where basically, Mohammed isn't supposed to be portrayed in pictures because there's a prohibition against graven images, so any picture of him is considered an idol and disallowed. But I think the actual charge against the teacher was something really vague like "Insulting Islam" and it was sort of equivalent to "taking the lord's name in vain." Like, how debase one of our foremost religious leaders by naming something as worthless as a teddy bear after him. I dunno. I think the takeaway is basically that the Sudanese government is a really scary, fucked up system. (as if that wasn't already obvious from Darfur...)
I like the conclusions you've drawn, and I concur. Thanks for the explanation!
Post a Comment
<< Home