[Ramrod]

From the Guardian letters pages:

The images that should concern Muslims

Monday February 6, 2006

I am a Muslim. I believe in and recite the Kalima. I am in a rage over the cartoons. I have managed to see them, since there are many sites now where they are available, and my rage is that they are an accurate representation. Political cartoons are wonderful. They are a mirror which cuts away the superficial and shows by exaggeration what the cartoonist sees as the heart of the issue.

There are no physical likenesses of the holy prophet, but there are certainly depictions. His life was meticulously recorded, as all Muslims are supposed to study and follow his example. So if a Danish newspaper commissions cartoonists to find an image of the Prophet Muhammad, where are they going to find the imagery to capture in their cartoons? They are going to see it in the face that the Muslim world presents. And it isn't pretty.

It is the face of the bomb ticking away above the brain, destroying reason. It is the face of the sword guarding repressed, hidden and frightened women. About a vision of paradise as a male voluptuous fantasy inspiring people to kill innocents and themselves. They could have shown other ugly scenes from state executions to anti-semitism and intolerance of other religions and viewpoints. The scariest image I saw was of the placards outside the Regent's Park mosque saying: "To Hell with free speech" and "Behead those who insult the prophet". The Qur'an and the Al-hadith are venerated and recited, but not read, studied and acted upon.
Rafiq Mahmood
Edinburgh