The controversy over the Danish cartoons depicting Muhammad has come to Pennsylvania. On Feb. 4, the Inquirer published one of the more offensive images, the one featuring a bomb-shaped turban bearing an Arabic inscription. On Feb. 8, a group of Muslims stages a protest outside the Inquirer's offices. Here is part of the paper's report on the protest.
According to Islamic tradition, any pictures or images of Muhammad are considered sacrilegious. But the Danish cartoon is particularly insensitive, the local protesters contended, because it perpetuates a stereotype of Islam as a militant religion.The paper also published a fairly predictable and uninformative justification for their decision to publish (link).
"It's disrespectful to us as a people," said Asim Abdur-Rashid, an imam with the Majlis Ash'Shura, an umbrella group for mosques in the Delaware Valley. "It's disrespectful to our prophet to imply that he's a prophet of violence." [...]
One demonstrator, 54-year-old Aneesha Uqdah of Philadelphia, argued that precedent exists for newspapers to withhold some information to prevent harm: "If a woman was a rape victim, you wouldn't publish her name," she said.
The harm in this case, according to the pickets, is to the reputation of Islam at a time when Muslims in the United States already feel under siege.
The demonstrators carried signs that read, "Freedom of Speech, Not Irresponsible Speech," "No to Hate," and "Islam = Nonviolence."
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