A Letter of Protest from Muslim Intellectuals, Academicians, Artists, Scholars, and Elites to the European Union for its Hostile Attitude towards Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), for Offending Islam and for Spreading Hatred against Islamic Values

Excellencies

We, the undersigned, - scientific, cultural, artistic and non-governmental personalities who look at the global culture from a logical and legal perspective - and are deeply concerned and astonished about the uncivilized behavior on the part of some of the European governments, media and pressure groups and through this culturally and ethically motivated statement, protest against such defiling, slandering and Fascistic anti-Islam and anti-Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) propaganda and call on you to exercise logic, ethics, freedom and negate all sorts of censorship and offence towards Islam. We also invite you to a transparent and open dialogue in the presence of world conscience.

We are deeply concerned that the unfair and violent project that is currently underway against Islam and the Muslims in Europe, producing hatred and fear against this Divine religion and waging a savage psychological war – which is a clear example of propaganda terrorism, cultural violence and breach of human rights of 1.5 billion Muslims across the world – against the radiant personality of the great Messenger of God, Muhammad (PBUH), who was a great teacher of ethics and spirituality, an apostle of mercy, rationality and justice for all mankind, would lead to unpredictable and unpreventable consequences of international dimensions.

These culture of violence and vengeance, which is carried out under the cover of “freedom of expression”, is not only targeted towards the Noble Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the last of the Divine Prophets, but is at times directed towards other Divine personalities like Jesus Christ, Holy Mary, Moses and Abraham (PBUT), giving rise to cultural terrorism, poisonous feelings and hatred through films, novels, caricatures, and articles.

The remarks made by some European officials, particularly the German Foreign Minister, who, as the spokesman of the European Union, supported these satanic, unethical, uncivilized acts, and asked all the European media to defile the Noble Prophet of Islam (PBUH), show that the issue is not personal or accidental. Rather attacking Islam has been turned into an official and governmental policy.

We took it upon ourselves to write this letter since we are unsure whether this move is a new policy on the part of the European Union or the it represents the personal views of some of the spokesmen or statesmen of Europe that are being expressed under the pressure of the Zionists.

If we presume that the only problem faced by the European Community is that of “freedom of expression”, in that case it would be appropriate here to answer the following questions:

1 – Would unethical and illogical “freedom” and "freedom of disrespect" and lying be at the service of “growth and awareness” or would it only serve “discrimination and violence”? Do the so called champions of freedom concede to such a right for others against their own values or not? Why?

2 – Why does the so called free Europe – that is intolerant towards the dress code of the Muslim girls and suppresses the rights of women, particularly the right of choosing not to be naked, the right of preserving their feminine dignity, and the right of freedom to dress the way the wish, through enacting laws that ban hijab (the Islamic dress code); the Europe that does not respect freedom of expression as regards raising questions about the Holocaust and the legitimacy of the usurper Israeli regime; the Europe that has been involved in plundering and massacring the peoples of Morocco to Egypt, Palestine, Afghanistan, India, Malaysia and Indonesia since the 18th century either independently or jointly with the United States, over the past half-a-century, through military occupation of these countries; the Europe that has launched upon a project of defilement, accusation and humiliation of others, instead of entering into free and open dialogue with them – so easily trample upon not only the Islamic and human values but also upon the so-called European values?

Islam is a religion that invites humanity to monotheism, spirituality, fraternity and peace. But it is very surprising that after two centuries of plunder and pillage of the Islamic world, through new waves of crusades and secular wars against Muslims and other human beings, the Western statesmen are not prepared to listen to the words of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) without vengeance and prejudice. And why don’t they respect the rights of the people in Europe to listen and judge for themselves?

Even though the pace of the spread of Islam in the West and across the world might have caused concerns for the Pope and infuriated the Western officials, the Zionist media, and capitalist companies, but is insulting, humiliating and causing disturbance in the world public opinion an appropriate method for withstanding Islam or any other logical and ethical school of thought for that matter?!

If the Christians and secular people of the West embrace Islam in multitudes, attention should be paid to its root causes instead of spreading phobia and hatred against Islam and trying to tarnish the visage of the Noble Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Inappropriate methods, whether adopted by the Fascists or Stalinists or even liberalists are doomed to fail. Just as the language used by Gobbles or Stalin or the exile camps in Siberia could not guarantee the survival of the materialist ideologies, the spirituality crisis and nihilism will not be resolved through the disrespectful language adopted by the West against Islam and the Muslims. Similarly, the multitudes of Guantanamo-like prisons will not be the solution to the crisis faced by the liberalistic capitalist system, which is the last of the materialist ideologies of the Western modernism.

If Europe is suffering from the past history of its religion and religiosity, and if the past memories of the medieval ages and the domination of popes, the inquisition courts, crusade wars, Christian torture houses, animosity against science, or the burning of scientists agonizes the collective conscience of Europe, it should be kept in mind that the solution to such problems does not lie in campaigning against any kind of religion and spirituality. Europe should not take the revenge of its medieval age from Islam, which is the religion of knowledge, rationality, human rights and justice. Isn’t it true that the history of modern civilization of Europe bears eloquent testimony to the fact that the transition of Europe from the Medieval age and its acquaintance with the modern sciences and its scientific and religious renaissance for the first time took place through its contacts with the Islamic civilization, translation of modern sciences of the Islamic world and the acquaintance of the West with the Islamic laboratories, universities, libraries and hospitals?

The secular Europe should bear in mind that it must not try to find the answer to the past violence exerted by the church through biased and violent reactions against Islam that has not had any role in the history of violence in Europe.

How could the Glorious Quran that considers the life of one human being equal to those of the entire mankind and respectfully mentions the names of all the Divine prophets such as Moses and Jesus Christ (PBUT), or the Noble Prophet of Islam, who regarded physical and even verbal violence a capital sin and considers the killing of an innocent person equal to infidelity and considered reason to be not a manifestation of truth and a divine cause and who treated the Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians in Medina on the basis of philanthropy and freedom of religion and, thus, founded the greatest civilization of the world in the early centuries of Islam, in the shortest possible time, be eliminated or repelled through few caricatures, acts of defilement or white lies?

What the Muslims expect from you is not tolerance or even pluralism, any more. Rather what they expect is some degree of politeness and fairness. Unfortunately, the people of the world have lost faith in international organizations. However, resorting to the existing secular, oligarchic, dogmatic approaches, excessively suppressive methods, using the language of “humiliation and accusation” and the dictatorial, belligerent disciplines that have been adopted by the Western capitalist system would only fan the flames of extremism.

If your aim is to prevent the rapid progress of Islam in the non-Muslim world, particularly in Europe and the United States or if your objective is to contain the movement of Islamic awakening among the Muslim youth, in that case, it would be better to consider adopting ethics-based methods of reasoning and dialogue. It would, thus, be more appropriate to reinstate “freedom of expression” and “freedom of dress” for the Muslim citizens of Europe and allow reason confront reason in a democratic and logical fashion, thus, transforming the culture of “disrespect” to a culture of dialogue and debate; rather than fighting each other!

The “Western hegemony” can neither be preserved through the occupation of Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, nor through intimidation of Iran and Syria and other Muslim nations or waging unequal war on them and resorting to illogical, unethical methods or discriminatory prevention of the Muslims from attaining scientific, economic progress.

The support extended to Salman Rushdie, the thoughtless publication of recent stupid caricatures, transformation of “freedom of expression” into “freedom of defilement”, and resumption of crusades with pseudo-secular objectives are nothing but signs of full-fledged violence and cultural terrorism. Instead of intimidation and defilement, would it not be better to provide an opportunity for the representatives of the Islamic world to engage in a transparent academic media-covered dialogue with their European counterparts in an atmosphere of respect for millions of Muslim and non-Muslim Europeans who could listen to two both sides and then judge and decide for themselves?!

Our logical minimal request from you is to respect the cultural rights and the collective conscience of the European people.

Slandering the illuminating personality of the Noble Prophet of Islam (PBUH), who is a divine mercy for the entire mankind, is a proof of secular fundamentalism to the exclusion of rationality, love and ethics from the world of media and international politics.

If warfare has been a booming business for some, we, as the conscience of the intellectuals and academics of the Islamic universities, suggest to the European Union governments as well as the secular elites, scholars and the religious figures of Europe to control and contain – through any means – the existing aggressive and suppressive methods and instead come up with humane and civilized methods for campaigning against Islam and its spread; a move that would help pave the way for a transparent dialogue on equal grounds between the two sides.

Yes, a different world is possible; let us cooperate for its materialization.

Thousands of academics, intellectuals, poets, writers, artists, journalists and scientists of the Islamic countries