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Response to Danish cartoons by President of CoEJ.
8th February 2006 The Danish Ambassador
Royal Danish Embassy in London
55 Sloane Street
London SW1X 9SR
England Dear Sir: Re: Caricatures of Prophet Mohammed ( Peace Be Upon Him ) The Council of European Jamaats ( COEJ ) strongly denounces the publication of the outrageous caricatures of our Prophet Mohammed (pbuh). The atrocious act was perpetrated by a Danish newspaper simply to cause insult to Islam and sow seeds of dissension between communities in the name of ‘freedom of expression’. These cartoons could have been printed with any Muslim instead of our revered Prophet(pbuh) and would not have caused so much hurt and insult to Muslims throughout the world. The very fact that the Prophet (pbuh) was depicted goes to show that this was not mere cartoons but a serious derogatory message to misinterpret and manipulate the values and sacred meanings of the noble faith. The Danish Prime Minister has apologised for the distress caused but the editor has refused to back down in the so called name of ‘freedom of expression’. The Prophet(pbuh) made enormous efforts to build a world with justice, compassion, security and welfare. History will show that these values were adopted by the mass and blood shed only resulted when the path of the privileged few was crossed. Muslims throughout the world (1.5 billion) have expressed their anger by demonstrations, public meetings and boycotting your products. This looks like only the beginning and with events like these nobody can predict how it will end, if it ever will. However, we distance ourselves from the criminal element which went about demonstrating in London with insulting placards and burning your flag and ransacking your embassies in the other parts of the world. The majority of Muslims throughout the world are peaceful and the printing of cartoons was meant to be provocative and show Islam in a bad form. It is still not too late to reconsider and issue an apology. For peace to be maintained, world faiths have to work together and sort out the differences through dialogue. Insulting and depicting Holy figures in a vile form is not the answer. We sincerely hope that sanity will prevail. Yours truly, Munawer Rattansey
President .
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