This is how Muslims should protest

A great article from Michael Peck of True Slant website was posted today that got me thinking.

No bombs. No murders. No screaming fanatics shouting “Allah Akbar” as they attempt to remove someone’s head for daring to draw the Prophet Muhammad.

When the Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison decided to defend the right of free speech by drawing stick figures of the Prophet Muhammed on campus sidewalks, the campus Muslim Students Association quickly responded. They followed the atheists on their blasphemous journey, and whenever a drawing of the Prophet Muhammed appeared, the Muslim students drew boxing gloves on the figure, and changed the name to Muhammed Ali.

That’s it. No fights. No hatred. Now the atheists are sparring with the college administration over the right to draw Muhammed, but that’s a different matter. Confronted with satire, the Muslim students responded with humor (yes, you could say they desecrated the atheists’ grafitti, but grafitti artists are in no position to complain). Some of their co-religionists will denounce them for not being more zealous (as in violent) in defending their faith. But I think the students gained more respect for Islam by using chalk rather than guns.

Make cartoons, not war.

I couldn't agree more with Mr Peck, and to be honest although I made my own picture of Mohammad, I do believe that some people have taken things too far. Not by the grotesque nature of the drawings, but because some people used the demonstration as an excuse to front their hatred for the Islamic religion.

Anyone who tries to blaspheme against any particular religion because they don't agree or understand it, or even worse because its different to their own religion is really being very hypocritical.

The whole purpose of Draw Mohammad Day is to demonstrate that we cannot be intimidated by fear mongers trying to protect their own interests.

If a group of devout Rolling Stones fans threatened to kill anyone who drew a picture of Keith Richards, then it would make sense that everyone show them that they are not intimidated by their idiotic threats.

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A Nigerian Witch-Hunter Defends Herself

HOUSTON — At home in Nigeria, the Pentecostal preacher Helen Ukpabio draws thousands to her revival meetings. Last August, when she had herself consecrated Christendom’s first “lady apostle,” Nigerian politicians and Nollywood actors attended the ceremony. Her books and DVDs, which explain how Satan possesses children, are widely known.

So well-known, in fact, that Ms. Ukpabio’s critics say her teachings have contributed to the torture or abandonment of thousands of Nigerian children — including infants and toddlers — suspected of being witches and warlocks. Her culpability is a central contention of “Saving Africa’s Witch Children,” a documentary that made its American debut Wednesday on HBO2.

Those disturbed by the needless immiseration of innocent children should beware. “Saving Africa’s Witch Children” follows Gary Foxcroft, founder of the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria, as he travels the rural state of Akwa Ibom, rescuing children abused during horrific “exorcisms” — splashed with acid, buried alive, dipped in fire — or abandoned roadside, cast out of their villages because some itinerant preacher called them possessed.

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Bonobos Say No by Shaking Heads Like Humans?

From the National Geographic website comes a cool video for the first time, according to researchers, bonobos have been recorded shaking their heads to discourage other bonobos from doing something—perhaps a "primitive precursor of the human head shake."

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