Below I have enclosed pictures of Moslems who marched throughout the streets of London during their recent Religion of Peace Demonstration.
These pictures have never been shown in any of our American newspapers or television news programs because we should never appear to offend anyone!
Why would anyone think that we
should be at war with such nice, peaceful Moslems?!
Origins: The series of photographs displayed above were taken during a 3 February 2006 protest staged in London by Muslims angry over the publication in Scandinavian periodicals of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad:
The trigger for the
latest clash of cultures was the publication by the Danish newspaper Jyllends-Posten on September 30 [2005] of 12 cartoons of Muhammad. A biographer of the
prophet had complained that no one would dare to illustrate his book, and
the newspaper challenged cartoonists to draw pictures of the prophet in a
self-declared battle for freedom of speech.
One submission showed
Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban; in another he tells dead suicide
bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them. Any
portrayal of Muhammad is blasphemous in Islam, lest it encourages
idolatry.
In October [2005] ambassadors from ten Muslim countries
complained to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, who
refused to interfere with the press’s freedom.
But the issue began
to boil [in Janaury 2006] after the cartoons appeared in Magazinet,
a Christian newspaper in Norway, and on the website of the Norwegian
newspaper Dagbladet.
An estimated 500 to 700
demonstrators marched from Regent's Park Mosque to the Danish embassy in
Knightsbridge during the protest. MP David Davis, the shadow home
secretary, condemned messages displayed on some of the protesters'
placards as an "incitement to murder":
Clearly, some of these
placards are incitement to violence, and indeed incitement to murder — an
extremely serious offence which the police must deal with and deal with
quickly.
Whatever your view on these cartoons, we have a tradition
of freedom of speech in this country which has to be protected. Certainly
there can be no tolerance of incitement to murder.
MP David
Winnick, a member of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, called
for the prosecution and deportation of some of the demonstrators:
Mr Winnick said: "The
cartoons were deeply offensive to hundreds of millions of Muslims. But it
is totally unacceptable that, on British soil, there should be thugs
demonstrating for people to be beheaded and actually glorifying the
atrocities of July 7.
"It is to be hoped that
prosecutions will follow very quickly indeed."
He said those
responsible who were temporarily in Britain should be deported, even it
meant stripping them of permission previously given to remain in the
country.
The Walsall North MP added that the overwhelming majority
of Muslims in Britain "have the same distaste as the rest of us about
these thugs".
"I hope it will be the last time we ever see such a
demonstration, totally unacceptable to the Muslim community," he said.
Other Muslims maintained that the protesters were extremists
not representative of mainstream British Muslims:
Asghar Bukhari,
chairman of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, said the demonstration in
London should have been stopped by police because the group had been
advocating violence.
He said the protesters "did not represent
British Muslims".
Mr Bukhari told the BBC News website: "The
placards and chants were disgraceful and disgusting, Muslims do not feel
that way.
"I condemn them without reservation, these people are
less representative of Muslims than the BNP are of the British people."
He said that Muslims were angry over satirical cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad published in European papers but it was "outrageous" for
anyone to advocate extreme action or violence.
"We believe it [the
protest] should have been banned and the march stopped.
"It's
irrelevant whether it's Muslims causing hatred or anyone else —
freedom of speech has to be responsible."
No arrests
were made at the time, according to police, due to the danger posed by the
size and nature of the crowd:
As the clamour for
action grew, police sources said there were no arrests because of fears of
a riot. A senior Scotland Yard officer said: "We have to take the overall
nature of the protesters into account. If they are overheated and
emotional we don't go in.
"It's like a risk assessment; you have
to look at the crowd you are dealing with. If we went in to arrest one
person with a banner the crowd would turn on us and people would get
hurt."
Although it has been circulated with the set of images
displayed above, the following photograph likely comes from a completely
different protest held in Luton a couple of years earlier:
Sources:
- Browne, Anthony. "Denmark Faces
International Boycott Over Muslim Cartoons."
- The [London] Times. 31 January
2006.
- Kite, Melissa. "Muslim Protests Are
Incitement to Murder, Say Tories."
- telegraph.co.uk. 5 February
2006.
- BBC News. "Muslim Leader Condemns
Protesters."
- 4 February 2006.
- BBC News. "Cartoon Protest Slogans
Condemned."
- 5 February 2006.
