Patna: The issue of publishing Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) imaginary picture once again came to light recently as a Delhi based magazine Diamond Comics published Prophet’s image in its special issue, inviting anger of Muslims who unanimously condemned it. The Muslim Students Organization of India (MSO) organized a protest rally at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 17th May 2011 demanding stringent action against the publisher.
Despite the fact that the real picture of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is not available and drawing of any kind of image is not permissible in Islam, the tendency to print and publish fake image of Prophet (PBUH) is on rise in the country which has been hurting the religious sentiment of the Muslim community.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Advocate Shahnawaz Warsi, National Secretary of MSO, said: “Diamond Comics in its special issue published Prophet’s image with an ordinary article on him. When we contacted the publisher, he said that the magazine was published in 2008 and not now. He offered apology terming it a mistake. But after enquiry we came to know that he was lying as we found the same magazine published in 2011 which means the magazine has been published continuously. So, we sent him a legal notice. Replying to the notice he passed the same lie that he did earlier.”
MSO members protesting against Diamond Comics for publishing Prophet’s image
Adv. Warsi said that then two FIRs have been lodged against publisher of Diamond Comics—one in Delhi and second in Saharanpur, UP.
“Meanwhile, we organized a dharna at Jantar Mantar and our delegation met Delhi Chief Minister Shila Dixit and Prime Minister Mamnmohn Singh and informed them about the matter. They expressed concern and dismay at the incident. The Delhi CM assured us of action against the publisher. The legal process of the case is going on and we are sure the publisher will be arrested” he added.
About the demands, he said: “We want public apology from him through mainstream media and immediate ban on publishing of the controversial magazine.”
Such incident is condemnable
Maulana Waris Mazhari, editor of monthly Tarjuman Dar ul-Uloom, said that such activities are not only condemnable from Islamic prospective but also a crime according to Indian as well as International laws because it is an attempt to hurt religious sentiment of a community.
“It is a severe crime and government must take action promptly against those who are involved in such filthy activities whenever it takes place. Because it may disturb the peaceful environment of the country as it is a matter of religious sentiment” said Maulana Abdul Hamid Nomani, Secretary of Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind.
Maulana Anisur Rahman Qasmi, Chairman of Bihar Haj Committee and General Secretary of Imarat Shariah, said: “Such things should be banned according to law and offender of the crime must be punished by government because it puts the communal harmony on risk which cannot be acceptable.”
While echoing Maulana Anisur Rahman’s views, Rehan Ghani, Editor of Patna-based Urdu daily Pindar, said: “We condemn the publishing of Prophet’s image in any form and demand from publisher apology and clarification.”
Why is it repeated time and again?
It should be noted here that it is not for the first time when the controversy over Prophet’s picture sparked the protests. In 2007, a book written by G Parthasarthy and published by Delhi's publisher Vijay Goel created a controversy for publishing the Picture of Prophet.
In 2009, a book titled, 'Udayimaan Bhartiya Samaj Mein Shikshak' (Teachers in Emerging India), earned anger from political class as well as Muslims for carrying a picture of Prophet Mohammed. The book was written by Yuvraj Dutt, a former faculty member at a post-graduate college in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Similarly, in 2010, New Jyothi Publications of Kerala published a book entitled ‘Stepping Stones’ with Prophet’s Picture that made the state tense.
The list of such incidents is long. Though all the above mentioned books were banned by the concerned governments later, the question is: why it is repeated time and again?
“It is being done time to time for two reasons. One is to get cheap publicity through media and second is to provoke Muslims so they would do anything that will malign the image of Islam and Muslims. Otherwise, they know well that it is wrong deed” opined Waris Mazhari.
Maulana Anisur Rahman and Rehan Ghani also pointed out the same reason and said that it is part of conspiracy against Muslims to show them aggressive and intolerant. So, Muslims need to be careful.
“Muslims are most emotional compared to others. So, such incident is a game plan to provoke them for unwanted deeds” Rehan Ghani added.
While Maulana Abdul Hamid Nomani said that it is an attempt to divert attention of Muslims from the necessary issues related to the community in the country. “You must have seen that whenever Muslims started to focus on their necessary issues, then unnecessary issues have been raised and made the topic of discussion only to divert their attention” he pointed out.
How Muslim should counter such incident?
All the Muslim religious leaders and intellectuals that TCN talked to on the topic were of the opinion that Muslims should counter such incident legally and advised them not to react emotionally which can provide chance for anti-Muslim forces to defame the Muslim community.
“We must protest against the publication of Prophet’s image because silence may encourage publisher but it should be within the law. But I am sorry to say that a section among Muslims reacts to such incidents adopting wrong ways that is incorrect. We have witnessed several such incidents in the past that were done by emotional people but media criticized whole Muslim community and Islam” said Maulana Waris Mazhari.
Rehan Ghani said that whenever such incident happens first of all Muslims should approach the publisher as sometimes it happens due to lack of knowledge.
“The first thing that should be done is to approach publisher. If he did that due to lack of knowledge, we should make him understand about the fact that it is unacceptable according to Islam and ask him not to repeat the same in the future. And if he did it knowingly then also we should try to convince the fact. In case of insistence on the act, we should use the weapon of law against him. I think if we adopt this way, most of the cases will be solved easily without any violence” he said.
“It is democratic country where we have right to go court against those who hurt our religious sentiment. But we must be cautious and must not take law and order in our hand. Otherwise, it will strengthen the people who are making all efforts to project Muslims as terrorists and aggressive” said Maulana Abdul Hamid Nomani.
While Maulana Anisur Rahman said that to counter such incident Muslims should use legal courses as well as political pressure to make sure that such incident would not be repeated in the future by the same person/company or anyone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment