To see the Muhammad cartoons, click here.
A trial. Of non-Muslims in a non-Muslim country. A trial according to Islamic law.
A recommendation from our friend and ally. This fellow Al-Seedes is more often in English “Al-Sudais.” He is on record calling Jews “the scum of humanity, the rats of the world, prophet killers … pigs and monkeys.” From AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia’s top cleric called on the world’s Muslims to reject apologies for the “slanderous” caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed and demanded the authors and publishers of the cartoons be tried and punished, Saudi newspapers reported Saturday.
Thousands of Muslims, meanwhile, took to the streets in London and several other European cities to protest the drawings that were first published in a Danish newspaper in September and recently reprinted in other European publications. One depicted the prophet with a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.
Denmark also announced it has temporarily withdrawn its ambassadors from Syria, Iran and Indonesia because their safety was at risk in the wake of the controversy.
Speaking to hundreds of faithful at his Friday sermon, Sheik Abdul Rahman al-Seedes, the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, called on the international community to enact laws that condemn insults against the prophet and holy sites.
“Where is the world with all its agencies and organizations? Is there only freedom of expression when it involves insults to Muslims? With one voice…we will reject the apology and demand a trial,” Al Riyad, a Saudi daily newspaper, quoted al-Seedes as saying.
Al-Seedes said the cartoons “made a mockery” of the Islam and the Prophet and called them “slanderous.”
A diverse crowd ranging from teenagers in jeans and T-shirts to women in head scarves gathered in Trafalgar Square in central London. Many carried placards reading “United Against Islamophobia.”
“It was absolutely wrong to publish the cartoons,” said Ihtisham Hibatullah, media director for the Muslim Association of Britain, one of the protest organizers.
But he said demonstrators also wanted to send the message that “the clash of civilizations is only promoted by fringe minorities. We see the future as one of dialogue between practices, cultures, faiths and ideologies.”…
Protesters in the Turkish capital of Ankara stomped on Danish flags and shouted, “We will not forgive the ones who humiliated our prophet!”