Muslim Heretics Conference

Thousands of Pakistanis protest against anti-Islam film, cartoons

 

KARACHI (AFP) — Thousands of people rallied in the Pakistani port city of Karachi Sunday to protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and a Dutch film said to insult Islam, police and witnesses said.

“More than 20,000 protesters attended the rally convened by the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami party,” a senior police officer Suleman Syed told AFP.

Party leader Munawar Hussain said tens of thousands participated to vent their anger against the Internet release of a 15-minute film last month by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

Emotionally charged youths torched Danish and Dutch flags and also chanted slogans against the United States and burned an effigy of US president George W. Bush, witnesses said.

In a resolution the rally urged the government to cease diplomatic ties with Denmark and the Netherlands and expel their envoys.

Witnesses said several other political parties and both Sunni and Shiite Muslims joined the protest.

“Our aim was to send a message to the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Conference that it should take action in the wake of anti-Islam conspiracies in the West,” Hussain said.

The cartoons originally appeared in September 2005, sparking anger and protests across the Muslim world. Five people died in Pakistan in February 2006 during violent protests against the drawings.

At least 17 Danish dailies reprinted one of the cartoons in February, vowing to defend freedom of expression a day after police in Denmark foiled a plot to murder the cartoonist.

The Pakistan foreign ministry last month summoned the Dutch ambassador and lodged a “strong protest” over the film, which it said “deeply offended the sentiments of Muslims all over the world.”

“Insult to other religions could never be justified on the basis of freedom of expression,” the ministry said in a statement.

AFP: Thousands of Pakistanis protest against anti-Islam film, cartoons

Faith & Values: Muslims embrace label as heretics
‘Heresy as creative force’ dates to Muhammad, says organizer of conference on Islam.
By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/29/08

Muslims gathering in Atlanta this weekend call themselves heretics half-seriously.

Remember, said Emory professor Abdullahi An-Na’im, opponents of Muhammad and Jesus called them heretics. So-called heresy can accomplish great changes, he said.

About 75 Muslim bloggers, writers and free thinkers from the United States and abroad are expected this weekend at the Muslim Heretics Conference, where they will talk about democracy, women’s issues and critical thinking. They hope their discussions will spark positive changes and open conversations that will echo around the world.

“We want to rehabilitate the notion of heresy as a creative force,” said An-Na’im, who wrote “Islam and the Secular State: Negotiating the Future of Shari’a,” which is a defense of secular governments for Muslims.

It has been published in six languages. An-Na’im has lectured on the issue around the world, including in his native Sudan, where a mentor from his early life was killed by the Islamist government.

He said new communication technologies such as the Internet are opening the Muslim world to new ideas, and repressive governments can no longer control the flow of information. So there is a great deal of ferment going on in the world of thought among the planet’s 1 billion-plus Muslims.

Iranian-born Fereydoun Taslimi of Atlanta, who also helped organize the conference, said, “We plan to do it every year, a gathering of people who like to discuss issues and keep the momentum and networking of Muslims going.”

The organizers have been talking about such a conference for months, he said. In January, they decided to put the word out and see how many people would show. Registration for the conference is closed.

Some Muslims have criticized them for using the title Muslim Heretics Conference, Taslimi said.

“But we decided to stick with it, in that we feel we are against the kind of actions that are being committed in the name of Islam,” such as violence and repression, he said.

Taslimi said some of the same critics a few years back complained about the use of the words “Islamic reform,” but have adopted the phrase when discussing issues where their religion and the modern world intersect.

Jill Carroll, an author and the director of the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University in Houston, said such conversations are happening with increasing frequency and are important.

“Every religion has to confront the social and political realities of the time,” she said.

“There is a growing conversation of, what is our role in the 21st century. We have to interpret our faith newly.”

Faith & Values: Muslims embrace label as heretics | ajc.com