• February 21, 2006
  • 9 minutes read

A Message from Mr. Muhammad Mahdi Akef

A Message from Mr. Muhammad Mahdi Akef

O My Prophet, You are Dearer than my Parents
A Message from Mr. Muhammad Mahdi Akef – Chairman of the
Muslim Brotherhood
 
In the name of God; and peace and blessings be upon His messenger and his proponents.
 
The whole Islamic and Arab street has been unified in a glorious scene, showing its anger, pain and deep wound as a result of caricatures published by the Danish newspaper ,“Jyllands Posten”, months ago. Such caricatures made fun of the Messenger of Islam, peace be upon him, did wrong to his sublime and great standing. Then some other European newspapers succeeded one another in publishing the same caricatures in the last two months. They claim that they did so supporting the freedom of the Danish newspaper and its right of expression.
 
That loud message was: What you do is not freedom, as any freedom has limits, else it would turn into an aggression against others.. You went too far underestimating the feelings of one and half billion Muslims; so, let us practice our freedom to express our anger, and let you hear our voice while we stand to defend our sanctities, and symbols, without aggression against anyone.. From that time on, you will realize that we are a viable nation, worth of noble life, and strengthened by Islam you should try to understand how huge your offence against us was; some of your writers, thinkers and politicians need to realize that they are on the wrong way; and that our miserable globe has enough conflicts and does not bear more. Your practices give firm foundation to aggression, and bring about dissension among nations.
“Think it not to be an Evil to You”
What some Western newspapers did resulted in a complete unification of the Islamic and Arab street; A thing that was missed and needed. The people of our nation proved again that their real loyalty is only to God, His Messenger, Peace be upon him, and the great religion of Islam; and that only Islam and enthusiasm for it are able to gather, move and revive them.
It was a blessed movement by people, that few of our rulers seized the opportunity to communicate with their people in a rare scene. Some of them boycotted Denmark, some others closed their countries’ embassies there, and others stopped economic exchange with them. We witnessed a leading move by the Organization of Islamic Conference, and another move by the Arab League and its ambassador in Europe.
It is a fact that this formal move is far less than what should be and what people hope for. It is also a fact that majority of our rulers did nothing as if it was none of their business; and as if it has nothing to do with these rulers’ Prophet or religion. What happened did not embarrass these rulers, and it revealed the defects of their oppressive regimes. They preferred to act lowly towards their religions and worldly matters. They remained away from their nations and the strong stream of anger going through them. If they or one of their retinues or family members were exposed to insult or sarcasm or harm, they might show uneasiness and annoyance; So they did not seize the favorable opportunity to communicate with their nations in a hard situation.
 A Part of the Series of Aggression Against Our Sanctities
 
What happened is not an evil to you, Muslims. Some racist, unjust and unenlightened Westerners were exposed to people. Some of their corrupt leading figures controlling media there were exposed too. They did not make fun of the noble character of the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him; But their target was his religion and message.
 
 In the old times, Arab disbelievers did the same, i.e. they claimed that he was a magician, sorcerer and a crazy man. Their aggression was not against our noble Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, as some of them made fun of God’s name; short time ago, they desecrated the Holy Qur`an in US concentration camps in Guantanamo and Abu Ghurib; and they target Muslim Mosques in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine till now. We also know about the conspiracy to lead Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse. Add to this the ongoing fierce war, on different levels, against our Muslim identity, culture, civilization, and curricula.
 
 When we talk about the West’s enmity at Islam, we do not mean all people of the West. We mean governments, centers of influence, and those of hateful imperialist interests, who master bloodsucking of nations’ wealth and grabbing it by force.
Those people are primarily responsible for arousing fanaticism fed by extreme lack of knowledge about Islam in the West. They intend to establish the origins of such fanaticism and aggression by setting up cultural barriers, and presenting distorted images of Islam, its Messenger and its people. They do that instead of their flashy slogans of human communication and fair globalization which made the world like a small town. In the same time they continuously  call for clash of civilizations, leadership and pioneering of western civilization without partners. They imagine that they can create a new enemy, after the fall of communism danger, in order to let the people support their aggressive policy.
 
 
Our Weakness Lured them to be Aggressive
 
No doubt that the state of extreme weakness and backwardness the Muslim nation goes through is what made its opponents to be that daring, impudent and aggressive. In today’s world, the balance of power does not work well when putting one and half billion Muslims in one ban, and some million Zionists in the other. We live in world that respects nothing but the logic of power, and know no language but strength. Zionists were able to turn anti-Semitism, which they made exclusive to them, into a sword against the whole world. They even criminalized forever anyone who has the mere suggestion of doubt to the amount of suffering they went through in the holocaust, and they make that one as an example to any one who thinks about doing the same thing. The Zionist right in Palestine became an acknowledged and unquestionable fact. Their state, which is based on aggression, lies and history counterfeiting, now has become a well-established reality. Now it has the right to be fully armed with whatever traditional or nuclear weapon it asks for; in addition to using or threatening with such weapons freely, unlike other countries.
 
Western media fostered these ideas in the conscience of Western people under the name of freedom of the Press and publishing and broadcasting rights.
Our Duty
Now, let the world hear our say; let it feel that we are able to act and be angry. Let’s us see things as they really are. Sound mind tell us that it is not only a matter of making fun of the Messenger, may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him. It is an aggression against Islam as a whole, i.e. its symbols, sanctities, beliefs and principles. The right reaction should be sticking sincerely to Islam, calling for it, being brought up Islamically, striving on the way of Islam’s honor and glory, rebuilding our countries on Islamic bases, and reviving the Islamic higher values in ourselves, i.e. Justice, equality,  Shura (consultation with others), freedom, tolerance and respecting others.
 
The poisoned atmosphere that produced such aggression against our Messenger, Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him, is full of ignorance about Islam and its messenger. It is high time for our governments, institutions, scientific academies, our embassies abroad, and scientists, as individual and in teams, should take a positive and important step. Such lax attitude and not introducing Islam on institutional bases are astonishing and cause grief. We remember that the Arab League were not able to collect 25 million dollars to establish an Arab satellite channel to address the West by its language. Such an amount of money is so small that some rich Arabs spent it in one day.
 
Spontaneous economic boycott succeeded in letting some westerners to pay attention; so what do you think if we activate it against those of Zionists and Americans who aroused bad feelings against Islam. It is can be painful to those arrogant people who do not say sorry for their mistakes, nor ready to calm others by mere apology, aside from the obligation of questioning those involved in that case, and activating the international anti-discrimination laws and those of belief protection.
 
Here we remind ourselves of the necessity of passing an international law from UN, to criminalize aggression against religious sanctities related to anyone. We remind our rulers that their people are expecting a lot from them in such situation. Therein, people will not accept any kind of Defeatism or Regression. We are just and right when calling for all that. We call for respecting human rights and beliefs wherever the person is. We are applying the noble Qur`anic verse stating:”
 
?Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides God, lest they out of spite revile God out of ignorance? Cattle:108
 ?We do indeed know how thy heart is distressed at what they say (97) But celebrate the praises of thy Lord and be of those who prostrate themselves in adoration (98) And serve thy Lord until there come onto thee the hour that is certain(99 ? The Rocky Tract:97-99
And God has full power and control over His affairs; but most among mankind know it not