Cartoons spark riots, Fresno State students and cleric react

By Maurice O. Ndole
The Collegian

Fresno State students and a local Muslim cleric have weighed in about ongoing protests surrounding 12 satirical drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in ways Muslims consider disrespectful.

Imam Ramadan, the cleric in charge of the Masjid Fresno Mosque located 2111 E. Shaw Ave., near Fresno State residence halls, said he did not have any specific information regarding the fallout the drawings have caused, but said Islam was a peaceful religion.

“As Muslims, we respect all the prophets and messengers,” Ramadan said. “And we’re not supposed to say anything bad about them.”

The drawings’ publication has raised questions about freedom of speech in the media.

“I totally believe this is free speech,” liberal studies major Sara Hansen said.

Hansen said the drawings reflected the opinions of the artist and it was unfair for the protestors to lay the blame on the Danish people and drag America into the situation.

According to the Associated Press, Afghan police killed four protestors who tried tostorm a U.S. military base in a volatile southern province in Afghanistan.

Graduate engineering students Gill Jeed and Sukh Brar said the drawings were in poor taste.

Jeed said freedom of speech should not be used to hurt people’s feelings or challenge their religious beliefs.

“I think it’s wrong for any religious leader to be depicted like that,” Jeed said. “I think it went too far.”

Brar said the fact that the drawings had the potential of provoking violent emotions should have been an indicator that their publication was not a good idea.

“Why are they bringing Muhammad in this?” Brar asked. “I think it is wrong to publish something like that toward Jesus or Muhammad.”

But Brar said there was a possibility some people may have taken advantage of the situation and making it worse.

Such accusations have been leveled against Iran and Syria with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accusing the two countries of using the drawings to instigate violence among its citizens, according to the AP.

The riots have not stopped the publication of the drawings. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation some publications in France, Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Italy have reprinted some of the drawings in support of their Danish counterparts.

In one of the drawings, an angry-looking Muhammad is depicted wearing a turban with a lit bomb and in another he is depicted holding back a line of smoldering suicide bombers trying to get to heaven telling them, “stop, stop, we have run out of virgins.” The comment is referring to the supposed 72 virgins reward for martyrs in heaven, according to the BBC.

Enraged Muslim protestors have attacked several sites affiliated to Europe and U.S. In Damascus, Syria, protestors set ablaze the Danish and Norwegian embassies. They also burned the Danish embassy and Christian sites in Lebanon.

“I feel the protests were a little exaggerated,’ Hansen said. “I think it was just an excuse to create fracas.”

Engineering major Joe Ramirez said the media should be sensitive to its readers’ religious beliefs. He said such drawings could send negative messages even if they are intended to be humorous.

“Cartoons have a way of saying stuff indirectly,” Ramirez said.

The drawings originally appeared Sept. 30, 2005 in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

The Muslim Students Association could not be reached for comment.

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