The controversy that erupted after a Danish publication carried a cartoon humiliating the Prophet Muhammed is turning into a major provocation that threatens to unleash the much-feared clash of civilizations.
Christians may be used at poking fun at their own beliefs, at the Christian Church or even at the Prophet Jesus, but this is unacceptable in the Muslim world where religious values are too sacred to be made a subject of small talk.
As a matter of fact in our religion you cannot mention any prophet including Jesus with disrespect. The Christian societies of the West should by now understand this sensitivity of Muslims and should also learn to respect it. Muslims do not use the word �Allah� or the name of the Prophet so lightly. Even when they do, they use some words of respect like �Allah the gracious� or the �almighty� to add more respect.
The Prophet has never personalized religion. On the contrary he has forbidden his picture to be drawn so that people only concentrate on worshipping Allah and not himself or anyone else. So we do not have any images of the Prophet let alone any description of him. So when the Prophet becomes the subject of a cartoon that pokes fun at him, it is only natural that every Muslim from the most radical to the most moderate will be offended. Those who published this cartoon cannot be so naive as to miss this fact. So what they have done is actually to provoke Muslims and create new tensions between the Islamic world and the West.
What has been done cannot just be called an act of free expression. You can say or do whatever you like provided you do not violate the sensitivities of others or you do not insult them. The Danish publication has done something terrible which should have been condemned. But instead when other Western publications show solidarity and publish the same cartoon, they only add insult to injury.
What this only serves is to further sharpen the zeal of the extremists and disarm the Muslim moderates. Then you have crazy people attacking and killing critics of Islam, justifying their crimes with such controversies.
The press has the greatest role to promote peace, stability and understanding between civilizations. But when the Western media takes sides and even decides to openly alienate the Muslim masses then we simply ignore this act as a promotion of freedom of expression. They have to realize the terrible consequences of their actions.
You are not simply poking fun at President George W. Bush or Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. You are insulting a Prophet who has hundreds of millions of followers and a thriving Muslim community. Then you are really fishing for trouble.
We all have to live in this world together and the only way we can do it is by respecting the beliefs of each other and making sure that we do not violate the sensitivities of each other. Turks are a perfect example of how this system works. However, even Turks do not and cannot approve of their Prophet being humiliated.
