KUALA LUMPUR: Muslim protests across the world condemning cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) are driven by fears Islam is under attack, and by the fact that it is easier to protest than to battle tough social issues, moderate Muslims say.
From disputes over wearing headscarves to desecration of the Quran, many Muslims worry over what they see as onslaughts of the West, but rooting out poverty in some Muslim countries is a more vital task than condemning the cartoons, analysts say.
"Why would you want to be violent about a cartoon?" said political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who felt an apology or editorial resignation would be sufficient restitution by a Danish newspaper that flouted Islam’s ban on pictures of its prophets.
"Why don’t you be violent and protest about your own governments, Muslim governments who have not provided basic sanitary facilities and housing?" the Malaysian analyst asked.
"These are far more important issues to Muslim communities around the world than some stupid cartoons. Cartoons are cartoons, period." The Muslim world is riven by economic disparities.
The largest grouping of Muslim countries, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, includes among its members wealthy nations such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran that are home to most of the world’s oil reserves. But people in nearly half the OIC countries live on less than $2 a day.
Tens of thousands of Muslims have protested over the drawings in violence that has killed at least 11 people this year.
Denmark withdrew ambassadors and embassy staff from Iran and Indonesia last week after they received threats over the cartoons, and Pakistan’s Islamist parties have called a protest strike nationwide on March 3.
But mainly Muslim Malaysia, which has banned the cartoons and suspended the licence of a newspaper that printed them last week, has warned that angry voices were drowning out the tolerant tones of moderate Muslims and Westerners.
"As a result, the silent majority looks on as the extremist and intolerant minority takes over and turns the civilisational dialogue between Islam and the West into an angry and ugly shouting match," Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak as saying at the weekend.
In Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, airline pilot Kashan Dodhy said: "Obviously this is something extremely wrong, and to protest against it is our right. But that doesn’t mean people should resort to violence - Islam is a peace-loving religion."
In neighbouring India, where Muslims make up 130 million of a predominantly Hindu population of more than a billion, a foreign policy analyst said the violence in Lebanon and Syria, where embassies have been burnt, could not be condoned.
Mohammad Hamid Ansari, a former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said he also deplored the cartoons. "I am all for satire and a bit of fun but in any society lines should be drawn." But fixing just where those lines fall can be a problem.
