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September 12th, 2012
12:06 PM ET
Ambassador's killing shines light on Muslim sensitivities around Prophet MohammedBy Dan Gilgoff and Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editors (CNN) – Violence over depictions of the Prophet Mohammed may mystify many non-Muslims, but it speaks to a central tenet of Islam: that the Prophet was a man, not God, and that portraying him threatens to lead to worshiping a human instead of Allah. “It's all rooted in the notion of idol worship,” says Akbar Ahmed, who chairs the Islamic Studies department at American University. “In Islam, the notion of God versus any depiction of God or any sacred figure is very strong." “The Prophet himself was aware that if people saw his face portrayed by people, they would soon start worshiping him,” Ahmed says. “So he himself spoke against such images, saying ‘I’m just a man.’” The prohibition against such portrayals was on stark display Tuesday, as mobs in Egypt and Libya attacked U.S. compounds in response to a film that vilifies the Prophet Mohammed, who founded Islam in the 7th century. The attack on the U.S. personnel in Benghazi, Libya, was orchestrated by extremists who used the protests as a diversion, U.S. sources told CNN Wednesday. The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi killed J. Christopher Stevens, Washington's ambassador to Libya, as well as three other Americans at the compound. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter The film that’s believed to have inspired the violence depicts the Prophet Mohammed as a child molester, womanizer and ruthless killer, going a big step beyond violating the basic Muslim prohibition against depicting the Prophet, even in a favorable light. There are questions about who is behind the movie. Initial reports identified a supposedly Israeli-American real-estate developer named Sam Bacile, but it's unclear if that person even exists. A member of the film's production staff told CNN that the producer's name was listed as Abenob Nakoula Basseley. In Sunni mosques, the largest branch of the faith, there are no images of people of any kind. The spaces are often decorated with verses from the Quran. CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories Mohamed Magid, an imam who leads the Islamic Society of North America, says the Muslim prohibition on depicting prophets extends to Jesus and Moses, who Islam treats as prophets. “Pictures and images are prohibited from being worshiped,” Magid says. There have been historical instances of Muslims depicting the Prophet, says Omid Safi, a religious studies professor at the University of North Carolina who has studied the issue. "We have had visual depictions of the Prophet in the form of miniatures and pictures in the Iranian context, the Turkish context, the central Asian Context,” says Safi, author of the book "Memories of Mohammed." “The one significant context where depictions of the Prophet have not been image-related has been in the Arab context.” “As you go farther east, away from the Arabian Peninsula, you find depictions of the prophet in art,” said Johari Abdul-Malik, the imam for Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia. He noted that images of the teachings of the prophet were sometimes used to bridge gaps in illiteracy. But even depictions of the Prophet by Muslim artists has been a sensitive issue. Akbar, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United Kingdom, says that Muslim artists in the 15th and 16th centuries would depict the Prophet but took pains to avoid drawing his face. “It would be as if he was wearing a veil on his face, so the really orthodox could not object – that was the solution they found," Akbar says. In a Muslim film called “The Messenger,” which circulated throughout the Muslim world in the 1970s and 1980s, the Prophet is depicted only as a shadow. Adbul-Malik said that in the Quran, there is “no statement from the prophet requesting his image not be recorded.” The passages relating to a ban on creating images of the prophets come from the hadith, recordings of the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed and his closest companions. The hadith is not viewed on the same plane as the Quran but as important to understanding the Quran. Scholars of religion say Muslim opposition to portraying Mohammed wasn’t generally violated in earlier centuries because of a gulf between much of the Muslim world and the West. In the age of globalization, non-Muslims and critics of Islam have felt free to depict Mohammed, including in offensive ways. In 2006, a Danish cartoonist’s depiction of the Prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse provoked demonstrations across the world. Akbar says that until relatively recently, depictions of Jesus tended to be reverential, but Christianity has had a decades-long head start in dealing with negative portrayals of Jesus in film and art. soundoff (4,725 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 Next » |
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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This makes muslims look like a bunch of pathetic, insecure babies. If your religion is so strong, it should be able to stand a bit of satire.Suck it up children!
Islam men like to dress in pink little girl dresses.
Islams should be flogged.
All religions serve only to divide people. They have never been, and will never be, unifying influences in human interactions. 'God, please protect me from your followers!'
These crowds of so called religious men and boys only do what their handlers tell them to do. It demonstrated the insecurity they have with their faith the fact that they will kill, murder and mame in an attempt to hide their faithe legitimacy.
Islams like to suck co<ks..
Islams like to jack-off thinking of Mohamed's poo-hole.
Islam's eat maggots out of their poo-holes.
Islam is a bunch of fu<kheads.
Islam is a bunch of pedophiles.
Reblogged this on Soapbox and commented:
As you consider religions, don't think of each as a separate whole, but each as a part. Both Christianity and Islam learned from what came before and you can see where Islam tried to correct Christianity's making Jesus god-like. But instead it fractured Islam when Mohammed died and, since Mohammed was human, he had power and that power wound up being divided and creating Sunni and Shi'ite. The best of intentions, the worst of results.
I don't give a rat's ass what they believe. I am through walking around on egg shells around these neanderthals. If they don't like, too damn bad.
Any religion. As all of them demand respect as if they deserve it. How much respect do we give to the guy who believes Elvis is still alive? But if a woman is convinced to eat an apple by a snake, then that's all right?
Their problem is that the do WORSHIP MOHAMMED. ANYTIME YOU PUT THIS MUCH SIGNIFICANCE ON A MAN THEN YOU ARE IDOL WORSHIPING. YOU CAN'T DISCUSS HIM IN ANY NEGATIVE LIGHT WHICH MEANS HE IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER MAN!! WHAT A BUNCH OF CAVE MEN WITH STICKS.
Islams are pedophiles.
Religion is as religion does.
It was 1 person, not a whole company that posted this video. It is NOT representative of the United States or any other country. To retaliate like this shows a lack of understanding and if any terrorist think this thinly veiled excuse covers their evil, they are wrong. Sure, they probably would have done it anyway. But it is a few bad people, NOT the people of any country or religion of the world that harbor such ugly intent. We must bear in mind that ALMOST ALL people are basically decent and we should not allow any thug the air time to advertise their sickness. Rather, all people should unite to uncover the facts and punish or take these perps out of circulation.
It was 1 person, not a whole country that posted this video. It is NOT representative of the United States or any other country. To retaliate like this shows a lack of understanding and if any terrorist think this thinly veiled excuse covers their evil, they are wrong. Sure, they probably would have done it anyway. But it is a few bad people, NOT the people of any country or religion of the world that harbor such ugly intent. We must bear in mind that ALMOST ALL people are basically decent and we should not allow any thug the air time to advertise their sickness. Rather, all people should unite to uncover the facts and punish or take these perps out of circulation.
Gail D doesn't get it.
@Gail D if it isn't the Muslims, then it is the Westboro Baptists, If it isn't Westboro, it's Catholic priests, if it isn't the priests, it's Benny Hinn scamming money, if it isn't Hinn, it is Terry Jones burning a Koran, if it isn't Jones, it is people denying their kids medical help or transfusions....I am tired of typing now, but can you see my point?
The concept makes no sense then. If he is not a god, you can depict him. You can make fun of him. They treat him exactly opposite the way the Koran tells them too. He is just a prophet. Prophets are human and make mistakes.
THIS SHORT FILM & OBAMA'S APOLOGY BROUGHT DEATH & DESTRUCTION TO U.S. SOIL AND NOW ALL OF MIDDLE EAST >>>http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/inflammatory-anti-muslim-movie-may-not-be-a-real
It is absolutely breathtaking as to how the insult of more than a billion Muslim can be justified in the name of freedom of speech and democracy. Why does the west expect the Muslim world to tolerate the degradation of their religious founder while they would not just respect our believes?
Why are aggressors on the Muslim world justified and excused in the name of democracy and freedom while the aggressors on the West are labeled as terrorism when really both acts are similar?
The difference is westerners don't do this kind of violence over an insult.
...and I would hardly call a film maker an "aggrerssor".
Both acts are not "similar". Murder and violence are not "similar" to insulting words.
To a "westerner", this type of violent reaction to an insult indicates some sort of disturbing mental disfunction.
I reserve my right to make a mockery of all religions, islam included. Muslims absolutely will not dictate what I can or cannot make fun of, depict or insult, anymore than I can dictate what they choose worship. mohammed was a pedohile and jesus was gay, have a nice day
How tenuous and fragile your beliefs must be if you are so easily offended.
If you were truly devout and absolute in your faith, you would not care what non-believers say, think, or do.
The only way to stop irresponsible film making is to "out" the maker of this file. If you want to be a hate monger, then have the balls to stand by your product. Why is this guy in hiding?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/13/world/anti-islam-filmmaker/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
LOL wow.....maybe because one group does it with words, the other flies planes into buildings.
Islam is the most insulting religion of them all calling Christians and Jews pigs. Is a Church or Synagogue even allowed in Saudi Arabia? Is someone born a Muslim "free" to chose to worship differently. You are a fake fraud and a phony to even talk about Muslim sensitivities as if Islam has any itself!
Complete wack job
IF MUSLIMS ARE ALLOWED TO DICTATE THE FUTURE THERE WILL BE A DARK AGES. THE WESTERN WORLD HAS THE POWER TO EASILY DESTROY BOTH MECCA AND MEDINA. PERHAPS THE MUSLIM MADMEN SHOULD BE REMINDED OF THAT.
The belief in invisible sky gods borders on insanity. The actions of these 'believers" is insanity. The world would be an oh so better place if people just accepted they are here and try to do good for themselves and those around them. All religions that push their beliefs on others are senseless foolishness.
somehow they lost their way. They were supposed to believe in the concept of 'allah' and follow his message for happiness, not abandon the religion because someone insulted it. revenge is a powerful thing. someone who was wronged will go out of the way to commit wrongs and go against everything they claim to believe in to get their vengeance. Really petty and immature.
Prevarication, that's all this article is.
Islam is neither peaceful nor tolerant and needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth!
I'm afraid that the face of the Earth will be wiped off the face of the Earth by religious zealots.
religious and political zealotry will be our undoing