To Frank Oddersborg

Submitted by S Ahmed (Maldives), Feb 10, 2006 at 05:47

Dear Frank

First of all let me answer the question you asked. "Why can't I caricature your prophet, as a mean to start a debate in Denmark?"

First of all the prophet is loved by more than a billion Muslims world wide. It may be surprising to you to find that we love our prophet more than ourselves or our family. Yet again you may say that you don't believe in Islam or any of its values. Let me ask you something. Just because you don't believe in someone's view that doesn't mean you have the right to intimidate that person through hurting his/her feelings.

If we put a hypothetical situation that putting a cartoon poster of your neighbor at your front door. Would it not provoke your neighbor; especially if authorities gave a blind eye saying it's your freedom of expression? Ask your mother for her advice regarding the issue. I guess she wont agree to that either. I expect expressing your freedom of expression in that way won't put you in friendly terms with your neighbor. In the same manner Denmark is not some place in Mars where they could disparage Muslims sentiments, they are in a global society where mutual respect must be adhered to. Besides Denmark say they have some two hundred thousand Muslims in their country. I think your constitution will mention something regarding minority rights. Anyway it is juvenile to start a debate

I agree with you that the holocaust has nothing to do with the cartoon issue at hand. But it was brought up so that you could grasp the gravity of meddling around with other people's sensitivities without giving due consideration.

About the burning of Danish flag and embassies, it just shows how a personal matter it was to the Muslims. I would not advocated violence but there are other ways we can protest by boycotting Danish goods or so on.

Religion may mean nothing to most of the people in the west and their governments, but it's a sensitive issue in all Islamic countries. It's a sad thing that people have lost their lives and property because of some stupid cartoons raised by the Danish newspaper. If Denmark has a Muslim youth problem then it's that country's social failure to address and correct the issue; not the fault of Islam or the prophet.

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