I wish to extend my best wishes and congratulations to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Vice Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Salman, Interior Minister Prince Ahmed and citizens of Saudi Arabia on their National Day today (Sept. 23). The king of humanity has made development a central focus of his reign. He has initiated a range of major economic, social, education, health and infrastructure projects that have brought about remarkable changes throughout the Kingdom. King Abdullah has taken many decisions to improve the standards of living of citizens. The initiatives that are being taken by King Abdullah today in number of developmental programs and projects are commendable. On a global level, King Abdullah’s participation in international diplomacy reflects the Kingdom’s leadership role in defense of Arab and Islamic issues and for the achievement of world peace, stability and security. The king has played a leading role in the service of Arab and Islamic issues, and laid the foundations of political actions at Gulf, Arab, Islamic and international arenas, as well as the establishment of the global dialogue among the followers of religions, cultures and civilizations. Saudi Arabia has made major strides in illiteracy eradication over the past 40 years. “The Kingdom brought down the level of illiteracy in the country from 60 percent in 1972 to 4 percent in 2012,” according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Education on the occasion of the World Day of Illiteracy Eradication. (Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, Jeddah)
Complete lawlessness
This is in response to the letter “Sanity must prevail” by S. H. Moulana. I support Moulana when he calls for sanity to be maintained while protesting against the production of a mischievous film and publication of blasphemous cartoons, otherwise all focus will be on the violent reaction providing further material for more provocative actions. It’s sad that political and religious leadership in Pakistan has miserably failed to put up a joint strategy to avoid violence in the name of protest against the film. Sept. 21, which was planned as “Ishaq-e-Rasool” (love for the Prophet) day will now be remembered as “hatred to humanity” day. That day more than 20 people lost their lives, hundreds were injured, countless properties and businesses were burned to ashes, banks and their strong rooms were plundered, ATMs were smashed to loot the cash, police check posts and vehicles were torched. Karachi, Peshawar and Islamabad bore the brunt of Friday’s lawlessness wherein in Karachi alone several landmark historical cinemas were put on fire.
We need to pause for a moment and ask ourselves: By doing all these mischievous acts, have we done any justice with the Prophet (peace be upon him) whose honor we are claiming to guard. No civilized country can allow this lawlessness regardless of any noble cause. (Masood Khan, Jubail)
Provocation to violence
This is regarding the column “Muslims should resist being baited by enemies” by Linda Heard. As usual we get excellent analyses and insights from the author on a wide range of issues she writes. She is right when she says that she and millions of others are amazed that a convicted felon and a lunatic perhaps funded by some Zionists (or some politicians who want to undermine Obama’s re-election) can inflame the whole Muslim Ummah with this banal movie. But it also shows how ill-informed the Muslim Ummah is as regard to the attitude of not only the Western governments but vast majority of their populations who are already desensitized on what is moral and immoral. Poking fun or ridiculing religious icons or even God doesn’t arouse any emotion in the West — it is considered just another opinion or belief system.
Highly charged emotional and many times violent reactions from the Muslim countries show how poorly the US role in Muslim countries is viewed at. Such nonsensical movies caricatures and plays further undermine US and its allies efforts to fight extremism and deviant groups, for that goodwill and trust diminishes, and most Muslims many of, believe their foolish extremist leaders, that these are not allies, but pathological enemies of Islam and Muslims. Listen to Hezboallah’s leader’s speech and how one tries to exploit masses’ emotions — but the West is allowing exploitations.
The movie, “Innocence of Muslims” is nothing but crude pornographic, silly, hateful, material which should have been banned, and all the film crew prosecuted, on many grounds, including hate crime, inciting violence and undermining the peace, law and order, and most importantly putting the lives of foreign wonderful Americans and other Westerners in harm’s way.
Banning hateful and other seditious material enhances the quality of freedom of speech, for it makes the civil society better and further promotes understanding between different civilizations and diverse groups. Any freedom including freedom of speech has greater ‘collective responsibility than just individual responsibility’ — the society has to be protected from incitement and provocation to violence. (Seif A. Somalya, Jeddah)
Letters — National Day celebrations
