We, the Global Anti-Imperialism Grassroots Islamic Organization, denounce the publication of the offensive obscene drawings of the Prophet of Islam in the newspapers of Denmark, across the European Union, and the West. We support the actions of Muslim governments and Muslim individuals to boycott the countries who have supported or allowed such grave insult on our religion. We demand further action to be taken against these countries who lack respect for other religions and cultures. Our resentment and outrage will not cease until an official apology is recieved from these Western nations.
As Muslims it is our duty to hold sacred the Holy Prophet (pbuh)and his memory. An insult against our religion is an insult against Muslims as a whole. We ask the Western people, in particular the people of Denmark, to think of why these cartoons are so offensive to Muslims and why so many in the Islamic world are taking such severe actions against them.
These cartoons were created with the sole purpose to ridicule the Prophet (pbuh), and to take advantage of the weak and suseptible position of Muslims in Western countries by instigating violence against them. That is why they constitue an outright attack on religious freedom of Muslims of Denmark and around the world. Freedom of speech cannot be used as an excuse because freedom cannot be used to propagate hatred and lead to dissimation of propaganda that will inflict harm on a people. Why can Europeans who reject the existence of the Holocaust be prosecuted against, but the publishers of hate-filled cartoons against the Holy Prophet (pbuh) be allowed to continue their hate mongering without fear of prosecution?
The riots which followed after the publication of these vile images were a natural reaction to these events. However, the disrespect of Western governments in criticizing Muslims for being against these cartoons is not. The property damage of Europeans and emotional outrage of Muslims could have been avoided with a simple apology and acceptance of wrongdoing. Contrary to this easy method of calming tensions, the European governments arrogantly refused.
In short, we reiterate our outrage to the publication of these cartoons and also at the insult of the European Union governments in defending this attack on the noble religion of Islam. As long as double standards for Muslims exist, then Muslims can never have true peace with the West.
-issued by the Global Anti-Imperialism Grassroots Islamic Organization [2/9/06]