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In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful. All praise be to Allah
and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
The Coalition of Islamic Organizations (CIO) condemns the publishing of cartoons,
first published in a Danish magazine and then in other European magazines that
ridicule Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
These publications insult the feelings of over 1.3 billion Muslims as they see the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) depicted in an offensive manner. These
drawings were presented in a way that could never be acceptable to any person of
good faith, nor ever approved of by any person having sound morals.
CIO believes in and therefore encourages the freedom of expression and press, but
it does not consider insulting others and ridiculing their religious symbols to
fall under the freedom of expression. On the contrary, it regards this kind of
ridicule to be an aggression against human rights, which protects the freedom of
belief.
Hence, the CIO strongly condemns these cartoons and considers them to be a blatant
offense, not only to Muslims, but also to all religious people, regardless of
their faith.
Such cartoons contradict the efforts exerted by many parties for the purpose of
creating peaceful coexistence and integration between the different members of the
international community, including Muslims.
CIO calls upon:
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Human rights activists, religious associations and intellectuals to confront all
violations of sacred symbols from any religion.
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National and international legal authorities to introduce laws that would
incriminate any person who offends the religion or sacred symbols of another.
Coalition of Islamic
Organization (CIO) |
