The days and nights pass, as do the centuries and successive generations, and your light ever shines, and the\u00a0fragrance of your remembrance penetrates throughout, your gentle cascade\u00a0falls throughout, and your call to humanity\u00a0remains timeless and universal: {O Mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single soul} \u2013 Quran.<\/p>\n
How then, can the vile block the light of the sun, or how can the putrid stream pollute the lucid water of life?\u00a0 Rabid dogs bark at the moon, but yet the caravan proceeds.\u00a0 They are the enemies of peace, the enemies of prosperity, the enemies of humanity.<\/p>\n
Your disparagers were referring to someone else, a product of their vile imagination.\u00a0 They deserve less than to be mentioned by name, and we care not to speak to them.\u00a0 Rather, we address people of reason and understanding.\u00a0 We address believers, and we address Muslims, with these three thoughts:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To people of reason and understanding: We ask everyone to ponder the ramifications of provoking the feelings of over one billion people by a small party of people who desires not to seek peace nor fraternity between members of humanity.\u00a0 This poses a threat to world peace with no tangible benefit realized.\u00a0 Is it not necessary in today\u2019s world for the United Nations to issue a resolution criminalizing the impingement of religious symbols?\u00a0 We request all religious and political authorities, as well as people of reason to join us in putting a stop to this futility that benefits no one.<\/p>\n
2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To the world\u2019s Muslims: Expressing outrage in the face of the maligning of God or the Prophet Muhammad is a moral right, as faith cannot be devoid of feelings and immunity from provocation.\u00a0 It is from the completeness of our faith that we love the Prophet Muhammad more than our wealth, more than our beloveds, more than even our own selves.\u00a0 It is from our complete love of him that we follow God\u2019s commands, specifically where He says: {And do not let a hatred of a people prevent you from being just; Be just, as it is closer to true faith} and {No soul bears the sin of another} and {He who kills a soul not in recompense for another soul or in retribution for the sowing of corruption, is as if he has killed all of humanity} \u2013 Qur\u2019an.\u00a0 Consequently, we implore you not to inflict violence upon anyone, whether foreign delegations or otherwise.\u00a0 You should not destroy property or flout the values and cherished principles that you defend, as attacking innocents, killing foreign diplomats and ambassadors contravenes religious and moral principles before it contravenes political ones.\u00a0 It is important that we not forget the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s praise for those who exercise restraint upon becoming angry.\u00a0 You should prevent those individuals who behave recklessly from actions that are unreasonable and immoral.\u00a0 We ask the Muslim youth to be disciplined in word and deed, and to act appropriately.<\/p>\n
We call upon Muslim religious authorities, governments, and community and organization leaders, to devise a strategy to deal with such situations in the future.\u00a0 These situations will likely reoccur, so it is important to manage the conflict before it does.\u00a0 We call upon Friday prayer congregations to perform the prayer and to seek blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad and to apprise the international community of the seriousness of the situation.<\/p>\n
3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To our Western neighbors: Our Lord has enjoined us to respect and treat equitably our neighbors, regardless of race or religious affiliation.\u00a0 Jesus Christ also spoke of love of thy neighbor.\u00a0 We will remain neighbors forever.\u00a0 No reasonable person would conclude that it would be possible for either of us to disappear from the face of the earth.\u00a0 Therefore, why shouldn\u2019t we cooperate to establish effective neighborly relations in an effort to create a space for mutual liberty and prosperity?<\/p>\n
We are extremely concerned with\u00a0a small active minority in your countries that seeks to perpetuate a state of conflict and war.<\/p>\n
We estimate that such objectives do not serve the general interest.\u00a0 Therefore, it is our hope that you reconsider and criminalize the denigration of religious symbols, as such provocations do not serve the principles of free speech, principles that you and us both seek to uphold.<\/p>\n
Shaykh abdallah bin bayyah<\/strong><\/p>\n Vice-Chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IMUS)<\/p>\n President of<\/strong> the\u00a0Global\u00a0Centre for Renewal and Guidance<\/p>\n Professor\u00a0of Islamic Jurisprudence at the\u00a0King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The days and nights pass, as do the centuries and successive generations, and your light ever shines, and the\u00a0fragrance of your remembrance penetrates throughout, your gentle cascade\u00a0falls throughout, and your call to humanity\u00a0remains timeless and universal: {O Mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single soul} \u2013 Quran. How then, can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/binbayyah.net\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}