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Muslim: West must be educated on Prophet

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-03-23 08:43

MANAMA - Some 300 Muslim scholars and clerics met in Bahrain on Wednesday to work out ways of explaining to the West how Muslims regard the Prophet Mohammad after cartoons of the Prophet sparked outrage among Muslims.

At the first meeting of its kind since the furore over the cartoons erupted earlier this year, prominent Muslims including Qatar-based Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi and Saudi Sheikh Salman al-Awdah were expected to condemn violent protests against the cartoons in which at least 50 people were killed.

Muslims believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

"It is the right of Muslims to boycott those who are harming them and their Prophet," said Qaradawi, who chaired the two-day conference. "There should be great pressure at the United Nations to issue strong rules that would criminalise the defamation of religions."

Awdah told the assembly: "This conference is held to guide this anger among Muslims ... which should be neither a passing (anger) nor a blind one."

Many European newspapers reprinted the cartoons that were first published in Denmark, citing freedom of expression. Muslims have said that freedom does not extend to insulting religions.

"We believe that the incident was because of ignorance about the Prophet," said conference spokesman Soliman al-Buthi.

"An economic boycott is one of the ways to combat the ignorance and protest about what has happened, but we need to educate the West about who the Prophet was and to have an open dialogue with the West," Buthi said.

Many Muslim scholars denounced attacks on foreign embassies in Muslim countries but urged other ways of showing anger, such as an economic boycott of countries where newspapers published the cartoons.

Prominent Danish imams attending the conference said they would issue a mutual appeal calling for an end to a boycott of Danish firms and products, because the affected companies, including Danish-Swedish dairy cooperative Arla, were innocent.

Only Muslims are taking part in the "International Conference for Supporting the Prophet", but organisers say it is a starting point for future inter-faith dialogues.

Muslims from around 50 countries are attending the Conference.