Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives

Modern Religious Experience: Reflection #8 Islam: Two Perspectives: "Find where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. Research a Western news source on the story and summarize the article fr..."

We were to research about current events where Islamic religious beliefs intersect with current events. I found an article from CNN, which was published this May, 2010 about a Facebook page that caused some issues. It was a Facebook page created for illustrations of Prophet Mohammed to be published online on the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. This later made the Pakistani block the site. By Thursday morning the site reached over 7,300 “silly, crude, and intentionally offensive drawings (CNN)” of Prophet Mohammed. The creators of the page said that their intention was about freedom of speech (expression) and not going against Islam. However, despite their intentions, the page lead to strong backlash to those Muslims. It influenced society to create another group called, “AGAINST Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. The whole situation was grown into bigger scale leaving the Facebook disappointed for the blocking of Facebook in Pakistan.

I then found an article from the Pakistan point of view. Most of the facts were identical. However, I found that they had included additional information on the event that was not to be found in the CNN article. The Express Tribune included a quote by Molly Norris, who had drawn a cartoon herself to protest against the US channel “Comedy Central” for canceling an episode of “South Park” which included the various depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. The Pakistan version of the article includes Molly Norris apologizing. It also includes a quote form a voice interview of so-called creator of the page, “Andy”. Like the CNN article it concludes by saying how Facebook was disappointed at the Pakistanis for blocking their site.

There were differences in the facts, the CNN had said there were 96,000 members in the opposing group. Whereas the Express Tribune said there were 106, 300 fans without stating the date recorded. Other than that the only difference was that the Express Tribune focused more on Molly Norris and “Andy”, whereas the CNN focused more on the numerical values and how society reacted to the event.

Islam played a very important role in these two articles. This is because the events were centered around the Islamic beliefs or what the Muslims believed in. The articles focused on a Facebook page that had violated a belief of Islam. The articles explain how “Everybody draw Mohammed Day” had violated the belief of the many Muslims who strictly forbid the depictions of their prophets to be offensive.

Sources:


CNN:
http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/20/facebookers-respond-to-draw-mohammed-day/?iref=allsearch


The Express Tribune:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/14939/us-cartoonist-disavows-draw-mohammed-facebook-page/