Muhammad's Cartoons

I follow the controversial cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). It started out with a writer who wanted to write a children's book about Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, but there was no one who would draw Muhammad's pictures because it is forbidden in Islam. The reason being that people will start worshipping the picture. Like it happened to Jesus, peace be upon him.

Now almost every church has Jesus' picture on stain glass windows with white skin color, blue eyes and long blond hair in the stain glass windows and paintings but Jesus (peace be upon him) the son of Mary, was born in Nazareth which is in the Middle East, so I don't know why Jesus is made look like European when in fact he would have looked like an Arab or Middle Eastern...

Anyways the cartoons were first published in the Danish Newspaper to tell the European Muslims that it is ok to draw Muhammad's picture. When the Muslim leaders heard about it they condemned it and wanted an apology from the editor of the news paper and assurance from the editor that such acts wouldn't happen again; however, the paper didn't apologize and said it was freedom of press. One month later when the Muslims found out about it they started protesting and boycotting the Danish products. Some countries protested violently (i.e. Afghanistan, where I was born). The cartoons were printed again and again by different newspapers in the name of freedom of press which made Muslims angry.

I believe that there are several reasons that Muslims protested violently. I do want to clarify it that NOT ALL Muslims protested violently. Most protested peacefully. The media showed only the violent protest. The reasons for protesting violently:

1. Frustration about the War in Iraq. [Muslims see it as invasion of a Muslim country by the West]
2. Images of the prisoners in Abu Graib and Guantanamo. [Muslims see it as torture of the Muslims by the West]
3. and then the CARTOONS.. So they said enough is enough... and that's why the reacted violently.

My opinion:

I would not have liked it for you to show the cartoons because it is offensive. Muhammad's, peace be upon him, turban is shaped like a bomb, which portrays that ALL Muslims are terrorists. Now you might say that it is freedom of press and speech but I don't know if you have heard of, British historian, David Irving who said that holocaust didn't happen to the extinct that people describe it. People are exaggerating Holocaust. and he got sentenced for saying that! Now isn't that also freedom of speech. If not, then I call it hypocrisy.

On the other hand, I also do not support the violent protest in many Islamic countries that took away people's lives because if Muhammad were still alive he would not have liked violence. What proof do I have of saying such thing? I can give you an example: Muhammad, peace be upon him, had a neighbor who used to throw her trash in front of his house. Everyday she would do this. One time this act stopped for 2-3 days so Muhammad went to her house and asked about her. He found out that she had been sick so he prayed for her recovery...

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." Mother Teresa

I don't have much knowledge but I know a little about my religion.