In response to Voices in this Blog, a Friend writes

Dear All,

You all write very well and have followed the Koranic call in forgiving those who transgressed upon you. I am on the side of the angry ones, even those who were so enraged and driven by anger and indignation to damage Danish and Norwegian properties in Syria and Lebanon. I consider this to be "collateral damage", which fades in comparison to the collateral damage in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan estimated in hundreds of thousands of lost lives and billions of dollars in deliberately damaged properties. To be sure, a contingency of Danish troops is still aiding the occupiers of Iraq and the tormentors of the Iraqis. It was anger that gave birth to the French and Russian revolutions. It was anger that inspired millions of Chinese to join the Long Marsh of Mao; it was anger that liberated India , South Africa and Cuba.

Our anger pales in comparison, because it is mainly directed inwardly and does not produce the results manifest in France, Russia, China, India and Cuba.

For a long time we have been transgressed upon, but instead of matching transgression with equally potent transgression, we chose to forgive at the end.

Few years ago a new Qura'n was published on the Internet adulterating the divine text and insulting the Prophet, but it did not get noticed but by those who can access the Internet who are infinitesimally small in number because most of us are still analphabets. Falsifying the Quraan did not generate an anger similar to that produced by imagery because of this ignorance.

The west will never apologize, not even to its coreligionists. Remember what happened to the colonized of the Roman Impire, to the Byzantine Christians in Asia Minor during the Crusades, to the Jews of Europe in their forced ghettos and the pogroms that they were its fuel, before and after the third Reich, the Protestants of Europe, the Catholics of Ireland, the African slaves of the Americas??? Collin Powell a descendant of African slaves himself, did not apologize on behalf of his white government because of what the US did to slaves during more than two centuries, at a recent summit meeting in South Africa, and withdrew in anger when he was pushed to offer an apology !! Even if perfunctory apology is offered, the stereotyping is still alive and thriving in the west. The rise of Noe Nazism, the hushed mutterings about Jews, Catholics, Japanese, Chinese, Arabs, and Blacks are every where in the so called rich, civilized and democratic North.

Let anger be legitimized and disciplined to produce enlightenment, prosperity and peace. Let us all remember that Allah, subhanaho wa ta'la, described the Prophet in the beautiful words of "wa innaka la ala kholiqen azeem".

No apology should be rendered to the Danes and their ilk and likes for the collateral damage wreaked by not "mobs", but by the salt of the earth, the fomentors of positive change. Let this anger change our submission to authority and the dictates of the West to a submission to our Allah as we are enjoined to do and to give meaning to the word ISLAM.

Contibutor: Dr. O E A