“Does Immortality need the aid of Mortality?”

I ask this question because as a non-Muslim, I am wondering why do these individuals feel the need to express Allah’s displeasure with these cartoons. If he was offended, wouldn’t he defend himself?

The following is a timeline of events surrounding the publication of cartoons depicting Allah:

Muslim cartoon row timeline

The BBC News website outlines key events in the escalating row over the publication of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. 2006

18 February: Sixteen people are killed in attacks against Christian targets in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

The Italian reform minister who wore a T-shirt with the cartoons resigns. Libyan Interior Minister Nasr al-Mabrouk is suspended and referred for investigation into police actions during the Benghazi rioting.

In Pakistan, four protesters are wounded after police reportedly open fire demonstrators in the eastern town of Chaniot.

17 February: At least 10 people are killed and several injured in the Libyan city of Benghazi in clashes during a protest outside the Italian consulate. Pakistan detains more than 100 people to stem protests.

Denmark temporarily closes its embassy in Pakistan because of the security situation. Pakistan recalls its ambassador in Denmark for consultations.

15 February: Three people die in the Pakistan cities of Peshawar and Lahore.

Italian government minister Roberto Calderoli says he is distributing T-shirts displaying the controversial cartoons.

14 February: Pakistani security guards shoot dead two protesters in Lahore. In Islamabad, police use tear gas to disperse students who entered a diplomatic area.

Crowds attack British and German embassies in Iran and Basra city council in southern Iraq calls for the withdrawal of Danish troops from the country.

13 February: A leading Iranian newspaper, the Hamshahri Daily, launches a competition asking people to submit cartoons about the Holocaust, which the paper says is to test the boundaries of free speech for Westerners.

12 February: Denmark’s foreign ministry urges all Danes to leave Indonesia over intelligence fears they may be targeted. Indonesia describes the move as “hasty”.

10 February: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi tells a conference in Kuala Lumpur a huge chasm has opened between the West and Islam, fuelled by Muslim frustrations over Western foreign policy. Thousands outside protest over the cartoons.

9 February: Hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims in Lebanon turn a religious ceremony into a protest over the cartoons.

8 February: French magazine Charlie Hebdo publishes the cartoons along with other caricatures. French President Jacques Chirac condemns decisions to reprint the cartoons as “overt provocation”.

7 February: Several hundred Iranians attack the Danish embassy in Tehran as the country announces it is cutting all trade ties with Denmark.

6 February: Protests claim lives - at least five people are killed in Afghanistan, and a teenage boy dies after protesters attack police in Somalia.

5 February: Lebanese demonstrators set the Danish embassy in Beirut on fire. Interior Minister Hassan Sabeh resigns over the violent protests.

4 February: Syrians attack Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus, prompting UN chief Kofi Annan to call for calm.

2 February: The editor of the French newspaper France Soir is sacked for printing the cartoons.

1 February: Papers in France, Germany, Italy and Spain reprint the caricatures, defying Muslim outrage. (The list goes back into 2005–click here)

Here are some other recent events for your evaluation:

TURKEY: Pastor Beaten by Five Muslims Claiming Connection to Al Qaeda

February 3, 2006

The Voice of the Martyrs

VOM received a report coming out of Turkey giving a first-hand account of persecution coming from the hands of five men claming association with Al Qaeda. Twenty-nine-year-old Kamil Kiroglu, one of the leaders of Adana Protestant Church in Turkey, wrote this personal testimony after he was beaten unconscious outside his church by Muslim terrorists (more…)

Here is a website that keeps track of Christian missionaries who have been imprisioned under very “unusual” charges (many of whom are being held in mostly Muslim-based countries).

Here is part of a recent newsletter sent out by releaseinternational.org (another ministry that keeps track of jailed and persecuted christians around the world).

PAKISTAN: CHRISTIANS PREPARE FOR BACKLASH FOLLOWING MOHAMMED CARTOONS

Christians in Pakistan are bracing themselves after Pakistani Muslims reacted angrily to cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers.

As anger spread across the Muslim world, at least one church in Pakistan has been attacked, in a move which local Christians are interpreting as retaliation for the cartoons, BosNewsLife reports.

A group of about 20 Muslim men and women rounded on a church in the village of Kanwanlit in Punjab, and smashed doors, a window and the altar.

Eyewitnesses told Pakistan’s Daily Times newspaper that the invaders ‘spat on the Bible and hymn books’ after trampling them under foot. While Christian men were held at gunpoint, Muslim women attacked Christian women: a 70-year-old woman was left with two broken legs and a 50-year-old suffered serious injuries to her back.

Asia News reports that the whole community was threatened with further violence if they took the matter to court.

The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), a Pakistani human rights organisation, has reportedly linked the attack to a local land dispute: a local Muslim is said to have seized land owned by the church. Christian groups have since said, however, that the publication of Christian cartoons has fuelled animosity towards believers.

The NCJP has now called on the government to offer greater legal protection to Christians, citing examples such as the Sangla Hill raids of November where the law has failed them. ‘Violence against the weaker communities is reappearing because the government has failed to take measures in response to incidents that happened before,’ said the NCJP’s Peter Jacob.

Pray for members of the Kanwanlit church attacked earlier this month. Pray that their faith would be strengthened by this attack, and that they would withstand intimidation.

Pray for Christians in Pakistan – and in other Muslim-majority countries – who face a potential anti-Christian backlash after cartoons offensive to Muslims were printed in western newspapers. Pray that these Christians would promote tolerance, not retaliation. (more…)

Missionaries in the crossfire (what you will not see in the news)

Many self-professing Christians here in the United States are simply unaware of the grave dangers their brothers and sisters face on a daily basis being on the frontline of Christian service. Many of these individuals have become part of the local culture instead of trying to change it (a stigma that many here in the United States will not abandon) in hopes that the locals get to see the love of Christ in action–not just in word.

As a Christian, I oftentimes find myself embarrassed when I compare myself to these individuals. Many of us have what I call “a religion of convenience”. Once or twice a week we dress up in our nice clothes, go to our beautiful church buildings, listen to good music and preaching, go home, etc. While many of our pastors feel the need to have 20-30 bodyguards/security personnel/attendants around them at all times, in countries all throughout Africa and beyond some pastor has to watch either his own church or family members get executed for preaching the Gospel.

I get tired of the “bless me” songs that I hear coming out of much of Christian music. For now, I have what I need (not want). Its time for the American church to fully turn its attention to A. the poor in the local area, and B. the rest of the world.

Terrorism must be stopped by any means necessary, but after that must follow a steady stream of genuine concern that is not limited to just another financial handout.

Although I must love the individuals (because Christ commands those that are Christian to do so) who are doing these terrible things in these protests, I hate what they are doing. I also hate the fact the media chooses to overlook the many missionaries out there that are caught in the middle of all of this.

Just me thinking out loud again…

 

 

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