Drawing a picture of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is considered by most, if not all, Muslims to be simply wrong for a couple of elementary reasons: a. It may promote idolatry b. It’s just not allowed! This very concept has, in the past recent years, caused quite a lot of controversy. Remember the Danish cartoons? Or the documentaries? Or South Park’s depictions of Mohammad? Oh and, what about the recent “Draw Mohammad Day”? Read on ahead!

Depictions of Mohammad: Why Not?

I personally thought of this don’t-draw-a-depiction-of-Prophet concept to be wrong (please don’t kill me). This was only a few months ago. But after having a man-to-man discussion with one of my teachers, it hit me SMACK! in the face: one of The Prophet’s greatest characteristics is his kaamilness (completeness)  and that is precisely why it would be wrong to depict him.Explanation given below.

Mohammad (SAW) is the complete man. To draw his depiction today with the intention of portraying him in all his complete glory would be in vain. Why? Because you don’t know what he looked like! Any such effort would result in an incomplete product which, ultimately, would and should be considered blasphemous, if only slightly so. Now I’m not saying we should start killing people for this. That would, in itself, be a great wrong. But it must be frowned upon. That is for sure.

Now… onto the whole thing about some Seattle Cartoonist declaring 20th May as ‘Everybody Draw Mohammad Day’ and ‘Boycott Facebook on 20th May’.

The Story

The spark that has resulted in all this fire was actually an episode of South Park (The South Park Controversy – CHUP!) which depicted Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. To make a very long story short: the TV network Comedy Central heavily censored the episode which caused an uproar among the followers of “free speech” which, consequently, made a Seattle Cartoonist declare 20th May, 2010 as “Everybody Draw Mohammad Day” which, in turn, has created a related fan page on Facebook which, lastly, has created many anti-pages and events (to boycott Facebook on the 20th). Now onto the question: should we protest against this? And how do we go about it?

To Protest Or Not To Protest? That Is The Question!

In a word: yes (and no!). While boycotting Facebook for a day and creating anti-pages will help, that won’t be stopping the cartoonists from doing what they’re gonna do on the 20th. These people are determined and they are only doing this to provoke us. They know Muslims get pissed when someone or anyone depicts The Prophet. And so, this is a mass movement to piss the hell out of all of us.

So what is the right thing to do? In this man’s humble opinion: ignore these assholes. These cartoonists are just waiting for a head-strong emotional young Muslim to do something drastic so they may use that to make us look real-dirty. However, it is still important that we protest as dictated by this hadith:

“If one of you sees something wrong, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; if he cannot, then with his heart and this is the weakest faith.” – Prophet Mohammad

And protest you may in a non-violent way: by boycotting Facebook. That’s probably the only thing you can do to express your dislike. Naysayers believe that boycotting Facebook will do us no good and there might be some truth to that too… After all, Facebook really doesn’t have much to do with this and believe me when I say this: Facebook won’t be deleting the controversial fan-pages anytime soon. But as it is, kuch to karna hee paray ga. And that kuch na kuch involves boycotting Facebook for the day of 20th May.

However, it should be interesting to note that I am not boycotting myself. Read below.

Update: I’m Not Boycotting

After giving it some serious thought and ESPECIALLY after reading an excellent article by Adnan Ali I’ve decided that instead of boycotting: I will go ahead and be there on 20th May to spread Prophet Muhammad’s teachings (as a status update[s] or tweet[s]) and wash away any misconceptions non-Muslims may have. Such as Dave here in the comments.

Celebrate Prophet Mohammad Day!

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The thing is: (as Dr Imran Basit mentioned) with freedom of speech comes great responsibility. You must be aware of the other’s sensitivities as you go about making your free speeches!

If someone were to publish a cartoon about the Holocaust in an international newspaper today, they would be hanged by the balls. Yes! Not by the neck but by the balls! They’ll call you an anti-semantic and a racist. But if they draw carciatures of the Prophet and we express our dislike… we are told that we are being against “free speech”.

Why the double standards? Anyone?

ARE YOU IN!?

[say 'yes' or 'no' or '<whatever>' in the comments  . Also: how about you tell us about your view on the matter?  ]