THE POLITICAL CARTOONS AND

THE MUSLIM WORLD

BY:Prof. M.S. Tajar

When on 20th of May 2010, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan shot down the U-tube and the
Facebook, because of their attempts to draw a picture of the Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h.) the entire
western world was shocked. How could such a simple and “trivial” thing (as far as the western culture is
concerned) be so important, that the entire population of an Atomic State like Pakistan, is demonstrating
and demanding the total ban of these international networks, just because of their drawing the picture of a
Prophet, who has passed away some 1400 years ago!
The same kind of demonstrations or even bigger, took place, in almost all Muslim countries, and
the Muslim communities, in Europe and North & South America, about the so-called “Mohammad
Cartoons” by a Danish cartoonist, in 2006. Before that, was the Muslim protests all around the world
about the book “The Satanic Verses” by the Indian born Muslim author of Britain, Salman Rushdie, that
lead to the “Fatwa” by the Iranian Muslim leader, Imam Khomeini, on 14th of Feb. 1989, to exterminate
the apostate author, for insulting the Holy Qur’an, the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) and also his respectable
wives, and for maligning Islam, and by extension, some 1.5 billion Muslims, of the world, as well.

A Great Misunderstanding
What the Westerners could not understand about the Muslim world in general, and its political
leaders or its system of government, is this: In the West (since the time of the Greek philosophers) the
people are considered “gods” (replacing the Pantheon of the 1,000 Greek gods, headed by Zues, Jupiter,
etc.).
Therefore, this “human gods”, who also invented the philosophy of Humanism, can decide to
choose anybody (and by that I mean anybody!) from among themselves, to become their leader, even if
that person is a buffoon, like G.W. Bush of the U.S.A. or an scandalous Prime Minister, like the Silvio
Berlusconi of Italy, or any other pervert, and immoral person, or even a Mafiosi, drug lord, gambling lord,
porno lord, protector of prostitution and organized crime, etc., (see the files of some ministers and even
prime ministers of countries like Italy, Mexico, Panama and others, to see what I mean) as long as the
people have voted for him/her; And also to throw them away, like a hot potato, anytime they wished, as
they did with Sir Winston Churchill, the second world war hero of the Great Britain, in 1955.
In the meantime, they are also allowed to call their leaders names in the streets or draw their
cartoons in any humiliating positions they like, as they did with the Prime Minister John Howard of
Australia in 2003, kissing the behind of George W. Bush! (Boy, what a kisser!).
But, in Islam, neither the people are “gods”, nor are their leaders (as were the Persian emperors,
before. This disease of “godhood” was exported from Persia, the first empire in the world, to other
empires, as well, when the Iranian-born Pharaohs took it with them to Egypt. Even the Babylonians, the
Chinese and much later the Romans, got this “god-disease” from the early Persians. You can see
Alexander the Great, who admired the Persian heroes like Cyrus and Dariush the Great, claiming that he
is from the same Persian Dynasty, wearing their clothes living like them, and he was also aspiring to have
a “demi-god” status just like the Persian “Shahan-shah” or king of kings or “cura” as the Roman did,
later).
In the Islamic system of government, both the people and their leaders are equally “servants of
the same God, the One and Only, Allah (s.w.t.)!”
The government is not of “the people” but even the people and everything that exists in this
world, all belong to Allah, and that includes the government, as a whole!
Therefore, in the Islamic Government, the people are not the king-makers, but rather they, as well
as their leaders, are subject to a Higher Authority, who is Allah (s.w.t.).
The leaders in the Islamic Government are “Approved” by Allah (s.w.t.) first, before they are
voted upon by the people! So, just people’s desires or their approval of someone (even apparently in a
democratic way) does not necessarily qualify him/her as a legitimate Islamic Leader, as longs as it does
not first bear the “Seal of Approval” from the Above, also (i.e. the Islamic principles of leadership).
The analogy here is that of a checking account that has a joint account status, in which the
Chairman has to sign first, before the signature of the president of the company becomes valid, otherwise
one signature alone won’t do.
There are so many spiritual and even physical qualifications, necessary for a person to lead the
Islamic State, that it doesn’t allow anyone, except the most qualified, the most honorable person, and the
most knowledgeable individual on the Islamic Law and Government, to lead the people; not just any
charlatan, or demagogue or politician or a well-known movie actor or actress, or a miss universe or a
beauty queen or a Mr. World, with millions of brainless fans of “hoi poloi”, to run, and to win and to lead
the nation to a moral disaster, as did the actor Ronald Reagan of America, and later Tony Blair of
England, or a charismatic demagogue like Hitler and Mussolini, or some Revolutionary monsters like
Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Che Guevarra, Fidel Castro or Kim Il Sung.
In the West, anybody who gets the votes (as do the rich, the famous, and the powerful) becomes
the “Leader”, and the people (the majority who are the average citizens, including the less educated or
even the un-educated) elect them, and also throw them away, anytime they wished (so, the leaders have to
follow the whims and the caprices of their followers, just to stay in power; a classic example of the sheep
leading the shepherd!)
Under such system, the leader is just a “dignified errand boy/girl” to be told by the voters: “Do
this, don’t do that! Go there or come here!”. Such an “errand boy/girl” can also be lampooned, even
insulted, or called names (like the former president of Pakistan, Gen. Parvez Mosharraf, who was called
in the streets as “Bi-Sharaf” or shameless, etc.).
But, because Islam puts the highest premium on the best possible person amongst the nation, it
also cannot allow anybody to insult or to call names of such a leader – be it the Holy Prophet Mohammad
(p.b.u.h.) of 1400 years ago, or the late Imam Khomeini, or even the present spiritual and political leaders
of the Islamic State.
Islam doesn’t allow insulting or calling names of any person at all, or joking or even making fun
of him/her without his consent, more so about the most qualified and the most honorable people in the
society, who deserve so much respect and following, not the insulting or cursing or drawing their pictures
in the most humiliating ways, just to sell “cartoons or the newspapers”! (Another trick of capitalism and
commercialism, in which anything goes, as long as it brings in dollars!)
So, either the Western democracies (which are actually based on “one dollar one vote, rather than
one person, one vote” as they claim) have to raise the bar of their leadership qualifications – moral and
spiritual, so high that only the purest and the best are elected, and not just the rich and the infamous, with
the right political connections and horse trading and the pork barrels, etc.
Or else, the Muslim population should give up those required Islamic ideals of spiritual and moral
conditions for their leaders, and they should also join the Jewish and Roman crowds of Jerusalem – Circa
30 A.D. by singing “Hossanas!” to their leader one day, and then crying: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” the
next day, as the populace changes their feeble minds, overnight.
And also the Muslim Leaders should abandon the examples of Moses and Joshua and
Mohammad (p.b.u.h.) and in our times – the Imam Khomeini. They should not lead the sheep, but they
should be lead by the sheep, instead, in order to have a democracy (or demo-crazy): The
government of the people, by the people and for the people! (And this includes legalizing all forms of
vices, like gambling, prostitution, homosexual marriages, abortion, and what have you, just because the
people “tell” their leaders what to do, and not the leaders “leading” the people.)
And until one of the two camps change, we will have many more crises between Islam and the
West, over many more “cartoons” and “Satanic Verses”!