Readers of this weblog will appreciate the tragic irony. Muhammad cartoon row leads to resignation:
The society at University College London (UCL) published an image on its Facebook page showing “Jesus and Mo” having a drink at a bar.
…
Ahmadiyya Youth Association is continuing with its protest against the image, saying it has wider implications.
Adam Walker, the association’s national spokesperson, said the two student groups had worked well together in the past and said the offence was unnecessary.
The principle is more important than who is being attacked – this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves”
Adam Walker
Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association spokesman
“The principle is more important than who is being attacked – this time it is Muslims and Christians but in the future it could be atheists themselves.“There is no need to print these things other than to cause offence and history has told us that these things cause offence.”
He added: “I wouldn’t say we’re specifically pursuing UCL atheist society, it’s more about the broader principle.”
The Ahmadiyya, slandered across the Muslim world to an extent that would make Ismailis seem like Sunnis to Salafis, are enforcing Islamic norms about public decorum in relation to religion in the Western world! The irony? Many non-Ahmadiyya Muslims find the sect offensive and insensitive by its very nature (though I’m sure a lot of the offense is due to uncritical acceptance of slanders against the Ahmadiyya).
A huge issue I notice with Muslims and South Asians (non-Muslims) is the inability to distinguish between hurt and insensitivity to the corporate religious/communal abstract identity, and hurt and insensitivity directed toward the concrete identity. In other words, if you sketch out a primitive drawing of Muhammad being sodomized by a dromedary camel, you attack the corporate identity, and since there is no distinction between the collective and individual identity the hurt and pain redounds to the individual.