Romanian Muslims Launch "Know Prophet" Campaign

[sonz]

CAIRO, February 6, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – Romanian Muslims are fighting the Danish cartoons that mocked Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in their own way, launching a campaign to get the Romanians acquainted with the merits of the prophet of Islam and his noble characteristics.

"Romanian Muslims will distribute nationwide thousands of pamphlets and handouts among the Romanians on the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) under the title ‘Muhammad….A Role Model for the Modern World," Kareem Anjin, the representative of the International Tiba Charity in Constanta, southeastern Romania, told IslamOnline.net on Monday, February 6, over the phone.

"This is an opportune moment to correct distorted facts about our much stereotyped religion, which has taken center stage in Romanian media after the cartoon crisis," he said.

Twelve cartoons, first published last September by Denmark's mass-circulation Jyllands-Posten and then reprinted by several European dailies, have caused an uproar in the Muslim world.

Muslims protesting the cartoons set fire to the Danish consulate in Beirut on Sunday and Syrian protesters did the same with the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus a day earlier.

Muslim scholars, organizations and leaders were united Sunday in condemning the violent attacks against the embassies.

Mixed Blessing

Anjin said that the cartoon standoff has a mixed blessing, with the media and newspapers becoming a podium for defending Muslims and their sanctities.

"The other day channel Antana 3 interviewed Muslim activist Abu Al-Ala Al-Gheithy, who spoke for almost one hour about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)," he said.

"Rilititi TV channel received a torrent of phone calls from Romanians, who rejected the publication of these blasphemous cartoons under the excuse of free speech," he added.

The Muslim activist said most of the callers dismissed the publication as an "imprudent act" and noted that freedom of expression should not hurt the feelings of others.

A channel’s online poll further showed that 71 percent of the respondents rejected using free speech as a pretext to insult prophets or religions.

The National Council for Combating Racism has urged Romanian media not to reprint the offensive drawings after a Romanian Web site reproduced them.

There are some 70,000 Muslims in Romania, mostly hailing from Turkey and Albania.

They make up two percent of the country’s 22 million population.

[north_malaysian]

2% of 22,000,000 people is alot - 440,000 Muslims! I dont know there are many Muslims in Romania. I thought most of them left Romania after Ottoman ousted from Europe.

But 71% of Romanian respondents rejected this kind of provocations is a good sign.