Muslim Brotherhood website demands that West criminalize ‘assaults’ on Islam

Protesters destroy an American flag pulled down from the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 (photo credit: AP/Mohammed Abu Zaid)

Statement condemns violence against US interests, says free speech should not extend to acts of ‘barbaric aggression’ that ‘humiliate’ all Muslims.

Without the “criminalization of assaults on the sanctities of all heavenly religions,” the Muslim Brotherhood warned on Thursday, insults to Islam “will continue to cause devout Muslims across the world to suspect and even loathe the West, especially the USA.”

The remarks were part of a statement posted on the English-language website of the Brotherhood in response to a trailer for a new film, which the Egyptian ruling party says is insulting to Islam.

Since the publication of the trailer earlier this week, violent anti-American riots have been raging at US diplomatic missions throughout the Middle East. In Benghazi, Libya, the American ambassador and three others were killed in a violent takeover of the consulate, and in Cairo and Sanaa, enraged mobs converged on the US embassies.

According to the statement, “one and a half billion Muslims [were] subjected to humiliation and abuse in the person of their leader, Mohammed, the Messenger of God, the Prophet of Islam,” due to the film.

The statement cited bigotry and hatred as motives for “repeated abuse,” and denounced as “ignorant” those who permit the abuse — a reference to Western authorities. Islam guarantees all people freedom of belief and freedom of opinion and expression, the statement said, but these freedoms should not extend to attacks on Islam.

“They are crimes and assaults against Muslim sanctities and must not be tolerated by the countries where they are produced or launched.”

 

The Times of Israel has the full article

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