KUALA LUMPUR, JAKARTA and CAIRO: Anger is again creeping into the Islamic world as users began sharing nude cartoons published by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday in the latest attacks against Islam. In Jakarta, Indonesian Muslim activists told Bikyamasr.com that the cartoons are “unforgivable” and planned to organize a demonstration at the French embassy in protest. “This is simply unacceptable that they are allowed to be published,” said university student Amran Aziz, who added that he was “angry that the cartoons were not more condemned than nude photos of Kate Middleton.” He and others in Indonesia believe that there needs to be a global effort to “crackdown on attacks on people's religious beliefs if we are to accept one another and more forward as a community.” The publishing of the cartoons, which featured several caricatures of the Prophet showing him nude in what the publishers said was an attempt to “poke fun” at the furore over the anti-Islam film that led to protests across the Islamic world over the past week. One cartoon, entitled “Mohammad: a star is born”, depicted a bearded figure crouching over to display his buttocks and genitals. In Malaysia, local sheikh Mohammad Omar in Kuala Lumpur told Bikyamasr.com that the future of Islam's relations with the west is likely to be figured out in the near future after these “blatant attempts to create anger and violence.” He argued that the French government must close the magazine for its cartoons and said that Paris must understand the anger that these will create. “I fear that when the cartoons are seen by the ultra-conservatives in the Islamic world, we could see protests even worse than over the film,” he argued. “I hope not, but portraying the Prophet in this way is way over the line and a sign that people in the west want to spark hate.” The French government, which had urged the weekly not to print the cartoons, said it was shutting embassies and schools in 20 countries as a precaution on Friday, when protests sometimes break out after Muslim prayers. The government has also condemned the publication for stoking anger in the Islamic world. In Tunisia, the ruling Islamic party, Ennahda, condemned what it called an act of “aggression” against the Prophet, but urged Muslims not to fall into a trap intended to “derail the Arab Spring and turn it into a conflict with the West.” In Egypt, the cartoons have yet to spark a widespread response, but Muslims still feel irked by the publication, arguing that if the west gets angry over naked photos of the Duchess, “why don't they get angry over the provocation and defamation of a religion.” Mohsen Saleh, a Cairo University student argued that the magazine and France are known to be anti-Islam “so I don't think we will see much public displays of anger, but you never know what will happen when a Salafist channel gets hold of them.” That is the fear across the Islamic world. It's only been one day since they were published, and the magazine reported being sold out early on Wednesday. Fear and worries are again rising across the Islamic world that the nude cartoons could spark massive unrest if calm is not pressed by Islamic leaders.
