When a Danish cartoonist came up with offensive depictions of the Prophet Mohamed, Muslim fundamentalists and radicals staged angry demonstrations in Muslim countries. There were also calls for boycotting goods and commodities imported from the infidels (the Westerners). Western artists were asked to give an immediate apology and delete the illustrations of the Prophet Mohamed from magazines and newspapers, otherwise the heads of these artists would roll for this abusive, anti-Islamic art. At that time, I argued that it was not the Western artists who did injustice to Islam and its Prophet; today's followers of the Prophet Mohamed should take responsibility for the distorted image of their faith in the Western media. Today's Muslims seem to be schizophrenic, paying special attention to formalities at the expense of the spirituality and human values of their faith. In my argument, I said that Western artists knew very little about Islam and the Prophet's teachings. Nor do the Westerners know the Arabic language, which would allow them to explore the values of humanity stressed in the Holy Qur'an. I also said that the Western artists' impressions of the Prophet Mohamed and his message were inspired by contemporary Muslims, their actions and their attitude to modern life. For example, there are wealthy Muslims prepared to pay generously for brainwashed youths from poor families to become suicide bombers and book a place for themselves in Paradise. When asked why they deny their own children such a divine reward, they apologise because their children are at the moment studying at US or European universities ��" in the same countries, whose citizens are the victims of suicide bombers. This treacherous controlling and brainwashing of uncorrupted young minds gave the Western artists the impression that Islam preaches violence and bloodshed. I also said that, unlike their predecessors, today's Muslim men paid special attention to formalities (long beards enclosing the face and cascading down below the chin and over the chest); the spouses and daughters of these Muslim fundamentalists displayed, in the form of the hijab (headscarf) and the niqab (full-face veil), their devotion to Islam. Men without beards or white galabiyas, and women without the hijab or the niqab were ostracised for being insincere and unfaithful Muslims. In short, contemporary Muslims failed to act as good examples of their faith and their Prophet. More shocking is that certain formalities associated with Islam were compromised and exploited for reasons of profit. Male preachers willingly and without hesitation ignored the formalities of their faith the moment they were signed up to present religious programmes on television: they disposed of the long beard, slipped into razor-sharp Western suits and threw a patterned silk tie around their neck; gold watches sparkled on their wrists. They hypocritically preached topics they do not abide with. While, for example, bank interest rates were declared to be haram (forbidden), these preachers opened accounts in foreign banks, which give higher interest rates than the so-called Islamist banks. The new-styled preachers are like fashion icons, drawing the attention of their admirers to the elegant cut of suits made by tailors in the infidel West. In the meantime, the transformed preachers asked to be paid in US dollars or euros. Women did not lag behind men in exploiting Islam as a money-making activity: glamorous actresses agreed to temporarily wear the headscarf to present religious talk shows, although they refused to allow the hijab to conceal or compromise their beauty and charm on the small screen. In fact, these former actresses appeared more attractive and sexier than ever before; they looked angelic in their beautifully coloured hijabs and smart clothes. They earned even more money than they did when, dressed only in a skimpy nightgown, they lay romantically in bed next to a handsome young man as the cameras rolled. To convince their new audiences of their ‘transformational dress', these former actresses were never spotted in public without it. Admittedly, they had a lot of acting talent too and they told their new admirers that they rued the day when they allowed the film directors to dress or undress them as they liked without any word of protest. Many young admirers followed their example and began to don the hijab. There was worse in store when these schizophrenic Muslims had to throw away the headscarf, in order to persuade arrogant directors to let them co-star in television serials and soap operas. Two good examples of this are actresses Abeer Sabri and Sabrine. It is thought that they were each offered more than LE1 million to start wearing the headscarf again. "What's wrong with disposing of the veil before the camera and then putting it on again afterwards," they asked. Yes, most schizophrenic. [email protected]
