An Islamic scholar in Canada contends insults to Islam are worse than police officers in the United States killing black people.
Younus Kathrada, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, insults to Islam or its prophet, Muhammad, do not qualify as free speech.
Kathrada, in a recent sermon on the Muslim Youth Victoria YouTube channel, lamented that Muslims did not demonstrate or stage rallies when cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad were recently circulated.
He said Muslims in the West should not accept the claims that insulting Muhammad should be allowed as a form of free expression.
Sheikh Kathrada said the “enemies of Islam” want to be free to insult Islam and Muhammad while accusing Muslims of anti-Semitism when they denounce Israel, of homophobia when they denounce homosexuality, and of hate speech when they pray for the elimination of “one of the greatest threats to humanity,” according to MEMRI.
Earlier this month, the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo announced it would reprint cartoons of Muhammad that had first been printed in 2015.
Kathrada said, “Any disrespect shown toward the Prophet Muhammad is an insult and an abuse of Allah.
“It is a slap in the face of every Muslim. Yet, when some magazines or some papers, or perhaps websites circulate and re-circulate offensive cartoons of the Prophet, we the Muslims hardly feel a thing. We the Muslims do practically nothing about it.”
“[When] a black man was murdered by police … many Muslims rarticipated in rallies[;] when something worse than that happened… when the prophet was insulted … then where are their rallies?” he said.
He said the “enemies of Islam want to silence us when we speak the truth.”
“But they want to be allowed to insult Allah, his Messenger, the Muslims, and Islam,” he said. “When we speak of the occupation of Palestine and denounce the treachery and crimes of the Zionist state we are labeled as antisemitic. And we are put under investigation. When we denounce homosexuality, and state what Islam’s stance is on it, we are labeled as homophobic and we are investigated.
“When we ask Allah to destroy and eliminate what we believe to be perhaps one of the greatest threats to humanity, we are accused of hate speech.”
