Well I received an email recently from angry Muslims asking me to sign a petition to ask Wikipedia to remove images of Muhammad from its page on Muhammad (S) linked under the entry on Islam. I refrained from commenting on it at the time. Now Nytimes has picked up on it. So I guess its time to speak up. Like most stupid Muslim issues, ignoring them is not enough in hopes of having them go away. So sometimes these issues need to be responded to. Many times to help Muslims understand what the correct Islamic viewpoint is on a situation.

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which allows users to contribute to its pages. Wikipedia has set guidelines to follow for its users. The issue at hand is that after the Cartoon Controversy stirred up by a Danish Cartoonist Muslims have become very sensitive about any and all depictions of the prophet (peace be upon him).

Firstly it should be noted that the images that caused the controversy in Danish newspapers were depicting the prophet as a Terrorist and Blood Thirsty war mongerer. The pictures in question on the wikipedia site are not the same type of “cartoons”, Rather they are historical images drawn by Muslims themselves in different eras of history which have survived till now. The objection that Muslims raise is that it is impermissible for Muslims to draw images of Muhammad (S) or any other prophet. Now you have to step back and examine this situation: Obviously if Muslims from different eras in the 12th and 15th centuries indulged in this inappropriate activity obviously to them it was not seen as inappropriate.

It does not matter whether I as an individual think that its inappropriate. Every Muslim at every period of time has the right to adopt their understanding of fiqh, even if it is totally incorrect. Back to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and those images are historical. There is no real reason for Wikipedia to remove those images. They are a part of history whether you/we like it or not. History is history, which can’t change because it happens to hurt your/our feelings.

Many times when trivial issues are concentrated on, someone will comment: Muslims should be worrying about and discussing other issues. But many times we fail to denote what those other issues are. Well Here’s a list for ya:

Pakistan falling apart | The CIA Admits to Water boarding | The deteriorating Situation in Gaza | How Americans perceive Islam | Climate Change | Racial and Religious profiling as a counter-terrorism measure | Niqabis in Wrestling (okay fine the last one is not as serious as the rest)

Lets chew (slowly) on this food for thought before we end up choking on our own tongues.