Praise is due to Allāh, Lord of the worlds, may the blessings and peace be upon our master Muḥammad, the last of prophets, on his family, and all his companions.

All Muslims, scholars and peoples, express their strong indignation and deep discomfort at the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper for daring to audaciously publishing hateful caricatures by its cartoonist Lars Vilks that try to undermine the stature of the Messenger of Allah – PBUH -. Such actions thwart all human and moral principles and values, and are not supported by any religion or custom. Such attacks are deliberately repeated in recent years in some Western countries under the banner of the freedom of speech.

In order to prevent the perpetration of such heinous acts, which undermine the foundations of peaceful coexistence among followers of different religions, The Secretariat General of the Academy calls on Western countries and religious leaders to confront such violations and work seriously to enact laws that prohibit such acts.

The Secretariat General also calls on the international community to adopt resolutions that prohibit the desecration of religions, disseminate ideas encouraging racism and hatred, and establish principles of supervised freedom of the press. It also recalls that Islam exhorts to have faith in all the divine messages and the prophets who brought these revelations.

The Secretariat General calls upon all Muslims (organizations, associations and individuals) emigrating to foreign countries to make serious efforts to enact laws that penalize offenses against the Muslim religion.

The Secretariat General recalls the Swedish Government’s apology to the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference for these violations. The Swedish Government should not only apologize, but also pursue the cartoonist and those in charge of the newspaper. The Secretariat General emphasizes that it is forbidden to abuse the freedom of speech to harm religions, Allah has warned the profane detractors of the Messengers, reserving for them a bad end, and He has qualified them as being in deepest error. « And already were messengers ridiculed before you, but those who mocked them were enveloped by that which they used to ridicule. » Al-An’am -10

« Then the end of those who did evil was the worst [consequence] because they denied the signs of Allah and used to ridicule them. » Ar-Rum -10

Dr. Mohamed Habibi Belkhoja,

SG of IIFA.