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A heavy cloud of sorrow
and pain
Envelopes the horizon of
the human family
Brought on by ignoble
and unnecessary caricature
Of the finest that has
lived and walked the earth
What pains one most is the venue of
occurrence
Countries that have
shunned conflict, unleashed the wide gates of philanthropy
And built societies
rooted in the values of justice
The very values extolled
by the wronged Prophet
The spirit of Muhammad’s
legacy is charity
And the nurturing of
good will and peace
“Oh mankind: we have
created you from male and female
And made you nations and
tribes that you may know one another”
Freedom to speak is no
excuse for malicious, blasphemous derision
For he emancipated all
from the fetters of enslavement
Pronouncing the dignity
of every man and woman
A merciful warner, and
bearer of glad tidings
The seeds of conflict
may have been sown
By the misguided impulse
to mock, to calumniate
A man who resisted every
aspect of evil and folly
Unflinchingly commanding
good and forbidding evil
And painstakingly
erecting the edifice of peace and faith
Anchoring human
fraternity on a solid rock of truth and reason
Enjoining an ethos of
humanism that shuns racism
Urging compassion to
fellow humans, to animals, to the environment
Alas, the cartoonists
embarked on self-injuring misrepresentation
Reflecting a folly that
blasphemes the noblest faith, the finest human
Sent a mercy to all the
worlds, to all the races
By the God of the East
and West, the white and black, the Aryan & Semite
Comedy and caricature
can play a noble role
In a drama that prevents
the tragic pathways of life
Demonization of the
other is likewise a folly
For the majority of the
protagonists are without blame
Waging opposition must
give due regard to the sacreds and interests
Of both sides in an
unfortunate, preventable dispute
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