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Republishing Effaced Caricatures Mocking Our Prophet

Answered as per Maliki Fiqh by BinBayyah.net

I am a journalist for an English-speaking newspaper, and I made a full report on the wave of anger that prevailed across the Islamic World on the Danish cartoons drawn by the enemies of Islam that blaspheme Prophet Muhammad, the master of all humanity (PBUH). I also published statements by prominent orientalists, Westerners and international leaders expressing their great admiration and praise of Allah’s Messenger. I picked out three of the notorious Danish cartoons, minimized and with a big X mark covering most of the pictures. The frame size was about 7×9 cm, published in a large page format.
Republication of this disparagingly X-marked miniature was a response to the insults that the cartoonists tried to use against the impeccable Messenger. But unfortunately, I was accused of blasphemy and was detained for 12 days. Now, I have been taken to the court, and I do not know what Allah has destined me for! Is what I did punishable? Or is it permissible on the grounds that it was meant to retort, not to support, the insult?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and prayer be upon the Messenger of Allah. We advise the questioner to avoid all situations that are doubtful, as stressed by the hadith: “Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt” [Narrated by At-Tirmidhi (2518) and others]. By publishing these cartoons, you have exposed yourself to accusations and brought upon yourself needless trouble. Such cartoons irritate and hurt Muslims all over the world, then why did you publish them again?! Even if it was with good intentions, and we should believe that the publication was with good intentions, you should not have published them in the first place. You know that Muslims have been extremely angered by such cartoons, which mock the master of all creation and the one beloved by Allah, Prophet Muhammad, so why would you republish them? You have said that you republished them to defend the Prophet. But, to truly defend the Prophet, you should publish anything else, but not such very cartoons. It was good to publish statements by major orientalists praising the Prophet. In general, I think that the court could believe your argument and accept your excuse and regret for publishing them, and you should never do so again.
A final advice: you should not seek help from the enemies of Islam against your fellow Muslims. Even if the court rules against you, do not resort to non-Muslims; otherwise, you will be a hypocrite. Keep patient with your own people, even if you believe that the decision is unfair. When the Prophet decided to punish Ka`b Ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) by not speaking with him, the king of Ghassan (who was a Christian) sent him a letter offering him asylum. Steadfast in his faith, Ka`b threw the letter into the fire, saying, “Even those people wish that [i.e., the renunciation of Islam] from me?!” Afterwards, Allah accepted his repentance.
The point is to hold fast to your faith, even if you see that the court’s decision is wrong and that you only sincerely wanted to defend the Prophet but your action was misunderstood. You chose a wrong way, as republishing the cartoons, even if marked with an X, may imply an interest in promoting them and might cause readers to buy the foreign newspaper that first published them, which opens the door to accusations. Anyway, you should deal with this crisis firmly and declare expressly that your intention was good and that if it was misunderstood then you repent to Allah, seek forgiveness from Him, and invoke blessings on His Prophet.

This answer was collected from BinBayyah.net, which contains of feature articles and fatawa by world renowned ‘Alim, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, from Mauritania.

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