To

January 21, 2015

Tokyo Shimbun,

Uchisaiwai-cho, 2-1—4, Chiyoda-Ku,

Tokyo

Dear Editor,

Tokyo Shimbun

We the Muslims of all nationalities in Japan are demonstrating today in front of your office to protest and express our hurt feelings of shock and anger.

We were extremely surprised, hurt and severely shocked to see that you published the same cartoon of Charlie Hebdo in your publication of January 14, 2015 against which whole Muslim world was inflamed. Please see the details of Muslim protests all over the world in our attachment herewith.

Please judge the strong sentiments of Muslims about such matters from a historic incident during the supremacy of Ottoman Empire. A French citizen wanted to stage a drama in which our Prophet (PBUH) was going to be vilified. Sultan Abdul Hameed II dressed himself in military attire and called the French ambassador. The ambassador was surprised to see the Sultan in military dress. He realized that Sultan was ready to go to war against France,  and lead such a war personally himself, if that drama was not stopped. French ambassador immediately stopped that drama from being staged anywhere to save his country from Ottoman attack. This incident reveals the severity of Muslim sentiment against any kind of vilification attempt against our most loved and respected holy Prophet (PBUH). A document in Arabic with its Urdu translation is also attached herewith for your detailed study.

We strongly condemn Islamic State (Daesh) for taking 2 innocent Japanese as hostages. It is against Islam what they are doing.  But please consider one question. Why these merciless, brute and condemnable people suddenly turned towards Japan and became anti-Japanese, while they had no such anti-Japanese feelings until this unfortunate incident?  What prompted them to adopt such anti-Islam, inhuman acts against innocent Japanese all of a sudden?

Therefore we request you to kindly stop publishing such provocative material in your newspaper which may be misused by some mad people among Muslims. After the murder of Professor Iigarashi of Tsukuba University,translator of Salman Rushdie’s condemned book, The Satanic Verses, some years back in Japan, Police had been kindly cooperating with us for last several years to stop all sources of such provocative materials which may instigate some of our mad people to turn to violence and terror activities. In Japan, we are thankful to Japanese Police for stopping the sale of that provocative anti-Islam book, The Satanic Verses, translation in Japanese language, for stopping sale of all such imported clothing which contained Arabic verses of holy Quran, for stopping the sale of shoes made by American company NIKE  on which the name ALLAH was written in Arabic.

We are trying to stop any possibility of any terrorist activity in Japan by trying to put an end to every provocative material with the help of the Japanese Police. In such a peaceful atmosphere in Japan for the last 50 to 100 years, you have unfortunately  started to provocate some Muslims, whom we are trying to stop from violence. We want your cooperation by publishing an apology for what you have done to provocate.

Charlie Hebdo says it has printed a total of 7 million copies of the once-obscure French satirical magazine.Were you expecting that your newspaper will also be sold 7 million copies like that magazine by imitating what that magazine did? Is it morally acceptable for you to go after cheap popularity at the expense of hurting the feelings of 1.6 billion Muslims in the world?

Will you publish cartoons ridiculing Japanese Emperor? As Japanese nation will not approve ridiculing their most-respected personality, similarly Muslims all over the world cannot tolerate ridiculing their most respectful Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

We as Muslims have been commanded to respect great personalities of all nations, faiths and religions. In the whole 1500 years history of Islam, you will never  find a single instance of any Muslim ever ridiculing great leaders of other creeds, religions or nations. Jesus Christ is our Prophet as well. We respect him from the bottom of our heart and even follow his teachings as mentioned in our holy book, Quran.

Why should there be any such one-sided attacks on our great Prophet (PBUH), while we have never ridiculed any leaders of other faiths during our entire history? Can you provide any justification that you were right to hurt the feelings of billions of Muslims in the world by such an immoral act of yours?

We have read your lame excuse justifying your action that you had no such intention to hurt feelings of Muslims and that you just wanted to let your readers know the whole story of this controversy. But please see our 2 attachments herewith about the policy, thinking and attitude of other leading newspapers of the US and Japan in English and Japanese.

All these responsible newspapers in both the countries have refrained from publishing such cartoons. You will find reply to your lame excuse as to why such cartoons should not be published by responsible newspapers from your own colleagues in the same profession of publishing leading newspapers. We are shocked to find that you did not adopt such responsible behavior as your own colleagues in the same profession have adopted.

We, therefore, request you to publish an apology in your newspaper and thus stop provocating and instigating some people to turn against Japan and against the peace-loving Japanese people. Please allow us to live in Japan together with peace and harmony as in the past several decades.

On Behalf of

Muslims of All Nationalities in Japan

and On Behalf of

Ad-hoc Committee, PAKISTAN ASSOCIATION, JAPAN 

Hussain Khan, M. A., Tokyo

Chairman,

Ad-hoc Committee, PAKISTAN ASSOCIATION, JAPAN

EMAIL: [email protected], Mobile: 09033566207

Sereno A-1, Kitano 4-9-1, Mitaka-Shi, Tokyo, 181-0003, Japan