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ISLAM

Norwegian blogger posts Muhammad cartoon

A Norwegian writer and commentator of Syrian origin has published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on her blog in what she said was a show of support for freedom of speech.

Norwegian blogger posts Muhammad cartoon
Sara Azmeh Rasmussen receives a free speech award from the Fritt Ord Foundation earlier this year (Photo: Fredrik Varfjell/NTB Scanpix).

The drawing posted by Sara Mats Azmeh Rasmussen shows a bearded man standing next to three people, including two women who are almost entirely veiled, with the caption: "If you do not like to be drawn, cover yourself, Prophet."

The writer, who describes herself as "an author and human rights activist with a Muslim background", said on her blog that she wanted to show her solidarity with satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo, which last month stoked controversy by publishing cartoons showing the prophet naked.

The French newspaper's cartoon added to anger in the Muslim world, where often violent protests erupted last month over a crudely-made American anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims".

"It is not only necessary to explain and defend freedom of speech and expression, but there is definitely a need for even more cartoons of the Islamic Prophet drawn by Muslims, so the point becomes clearer: it is not a conflict between East and West or Muslims and Christians," Rasmussen wrote.

"It is rather a conflict between dogma and democratic spirit and culture. This conflict exists inside the Islamic world."

A staunch supporter of gay rights, Rasmussen previously hit the headlines in 2009 when she burnt a hijab in public on International Women's Day.

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ISLAM

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday

The mayor of Cologne has announced a two-year pilot project that will allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer on the Muslim day of rest each week.

Mosques in Cologne to start broadcasting the call to prayer every Friday
The DITIP mosque in Cologne. Photo: dpa | Henning Kaiser

Mosques in the city of the banks of the Rhine will be allowed to call worshippers to prayer on Fridays for five minutes between midday and 3pm.

“Many residents of Cologne are Muslims. In my view it is a mark of respect to allow the muezzin’s call,” city mayor Henriette Reker wrote on Twitter.

In Muslim-majority countries, a muezzin calls worshippers to prayer five times a day to remind people that one of the daily prayers is about to take place.

Traditionally the muezzins would call out from the minaret of the mosque but these days the call is generally broadcast over loudspeakers.

Cologne’s pilot project would permit such broadcasts to coincide with the main weekly prayer, which takes place on a Friday afternoon.

Reker pointed out that Christian calls to prayer were already a central feature of a city famous for its medieval cathedral.

“Whoever arrives at Cologne central station is welcomed by the cathedral and the sound of its church bells,” she said.

Reker said that the call of a muezzin filling the skies alongside church bells “shows that diversity is both appreciated and enacted in Cologne”.

Mosques that are interested in taking part will have to conform to guidelines on sound volume that are set depending on where the building is situated. Local residents will also be informed beforehand.

The pilot project has come in for criticism from some quarters.

Bild journalist Daniel Kremer said that several of the mosques in Cologne were financed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, “a man who opposes the liberal values of our democracy”, he said.

Kremer added that “it’s wrong to equate church bells with the call to prayer. The bells are a signal without words that also helps tell the time. But the muezzin calls out ‘Allah is great!’ and ‘I testify that there is no God but Allah.’ That is a big difference.”

Cologne is not the first city in North Rhine-Westphalia to allow mosques to broadcast the call to prayer.

In a region with a large Turkish immigrant community, mosques in Gelsenkirchen and Düren have been broadcasting the religious call since as long ago as the 1990s.

SEE ALSO: Imams ‘made in Germany’: country’s first Islamic training college opens its doors

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