What point to ban?
re. Muslim stores join ban

The boycott of Danish cheese by some Muslim owned stores is just another example of how easy it is to provoke our community into validating the stereotypes that exist about us.

Muslim Canadians must express their outrage not only at the cartoonist, but also the extremists in the Middle East who say, "The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet."

The Muslim Canadian Congress strongly believes that as reprehensible as the cartoons were, the issuing of death threats and asking for the killing of journalists and cartoonists, must be condemned with vigour, as it is contrary, not only to the letter and spirit of Islam, but also offensive to the civil society we have chosen as our home.

What is the responsibility of a Danish cheese manufacturer over the publication of extremely hostile cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper?

Are we not the same people who said, don't blame all Muslims for the actions of one Muslim - Osama bin Laden? Have we forgotten the argument we used to defend ourselves from collective punishment?

If my Muslim community wishes to boycott Danish products as an act of protest, why stop at Denmark. Why not start with American products? After all, it is the United States that occupies two Muslim countries, not Denmark. Where will this stop? Will we stop buying French, German, Italian, Spanish and Norwegian products as well? After all, newspapers in these countries, too, have printed the cartoons.

This selective sense of outrage against Danish food products reeks of hypocrisy and false bravado.

After all, it is easy to give up on Danish cheese, but who will hand over his Microsoft, Mac or Mercedes product? Not Hosni Mubarek and definitely not King Abdullah of Jordan or President Bashar Assad of Syria.

El-Farouk Khaki, Secretary General,
Muslim Canadian Congress, Toronto