'You can not go around... promoting offensive cartoons'

a liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate who sparked outrage and death threats when he tweeted a cartoon of Mohammed and Jesus says he didn't feel threatened by the image my god he said is greater than that more than 20,000 people have now signed a petition calling for Maajid Nawaz to be suspended as the party's candidate and tomorrow Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will meet Muslim leaders discussed their concerns Kati razzle has the details this is the cartoon that is causing outrage we've taken the decision to cover up the depiction of Muhammad so we don't cause offence to some viewers others find it entirely innocuous like this student from the London School of Economics no I mean it's just a cartoon but the controversy began when Christmas and a fellow atheist wore Jesus and Mo t-shirts and a freshers fayre he showed me some of the cartoons from the satirical strip in which Jesus and Muhammad talked to each other five secret goes found us at our stall they asked us to cover board t-shirts or take them off and after well after we refused they made clear that they were going to physically actually remove us from the freshers fair so we complied luckily under protest and coverup the t-shirts then came this BBC discussion programme student Chris Moore sitting in the front row while other panelists explained why they found the cartoons on his t-shirt offensive do they have the right of way those t-shirts yes or no no why are you trying to offend everyone dismay you're avoiding us through that but Maajid Nawaz a Muslim and the head of the anti radicalization think-tank Quilliam disagreed not feel threatened by these gentlemen very much afterwards mr. Nawaz tweeted out the full cartoon which the program hadn't shown him close up and we have disguised he said he was sure God wasn't threatened mr. Nawaz however immediately was he received death threats he's standing for the Liberal Democrats of the next election and there's a petition signed by 20,000 people demanding they deselect him this petition or the oxidation throwing imaginable is very clearly shown again that there's a very extreme faction of religious reactionaries in Britain who's trying to use the Muslim community to saw discord with representatives from dozens of Muslim organizations meeting the Lib Dem leader tomorrow to protest about mr. Nawaz his views on this cartoon nick clegg is under pressure and this growing rao about freedom of expression Kati razzle reporting or joining us now from Manchester one of mr. Noah's main critics Mohammed Shafiq from the Ramadan foundation and himself a Lib Dem activist are you still a Lib Dem activist Mohammed Shafiq yes I am John I think what we've got to be very clear about is that the cartoon there was treated by marjina was offensive to a number of muslims 20,000 have signed a petition right well that's what we lethality but let me just press you on the question of being a liberal Democrat if you're a Democrat why not let democracy judge whether he should be the MP for the constituency he competes for well I think John that the behavior of a parliamentary candidate is very very important you cannot go around depicting or tweeting or promoting cartoons that are offensive to a number of voters this is not just about marginalizes own constituency this is about liberal democrat target seats it's about liberal democrat MPs in Birmingham in Manchester in Bradford West in Solihull in Bristol West as well there are a number of seats where there's a number of there's a huge number of Muslims and they've been offended and not just right brother hold on there because a little custom just don't in touched on it John you don't I know you I've come on and I know this to make another point let me just now you make one point I gotta tell you something you need to know before tomorrow okay let me let me just make this point and I promise I'm very happy to respond to any any questions you have on this the point is it's not just about the tweeting the marginalize has been involved in it's the foul language that he's used for people who've challenged him it's the fact he's brought the Liberal Democrats in to distribute this is not about freedom of speech this is about the behavior of a parliamentary candidate and that's our concern and that's why 60 Muslim organizations and individuals wrote leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg that's why a number of us will be meeting the leadership tomorrow we we you know we're not talking about freedom of speech oh we nobody's talking about cotillion anybody's freedom oh okay well we say your behavior of a parliamentary later he's very involved that point now the Liberal Democrats have now tells us that this meeting tomorrow is a long-range plan that was planned long ago and they do not propose to discuss this matter with you tomorrow but before we go on therefore to a question about that I want to ask you this what about the threats against mister Maajid that he has defamed the Prophet you know where that leads in Pakistan death well I've been very clear throughout this whole episode to have condemned any violence towards Majda was I'm somebody who's been subjected to death threats from Al Shabaab and al Qaeda al Qaeda in the last few months I know what it's like to live under a death threat and I would never wish that on anybody no matter how opposed I am to their views I was very clear in that we condemn any violence you know in the last 12 days I've had racist abuse about anti-muslim hatred toward directed towards me ivar deference towards me but you know in the end we've got to be all responsible enough to say that we have a political party whose parliamentary candidate is upset by Muslims in okay fine but you have a political party of which you are a member it's called the Liberal Democrat Party and most secular viewers looking in will say this sounds neither liberal nor democratic what on earth you doing in this part if you find it so offensive Muslims in this country who have found marginalized behavior offensive have a right to use their democratic right to make their views known to to every agency we come half of all these Muslims who elected you we elected marginalize for that matter weird you know we'd you know this is not to do that's the question I our stream don't ask another question in Waseca who did elect you to represent 20,000 Muslim complainants well I think I think if you ask those 20,000 Muslims they said I'm speaking on their behalf and all the feedback I've had for many people in the Muslim community suggests they support my viewpoint I'm articulating something which is very very important for as Muslims we find that of our profit offensive and forbidden Islam and you know this issue can be resolved in a responsible way by my Jinnah was recognizing his mistakes to apologize one that was terminal masses poor investigating what about mr. Nawaz on the point investigating investigating these complaints in a way that brings closer to this issue what about mr. Nawaz his point that his God is a lot greater than some being that would be remotely offended by anything like this he's got much bigger things to contend with than that marginalizes got the right to say that I've got the right to challenge him about what he's done as have Muslims I've got the right to do that you know this is then as we live in a democracy while the ballot box decided why not let the ballot box decide that's where we began this is not answered that satisfactorily this John is not about freedom of speech this is about the behavior of a parliamentary candidate that uses foul language when he is challenged about the tweeting of that cartoon I don't believe that that's behavior befitting a parliamentary candidate standing for any political party and that's that's the stance we've had from the beginning and that's the stance we will take through to our meetings with the Liberal Democrats tomorrow and under campaign goes on as we move forward and if you don't get satisfaction will you leave the Liberal Democrats well I'm not going to you know prejudge what discussions we have tomorrow in the end it's about being responsible and a tick you lating the 20,000 Muslims who are concerned by this they're offended by this and you know we what we want to make our representations through the democratic process in a peaceful way and let's just clarify a brief final question do you condemn utterly any attempted violence against mr. Nawaz I I don't see the logic of you asking that question and I just I just answered that question I've without any reservation I condemn any violence directed towards Maajid Nawaz or anybody else and I hope those people who are asking me to condemn the violence gets marginalize condemned the violence against me what I've received over the past few days as well and finally what do you want to say to Nick Clegg tomorrow if he's prepared to listen to you on this thing well whoever we speak to tomorrow I will be saying the Muslims are offended by that cartoon and we hope that moving forward that the Liberal Democrat recognised the voice of Muslims can't be ignored traffic thank you very much indeed for joining us from Manchester

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 81,771

Rating: 2.5238094 out of 5

Keywords: Muslim, Jesus and Mo, cartoon, controversy, religion, Islam, UK, Lib Dem, Maajid Nawaz, Mohammed Shafiq

Id: ovzbQfBXvSM

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 28 2014