One of the positive results from the week long engagement with media and its shareholders regarding the offense and sensibilities of Muslims with reference to the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) is the mobilization and initiative taken by the students at the University of Pretoria.  

URGENT PRESS RELEASE:

1.    As a result of an offensive cartoon published in the Mail and Guardian on the 21st  of May 2010, an urgent meeting was called at which the following organizations, representing the broader Muslim community , being:-

STATEMENT of the MUSLIM JUDICIAL COUNCIL ON THE CARICATURING OF THE
PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH) IN THE MAIL & GUARDIAN

The Muslim Community takes this opportunity to express the deep hurt it feels at the caricaturing
of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the M&G of last night. Given recent history around the
Danish caricatures of the Prophet (pbuh), the religious sensibilities of Muslims in this regard are
public knowledge; thereby adding insult to injury at this time. At that time, the South African
Muslim leadership exerted every effort to channel the outrage felt by ordinary Muslims in a
responsible fashion. The invite to the Danish Ambassador to visit the MJC to discuss the
sensitive issue comes to mind.

The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the Media Review Network (MRN) welcomes the initiative of the various civil society movements  world wide, including the Islamic Human Rights Commission, to lobby the Turkish Government to veto the application by the illegal Israeli government to gain admission to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (OECD).

Membership into the OECD will empower the Zionist entity with a legitimacy it does not deserve. It has no real sovereignty and certainly no dignity. It will enjoy economic favours which it will use to accelerate the dispossession of the Palestinian people. This will also give tacit approval to its continuous violations of international laws and its implementation of apartheid policies.

The Muslim Judicial Council SA (MJC) condemns the recent decision by FIFA and the International Olympic Committee to ban teams who observe hijab. This decision by the sporting bodies is both unethical, religiously intolerant and a blatant violation of Muslim Rights and goes against the true spirit of sportsmanship.

The ban which effectively prohibits the Iranian women's team, who observe Islamic dress-code, from playing in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore which is due to take place this August, is in fact deplorable because sport is undoubtedly linked with education, employment and empowerment.