February 16 - The Publisher of the Danish Cartoons That Caricatured the Prophet; A World-Renowned Islamic Scholar on Recent Terror in the Name of Islam

We begin with the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Denmark and go to Copenhagen to speak with Flemming Rose, a journalist and the Foreign Editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the daily newspaper which published twelve cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005 that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world. Since Flemming Rose made the decision to publish the cartoons, we discuss the decision to hold a public event “Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression” in a Copenhagen café with the controversial Swedish Cartoonist Lars Vilks who also caricatured Muhammad, that provoked a terrorist attack which left a film director at the cafe and a Jewish guard at a synagogue dead. In discussing freedom verses censorship, we look into whether restrictions should be put into place to prevent young European Muslims from being radicalized in prison as was the case with the terrorists responsible for the recent massacres in Paris and the young Danish-born terrorist who was just released from jail two weeks ago.

Part 2

Then the world-renowned Islamic scholar Dr. Abou El Fadl joins us in the studio to discuss the recent displays of barbarity and murder done in the name of Islam, as well as the execution-style murders of three young Muslims in America whose killing is still being attributed to a parking dispute even though the contested parking spot was empty at the time the young students were executed by their neighbor. Dr. El Fadl is a Distinguished Professor in Islamic Law and Chair of Islamic Studies at the UCLA School of Law, who served on the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom and on the board of directors for Human Rights Watch. His books include “The Great Theft: Wrestling Islam from the Extremists”, “The Search for Beauty in Islam” and his latest just out is, “Reasoning with God: Reclaiming Shari’ah in the Modern Age”.