Fireman Sam’s Producers Apologise After Qur’ān Pages Fiasco But Some Tweet Ugly Comments

Channel 5 has removed an episode of Fireman Sam from its online streaming service, after the animated children’s programme appeared to show a character treading on pages of the Qur’ān.

HIT Entertainment, the producer of the programme, last night issued an unreserved apology, and said it was cancelling its contract with the Chinese animation studio responsible for making the scenes.

The questions that arise for many Muslims are:

• What goes through the minds of such people when they know such incidents will hurt the feelings of 1.8 billion Muslims around the world?
• Why is such continuous onslaught to incite Muslims not coming to a halt?
• Surely they should have known better, or is this all pre-planned to provoke a (negative) reaction from the Muslims?

In the programme, which last aired on June 28, a character can be seen on two occasions trampling on papers that are being sorted on the floor of a fire station. When the papers fly into the air, at least one sheet appears to be a page from the Islamic book.

In 2012, one of the creators of Fireman Sam, David Jones, was held at Gatwick Airport, after making a comment about a Muslim woman who was wearing a veil.

Since the rightful removal of the disgusting episode and the apology, as expected, there has been some who have not likened this stance. They deem Muslims need not to be so overally sensitive over such issues. Here are some of the disturbing tweets:

Three points to note for such people:

1. Just because other religions’ followers don’t deem it necessary to create an outrage for their scriptures or beliefs to be misused and abused, doesn’t mean Muslims ought not to do as well.
2. Muslims constantly condemn innocent lives being killed, tortured or oppressed all over the world, yet it seems every time there will always be people who choose to ignore.
3. Muslims naturally love Allah, the Prophets, the Qur’ān and everything else connected to the religion more than anything in the world. So why should people be surprised when what is close to their hearts is abused leading to the Muslims being disturbed.

These kinds of childish attempts against Islam and Muslims aren’t going anywhere. Thus it’s important we continue to show respect and tolerance to all beliefs even if we don’t agree. Keep voicing out against any form of discrimination for freedom of speech and expression shouldn’t become freedom of hate and incitement.