THE HAGUE, April 10, 2006 (IslamOnline.net) – "Now I know a lot about Prophet Muhammad," Anna, a Dutch student, said after attending a gala organized by Dutch Muslims in Rotterdam to celebrate the Prophet's Birthday.

"I have to say that he is completely different from that person portrayed in the media," she added.

This year Dutch Muslims are seizing celebrations of Prophet Muhammad's Birthday, which falls on Rabi` Awwal 12, to introduce the prophet of Islam (peace and blessings be upon him) to non-Muslim Dutch.

Muslim volunteers have handed out flyers and leaflets to non-Muslims in a Rotterdam neighborhood, inviting them to show up in the ceremony.

"This is a nice gesture from Muslims," Anna said, carrying a flower offered to her by one of the organizers.

"I came to know untwisted information about Islam," she added.

"Your Prophet really deserves respect like the all other prophets," Anna said, in an enthusiastic mood.

"We have been looking forward to hearing about Islam from Dutch Muslims," added another non-Muslim Dutch woman.

There are one million Muslims in the Netherlands, mostly hailing from Turkish and Moroccan origin.

Zarifa Brish, one of the organizers, said they wanted the prophet's birthday this year to be unique.

"We wanted to acquaint non-Muslims with the characteristics of the Prophet and tell them examples of his life to counter the blemishing [Danish] cartoons," she told IslamOnline.net.

Twelve cartoons lampooning the Prophet were first published by Denmark's best-selling Jyllands Posten in September and then reprinted by several European dailies, sparking Muslim outrage worldwide.

One of the odious drawings portrays the Prophet as wearing a time-bomb shaped turban and another showed him as a knife-wielding nomad flanked by shrouded women.

"We wanted to join forces with our mosques in their effort to remove stereotypes about the Prophet in the Netherlands," noted Brish.

Muslim youths have expressed their love for the Prophet through chanting nasheeds (Islamic songs) and poems.

The Halal Food organization also organized competitions to pick the best poem and essay on the Prophet.

"Our campaign to defend the Prophet will not be limited to one day or one week," Ahmed Al-Baghdadi, the imam of Al-Mohsenin mosque, told IOL.

"To really defend the Prophet, one has to be a good, practicing Muslim with an exemplary behavior in his/her work," he noted.

Prominent Muslim scholars from all over the world launched last month an international organization and a fund with a proposed capital of 100 million euros for defending prophet Muhammad against defamatory attacks in the West.

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