In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful'You (Muslims) shall certainly be tried and tested 'and you shall certainly receive from the People of the Book and the polytheists a lot of insults. But if you are patient and God-fearing, that will be (for you) a great source of success.' (Q3:186)BRETHREN why is it that Islam is hated with so much passion by some and loved so deeply by others' Bacile, the producer of the film titled 'Innocence of Muslims' would probably tell you hatred of Islam has become a religion. The religion referenced here is not Christianity because the latter, my teacher in the Christian school I attended many years ago told us, is a religion of love. The religion people like Bacile profess is hate; hate for the sake of hate. That religion is otherwise known as Islamophobia: 'a dread or hatred of Islam and, therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims.'But brethren, why is it that America and its symbols usually become subject of attacks by Muslims each time someone who abhorred Islam decides to ridicule what the Muslims hold dear' The Wall Street Journal of September 29, 2009 raised the same question. The journal went on to suggest that the reason America is hated in the Muslim world is because of its negative image in the East. The image of America in Muslim lands is that of an anti-Muslim nation.The Wall Street Journal says Muslims have developed a phobia for America because of its role as harbinger of doom, sadness and grief. An ordinary Muslim Pakistani on the hungry land of Karachi would tell you America is a metaphor for a 'bomber' or a destroyer. Such a Muslim can be said to be suffering from Americophobia: a complete dread or hatred of America, which, like Islamophobia, borders on psychosis.The events of the past week appeared to have brought the above to the fore once again. An Islamophobic in far away California decided to do a film to caricature the person of the Prophet of Islam (upon him be peace). The film soon filtered into the Muslim world and before you know it violent protests broke out which led to the death of innocent lives. The Islamophobic did the film because as far as America's constitution is concerned, to impugn the sacred is a perfect pastime; Muslim protesters probably thought not to do otherwise is to encourage similar sacrilege in future.But is it Islamically right that the protest took the violent turn it did' No. In other words, the protest ought to have been peaceful. Muslim protesters could have marched onto the street to demand for a resolution from the United Nations, which would make blasphemy against all religious values, be it the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or the Hindu a criminal offence. Muslims could have demanded that just as the UN has made all disputations against the Jewish narratives on the Holocaust illegal, all blasphemous posts or materials against all religions should be criminalized. To kill innocent souls in protest against what we consider sacred is to commit double sacrilege. It runs foul of the Quranic verse quoted above.Meanwhile, some non-Muslim critics have, once again, started campaigning for 'reformation' of Islam. They want a situation where, sequel to that 'reformation', Islamic tenets would be opened up for criticism so that it can be on the same pedestal with other religions. These critics would argue that if Christians could endure the unwarranted attacks on the person of Jesus Christ (upon him be peace), if Christ is portrayed as a womanizer and Christians find nothing untoward in it, it stands to reason, therefore, that Muslims should be able to tow the same line whenever Prophet Muhammad (upon him be peace) is attacked by those who are hell-bent on tearing the world apart based on their hatred or abhorrence for Islam.Brethren, a Muslim with elementary knowledge of what Islamic tenets say would argue that Muslims' aversion for blasphemy is not just because it comes from a non-Muslim or that it targets the personality of the Prophet. Rather, all blasphemies, either from a Christian (Bacile) or Muslim (Salman Rushdie) is forbidden by the Almighty and is consequently deprecated. I encourage you to read Matthew 12 verse 12 for a Biblical perspective to this.But to demand reformation of Islam using the attack on the person of the Prophet as basis is inane from a number of perspectives. One, this is not a new campaign after all. There is a huge scholarship and studies, by Muslims and non-Muslims, on the 'necessity' for the reformation of the religion. I invite you to read Muhammad Arkoun's book - Islam: To Reform or to Subvert,' among others.Also, since the early 20th Century when this campaign emerged in Egypt, the 'reformers' have always failed to confront the first problem. In other words, a fundamental problem people who want Islam reformed would have to solve is that of producing a 'new' or 'reformed' Quran for the Muslim world. This is important because the veneration of all prophets of God is a cardinal principle of faith in Islam. Thus in order to reconstruct the religion of Islam in such a way that will make it amenable to contemporary human taste and fancies, critics would need to first of all 'reconstruct' the Quran which is the fountain of the religion. Over a thousand and four hundred years has shown that this is and remains a big task.Three, if the reason we always have this outburst of emotional Muslims shouting 'down-to-America' is because somebody tramples upon what they hold dear, why is it difficult for us to promote respect for our mutual values' Why is it difficult for us to stand up in unison to deal with the cause of this incessant violent interface between Muslims and Christians on an open ground, the same way we jointly deprecate violent reactions against it' Put differently, while it is reasonable, urgent and important for us all to deprecate unwarranted killing of innocent lives, the question we should not gloss over on occasions like this is when shall those who fan the embers of hate desist from their heinous business of setting Muslims up against Christians'In the lonely corner of my office I equally wondered why it is always attractive for the Christian to ridicule what the Muslim believes in and each time this leads to violence, arguments often occur as to why the latter should stand up and defend what they treasure'How do I make sense of the argument that even though what the producer of the film has done is, according to Mrs Hillary Clinton, 'disgusting and reprehensible,' his right to do it, according to the American constitution, shall always be protected' If to say that which is reprehensible and disgusting is lawful in America would that not generate conflict once the US says the disgusting must be celebrated outside America'While hoping for a day when vices shall be deprecated the same way we celebrate virtues, I empathize with the families of those who lost their lives, Muslims and Christians, during the past couple of days. I do that because in Islam souls are souls; they lack nationality, race and colour.(guardianfridayworship@gmail.com)
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