Recent weeks have witnessed release of a film, and a series of cartoons blasphemous to the holiest personage the earth has ever seen, Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him). It is palpably a diabolic design aimed at provoking Muslims and then, when the latter come to react rather violently, dubbing them intolerant and extremist.
It is not difficult to ascertain the motives behind these rabidly obnoxious and highly condemnable essays in sacrilege. The west is very much vexed at the emergence of Islam and Islamic parties in some Arab and African countries as well as in Turkey for quite some time. The most notable and strategically most important among these countries is Egypt, which borders Israel. Various decisions taken by the new popularly elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, especially his bid to assert the rights of his presidency as well as parliament and sacking of a large number of military generals of Mubarak’s era, must have given sleepless nights to Islam-bashers. Morsi’s strategic measures have of course presented Islam as the only viable and peaceful system of life and governance. How can hate-mongers and anti-Islam forces, whose wheels of life run on the sale of war weapons, digest these positive developments? This anti-Islam film and series of cartoons have been produced to alter this positive image of Islam and put a spanner in the emergence of Islam in different parts of the world.
Another important motive behind the release of these filths is to use them as a ‘preview of what will happen’ in case the United States and /or Israel attacks Iran.
Whatever the motives may be, the governments in the west as well as in Muslim States need to condemn the film and the cartoons in the strongest terms, ban them and pressurise YouTube and other websites to block them. They also need to initiate a debate on the limits of Freedom of Expression / Speech.
As for the Muslims, individuals as well as organisations, they have every right to stage protests against anything anti-Islamic. But they need to take care that their protests do not turn violent; for violence is against the very spirit of Islam. The Holy Qur’ān 7:199 says: “Hold to forgiveness; enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant.” So, instead of taking out violent protests we should take a pledge to study and follow the teachings of the Holy Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) more vigorously, and present those teachings to the world with solemn emphasis that the Holy Messenger was sent to the world in fact as Mercy to mankind.