The Need for Restraint

The Western world has at last found our Achilles heel, and after every
couple of years, they plant a small squib somewhere in their soil, and
upon ignition, it blows off with a thunder and force of a nuclear bomb,
which causes no damage to their lands, but pulverizes the entire Islamic
world, more particularly Pakistan.
The French magazines recent attempt at lampooning the image of the
Holy Prophet (pbuh) is the third in a row since 2005, when a Danish
magazine published similar cartoons and provoked wide-spread
demonstrations leading to incidents of loot, plunder, arson and burning
of properties and killing of scores of people including members of
minority communities. Even a couple of years ago, a crude film was made
to sully the image of our Holy Prophet, which again sparked the same
degree of violence in the Muslim world resulting in the loss of several
lives and properties, beside blocking You Tube, a video-sharing website
which serves as an effective conduit of knowledge all over the world.
Thus each time a sacrilegious incident takes place, the Muslims all over
the world show a violent reaction and causing their own loss, much to
the sadistic delight of the perpetrators of the mischief. Besides, the lives
of the individuals are put to disarray causing disturbance to their civic
peace and keeping them in a state of trauma for a long time. The result
is that we are doubly wronged: first by those who try to hurt us and we
willingly take their barbs, and second by the damage we cause to
ourselves in showing violent reactions to their outrages. In such a
background, isnt there a need to pause for a moment and ask ourselves
what we should do in situations like this?

In this polarized world, protest and demonstrations do not matter much,

except providing a bit of catharsis to the agitating party. Did our previous
protests make any difference to the world? While we can dictate our
government for any change of law or policy, we have no authority to
force other governments to change their laws or ways or even punish
someone for something which we consider undesirable. They have their
own laws, values and culture. The cultivation of the virtue of tolerance,
forbearance and steadfastness (Saber) has been enjoined in the Holy
Quran umpteen times which we never bring to bear upon as our
guideline in such situations, so that in the end we rue and suffer.
The peculiarity of the offence of blasphemy and defamation is that its
viciousness spreads as it is published. The more it is suppressed or is unheeded, the less venomous or damaging it turns out to be. For instance
if nobody had taken notice of the Danish or French cartoons or the crude
American film, these vicious devices would have gone unnoticed and
disappeared in the obscurity they truly deserved. But because of the lack
of faith and trust in our abilities to fight against forces of darkness, we
unwittingly give way to the forces of darkness and bring our own ruin.
There are more decent, harmless and peaceful ways to register protest
which precludes all types of violence. Let us this time not show any
violence, not even against their insanity to republish the offensive
matter. They are out to harm us by tempting us to adopt violent and
unpopular means. Let us show restraint and refrain from making a
mountain out of a mole-hill. Let the trivial thing die its own death. Let us
be above these clumsy tactics.