The desecration of the Qur`an that

recently took place in the American

torture chambers of Guantanamo Bay is
not the only incident of its kind. Similar
insults of Islam and its holy Book took
place in some American prisons of Iraq
and Afghanistan. And we do not known
what goes on in the numerous secret
prisons that the American army has built
thoughout the world.
The USA’s racist ally “Israel” also
practices desecration of the Holy Qur`an
in its Megiddo Prison. In fact it is quite
probable that the idea of such desecration
came from the Zionist land usurpers. The
USA army often avails itself of the long
experience the Zionists have acquired in
suppressing legitimate Palestinian
aspirations and efforts to regain at least
some of their usurped land.
The desecration of the Qur`an is not
limited to prisons. In the USA a Muslim
sister ordered a Qur`an from a non-
Muslim company and received a copy
with obscenities written on it. Such things
have pleased some Americans to the
extent that they have put at least one sign
supporting the desecration. Put in front of
a church on one of the most traveled
highways in America a sign reads: “The
Koran needs to be flushed” (down the
toilets) na a‘udhu bi allah. Some Muslim
and non-Muslim Americans protested
and the sign was taken down, but too
many Americans either like this type of
hate or tolerate it in the name of
“freedom of speech”, although if a
Muslim expressed certain views, such as a
praise of Usamah bin Ladin, his freedom
of speech probably will not be respected.
There is a positive chance that he will end
up in some torture chamber.
As an expression of hate and hostility
towards Islam, desecration of the written
Qur`an may be new in form but not in
substance. Similar insults have been
hurled against Islam’s book and the
Prophet from the earliest days of Islam.
As we all know the disbelievers of
Makkah used to call the Prophet a mad
man or a magician who had fabricated
the Qur`an with the help of some others.
It is reported that some of them also used
to throw garbage at him. In Tayf the
Arabs threw stones at him and wounded
him. Later, in Madinah the people of the
book, that is the Jews of Madinah used to
insult the call to prayers (adhan), as
mentioned in the following verse:
And when you raise a call to
prayer they take it as a mockery
and fun. That is because they are a
people who do not understand.
(5:58)
But nowhere the Prophet and the Qur`an
were insulted more than in the Christian
West, especially during and after the
Crusades. The Prophet was called devil,
anti-Christ, liar, impostor, promiscuous,
and was pictured as burning in hell.
After the enlightenment and the coming
of learning and education in Europe
under the influence of Muslims this very
slowly began to change. But still there is
an appreciable minority in the West who
hate Islam and Muslims and repeat the
insults coined in the Middle Ages. On the
Internet numerous websites present the
Prophet in a way that brings us back to
the Middle Ages. And prominent
Christian leaders and TV evangelists with
influence in the White House
continuously attack Islam and the
Prophet on their TV programs, watched
with appreciation by tens of millions of
viewers. Some describe the Prophet as
terrorist; some describe Islam as evil and
so on.
This hate and hostility in many cases is
not limited to verbal insults. It extends to
actual plans and activities against Islam
and the Muslim world. We need to be
very conscious that there are people in the
West, especially in the English speaking
countries of the USA, Britain, and
Australia, who, along with the Zionists
are engaged in a war against us. These
people are in a minority – about 20 % --
but 20% determined people in a
population of hundreds of millions can do
a lot of damage. Muslims must not bury
their heads in the sand and behave as if
such enemies do not exist.
What is the reason behind all this hate
and hostility and how can Muslims deal
with it? Let us examine these questions in
the light of the Qur`an itself.
The reasons behind the insults

One reason behind insults against Islam,

its holy book and the Prophet is a feeling
of being threatened by Islam. The threat
felt may be to one’s belief system and/or
to one’s own power or the power of one’s
group. Insults are a way to prevent
oneself or others from paying attention to
the threatening message of Islam. The
kuffar of Makkah tried many ways to
prevent people from paying attention to
that message. In addition to insulting the
Prophet they used to tell people to make
noise when the Qur`an was read:
And those who disbelieve say, Do
not listen to this Qur`an and make
noise during its recitation so that
you may dominate. (41:26)
Both the feeling of being threatened and
the disbelievers’ way of dealing with the
threat is irrational. In the verse quoted
above (5:58), the Qur`an gives an
explanation of why the people of the book
used to insult the Muslim call to prayer:
“That is because they are a people
who do not reason or understand
(ya‘qilun).”
This principle is applicable generally, so
that one reason non-believers insult
Islam, its scripture and its Prophet is that
they lack understanding or ‘aql. Here ‘aql
is used in a general sense as well as in the
particular sense of understanding of
Islam. Many people who insult Islam do
so out of irrational hate and prejudice.
They know very little about Islam, its
holy book and the Prophet. This is clearly
against ‘aql, which demands that we first
know what we are hating and insulting.
Many other people know a great deal
about Islam and still hate and insult it.
They may even have some “intelligent”
purpose behind the insults, e.g.,
preventing fellow Christians/Jews from
reading about Islam with an open mind,
or proving themselves to be faithful
Christians/Jews, or getting attention and
then using that attention to promote their
brand of Christianity/Judaism, or, in case
of torturers at Guantanamo Bay/Megiddo
Prison, to extract information from
Muslim prisoners. These well-informed
people lack ‘aql in a more particular
sense: Despite all their information about
Islam they are not able to see that the
Qur`an and the Prophet, far from posing
any danger to them, are in fact a source of
God’s mercy for them and a healing of
what is in their breasts.