DI PUNCAK PENGHINAAN

They’ve thrown down the gauntlet.

If you still believe this has anything to do with free speech, you’re fooling yourself.
This is about non-Muslims (primarily secularists and atheists) who hate Islam and want to rub it in our face. This is not the first time they’ve gone out of their way to insult Islam, and it won’t be the last. But it is, so far, the most open and embraced insult so far.

And what are we Muslims to do? Threatening violence is illegal, un-Islamic, and counterproductive. I’ve heard some say they want to boycott Facebook, but we know that’s not going to happen and if it does, it will not last long, and if it does it will not have any effect.
Pakistan has decided to block Facebook, but so far I haven’t heard of any other country that has taken such steps. And this will only stop the Muslims of Pakistan from seeing the Facebook pages. It will not stop reposts on other websites and it will not stop others outside of Pakistan from insulting Islam.
In essence, there’s not much we can do. We can vocally protest this stupidity, but that will only go so far.
But this is not the first time Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was insulted and abused by atheists.
These actions are eerily similar to the early actions of the Quraish towards Prophet Muhammad and his followers. Even though the Muslims of Mecca were heavily persecuted by their Quraish brethren, it was not always like that.
In the beginning of the Prophet’s mission, the common attitude was that he was just crazy. And most of the Quraish were generally liberal in their religious views, so they did not do much but talk about Prophet Muhammad and make jokes about him. Nothing really serious.
However, within a few years, as the Islam grew more and more popular, their jokes and taunts turned to physical abuse, torture, and eventually murder.
I’m not trying to insinuate that we are going through the same suffering as that first generation of Muslims. But there are many similarities.
Mecca was a cosmopolitan society that accepted most faiths, even Islam, at first.
America is the same.
Most of the Quraish did not approve of the abuses and insults that Muslims eventually faced.
Most Americans are the same.
There were Christians and Jews living in Mecca, and though the Quraish did not accept their beliefs, there was never any organized effort to insult or offend those faiths. But when Islam came along, many of the Quraish began to work together to stop Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
America is very much the same. Yes, people make fun of Jesus and Moses all the time on television and draw pictures, and a few even go so far as to insult them both (may Allah be please with them both). However, to my knowledge, there was never a GRASSROOTS campaign to mock or vilify either of these great prophets that garnered tens of thousands of supporters.
But here we have non-Muslims, ORGANIZING, to insult our Prophet.
I believe this is just the first step.
If things do get to the point where Muslims are being oppressed in this country, and the government is unable or unwilling to protect us, then we must be prepared to leave or make Hijrah to a more accommodating society. It against Islam to stay in a land where we are weak and oppressed.
For now, I hope we just ignore these silly acts of aggravation and pray that Allah guides these people towards the truth. We will soon see if this is just an inconsequential event in American history that will be forgotten by the time this year’s American Idol is announced.
Or is this just the beginning of an intensifying campaign to destroy Islam?
Only Allah knows.