"Invite (All) to the Way of Thy Lord With Wisdom And Beautiful Preaching..."
From The Inner Circle (Johannesburg, South Africa-based LGBT Muslim organization) responding to recent violence after "blasphemous" cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad:
The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) had a neighbor who used to maliciously throw his garbage at the door step of the Prophet's home, every morning. The Prophet would then pick it up and throw it in the disposal area along with his personal trash. One morning the Prophet didn't see any garbage on his door step and he didn't really care much about it until a week passed by without any garbage being put on the Prophet's door step. So the prophet went to his neighbor and paid him a visit to check up on him. The neighbor was sick and in bed. The prophet then started taking care of his neighbor who eventually embraced Islam because of the prophet's display of good character.
Had the prophet acted in any hostile way, it would have only driven the two neighbors even further apart. This is a classical example of how the prophet implemented the verse:
Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious: for thy Lord knoweth best, who have strayed from His Path, and who receive guidance... -- Q-16:125
I have nothing more to say about the violence and senselessness surrounding the cartoons.
Posted by ronn at February 8, 2006 08:32 PM
the violence that is taking place in that region of the world is troubling to my spirit... and when muslims burn physical structures that belong to other nations and burn their flags or symbols representing their respective nation, i am even more bothered.... doesn't seem odd to anyone that muslims would take issue with journalists in western europe for disrespecting a cherished symbol of theirs, but what we have here now is Muslims do exactly what they are figting against....
there has to be a better way for these people to express themselves when they feel they have been wronged.... because demanding that the West respect their cultural symbols by destroying ours is not the answer...
and i have no respect for any of them.... do you think that Christians in the West would do such a thing? NO! the actions of these few muslims is continuing to push the divide between East and West, Muslim and Christian, and frankly civilized and Neanderthal.
While I mostly agree with you, I think this stupidity and hypocrisy encompasses more than a few. There were tens of thousands of hateful people "protesting" around the world. Including many western cities -- even here in NYC. Of course, if this had been..., well, you get my point.
Non-Muslims most stop being punks when it comes to extremists. If the Phelps of this world can be condemned, so should his Islamic brethren.