The sad thing is that some of us are provoked, and we react by burning down embassies and waving picket signs saying "Behead those who insult Islam!" This is exactly what people the likes of Wilders, Glenn Beck, and Pat Condell want. They don't want a "dialogue among civilizations".
Allah says to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) in the Qur'an: "Verily, you (stand) on an exalted standard of sublime morality." (68:4)
A few days ago, Dutch politician Geert Wilders released his anti-Islamic film Fitna on the Internet. Through a series of graphic images, videos of beheadings and assassinations, and Qur'anic verses taken out of context, the fifteen-minute film portrays Muslims as a violent, hateful people, and Islam as a violent, hateful religion.
Clearly, Wilders' intention was to provoke Muslims all over the world to react the same way a small number did after the Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy. Why? So he could enforce the stereotypical view of Muslims as terrorists.
The sad thing is that some of us are provoked, and we react by burning down embassies and waving picket signs saying "Behead those who insult Islam!" This is exactly what people the likes of Wilders, Glenn Beck, and Pat Condell want. They don't want a "dialogue among civilizations". They want us Muslims to react, so that they can justify their racist and bigoted view of us. Wilders in particular is an open Islamophobe, to the extent where he publicly calls for "hateful" pages of the Quran to be ripped out and for a stop to the "Islamization" of Europe.
So how should we react?
Simple: follow the example of our Prophet. Read the verse on the top of the page. Our Prophet (SAWW) was the best in moral conduct and, therefore, he is the best role model for a Muslim. Ask yourself this: what did the Prophet do when he was faced with such open hatred? What did he do when he was faced with people who treated him as if he was mad? What did he do when his own uncle Abu Lahab poured sheep entrails on him whilst he was praying? Did the Prophet burn down his uncle's house? Or behead him? No, he did not! The Prophet ignored him and continued with his message and soon after, he was the ruler of the whole of Arabia!
There is a hadith in which the Prophet says, "I and Ali are the fathers of this nation." If Muhammad and Ali (peace be upon him) are the fathers of the ummah, we Muslims are the children of Muhammad and Ali. Therefore, since children are a reflection of their parents, we as Muslims have a duty to perfect our character and to make sure that we are the best in morals and actions. Imam Ja'far Sadiq (peace be upon him) said, "He is not from our Shia who lives in a population of several thousand people and someone else is more pious than him among them." Only by having good morals can we stop racist politicians from creating movies insulting our Prophet, our Qur'an, and our Islam. Only by having good morals can we prove Islam to be a religion of peace.
If Wilders and other Islamophobes refuse to back down even after we clean our act up, then Imam Ali puts it quite well: "The best response to a fool is silence." True, isn't it?
