Rushdie knighthood

Assalamu Alaikum,

Freedom of expression is very good, but that doesn�t mean that one should be allowed to express anything at will to slander, defame, and bad-mouth fellow human beings and their beloved faith. For example, how would you feel if your beloved one, who has caused no harm to anyone, is slandered and insulted on a global TV being viewed by the whole world? And this pattern keeps repeating endlessly. . . .

It is natural to get offended by that. Why shouldn�t anti-Islam and anti-Muslim stance be treated equal ( or at least similar ) to the anti-semitic crimes? Instead, we see the opposite . . . Salman Rushdie, who slandered the symbols of Islam�loved and revered by more than 1.5 billion Muslims, has been awarded the "knighthood" in the name of so called "freedom of speech," but will the same rules apply in other scenarios . . . as well?

Can they insult, for example, any other community at such a public and official level? Will they honour Salman, or another author of similar talents, in the same manner if the insult was directed to a community and faith other than Muslims and Islam? I don�t wish that any community is insulted and humiliated in such a manner, but the point is to show the blatant hypocrisy that prevails here. . . .

Furthermore, it seems they are playing their cards now to deal with many pressing issues at hand:

1. To divert the attention of the fellow citizens from utter failure of invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan where there is no real peace, security, stability and democracy as promised in the beginning. The deteriorating situation day by day has already caused much more dissension of local masses to the extent that even Blair will be quitting shortly.

2. This step may help create more gap between many non-Muslims and Muslims because of strengthening the idea of "clash of civilizations."

3. It may attempt to divide Muslim masses even further due to the absence of one powerful body that is effectively prepared to deal with such issues of ummah that keep coming up every now and then on the world stage.

4. The catastrophic situation in Palestine�with millions of starving Palestinians and ongoing political developments there�and elsewhere�may be thrown in shadows, at least for the time being.

Seeing the trend, therefore, it is important that the entire humanity in general, and Muslims in particular, wake up from the deep slumber and evaluate the whole situation. This gross neglect of very fundamental rights of more than 1.5 billion Muslims should not be allowed, otherwise entire humanity may become subjugated to the perpetrators of such heinous crimes.

What should Muslims do? Well, protest intellectually and educationally using educated and Islamic mind set without any violent reaction.

( Please remember that any violent reaction on your part will be tremendously magnified by the media. At the time of cartoon crisis, media delivered full coverage to some violent reactions, but the silent and peaceful demonstrations of the majority was not made the headline news.

Furthermore, we should always act within the bounds of Islam and avoid doing unislamic things regardless of the degree of provocation, and keep in mind that Allah is watching us all the time, and He is in full control of all the affairs, whether or not we are being watched by others. )

Educate everyone that Islam is not what Salman Rushdie tells us; it is the beautiful message of peace and submission to Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe.

May Allah guide us all.

Peace