Protesting is fine, rioting is wrong.

Allah (swt) warns us against becoming ‘transgressors’, going ‘beyond limits’ but, time and time again, Muslims across the world are shown ‘transgressing’ and ‘going beyond limits’.  They keep crossing the line and, for the most part, are unashamed in doing so.  They feel justified.

Their anger over the Prophet (saw) being slandered is righteous and is justified, but their targeting of people who have nothing to do with any slanderous comments made or the movies, etc, is neither righteous nor justified.

Frankly, the producers, director etc are lying when they claim they ‘didn’t expect this kind of reaction’.  It’s exactly the reaction they were looking; it’s exactly why they were so disappointed when no one paid any attention to the ‘movie’ months ago; it’s exactly why they ‘anonymously’ dubbed the trailer into Arabic, reposted and directed attention towards it.

The riots are exactly what they wanted so they could sit back and say ‘see?  We told you the Muslims are a murderous and bloodthirsty lot’.

The initial protest in Egypt was done ‘right’, so to speak.  Sure, it was aggressive but there was also unity – there were Muslims and Christians in attendance, both protesting the ‘movie’.  The Libyan one, though…certain people clearly had ulterior motives – why else would they turn up with RPGs and other weapons?

There’s also another thing these so-called ‘Christians’ enjoy ‘lauding’ and (whether wittingly or not) enjoy taking advantage of – the lack of slander and vitriol on the part of Muslims towards Jesus (as).  Yes, they’re ‘outraged’ when Muslims assert that Jesus (as) is not God and is not His son, but they take comfort in the fact that no Muslim will ever claim Jesus (as) was a paedophile or a womanizer or consorted with women of ill-repute.  It’s not because the texts, narratives, beliefs and so forth regarding Christ across the spectrum of Christianity are so ‘clean’ or beyond reproach, but that we, Muslims, love and revere him so much that we cannot and will not say anything slanderous about him.  For any one of us to do so would render us non-Muslim.  (so it's best left to their own scholars and writers to sully Jesus' (as) name, but when they do we, Muslims, must protest such things, too!)

It’s really that simple.

Going back to the protests: demonstrations commanding (encouraging) good and forbidding (condemning) evil are right and permissible; willfully and intentional inciting violence, however, is not.  Yes, some demonstrations will descend into conflict, but to go there with the intention of harming others…that is wrong.

The true purpose beyond protests and demonstrations is dawah – to bring awareness to others and to show them the truth through words and actions.  The words?  Lectures and narrations refuting, for example, allegations made against the Prophet (saw).  The actions?  Salaat (prayer).

If some of the protestors are ‘antsy’, they should drink some water and calm down.  If that’s not sufficient, they should sit down.  If that’s not enough, they should lie down.  Throughout it all, though, they should perform dhikr – remembrance of Allah (swt).

Do all this and we would truly provide a slap in the faces of all those inciting Muslims to violence.

Do all this and we would truly be upholding the honour of our beloved leader, the best of mankind, the mercy from Allah (swt) – our beloved Prophet (saw).