That was a disappointing post Tariq, a bigoted West is no reason we also should be bigoted - the Prophet of Islam needs no defense, God is his defender, leave some job to God, you guys seem determined to appropriate all of God's perogatives, is there a greater blasphemy?
I take it this was for me not Tariq...
Muse, I mentioned the bigotry of the west as broadening the discussion... I have said this before... The world is a global village and things are now inter connected... This is not an issue in isolation for Pakistan... There are forces involved in this which are attempting to destroy our very basic dignity because once your honour and dignity is destroyed, you can be manipulated to do anything... It is basic psychology that is at work here... Maybe I m not able to explain myself better... This was why I mentioned the west...
As for being forgiving... I was discussing earlier with brother Asim Aquil... The thing is that there is precedent for both forgiving and punishing within the Sunnah... however the technicality involved has to do with if and how the state is functioning... I am repeating myself here but we are all insulting the teachings of Islam in Pakistan... firstly most Muslims dont even bother reading the Quran with meaning... Secondly majority of us take their Islam from Mullah's or Tableeghi Jamaat or whatever that guy with the long beard is telling everyone... Thirdly a lot of our educated are mentally enslaved... the very mention of the word Islam is appalling for some of them... So in this sea of corruption and bloodshed, how can anyone expect a non Muslim to speak good of Muslims? They also suffer from similar ignorance about the deen... They will obviously think there is something horribly wrong with Muslims and possibly with Islam...
So in short... The issue is simple...
1. We should demand discussion instead of insults... Our people should learn the basics of Islam and demand its justice to be applied on society...
2. We should be open to criticism thrown against Islam because a lot of it is misconception and this can give us a chance to correct the misunderstanding (again we need knowledge first for doing this)
3. We should absolutely refuse to be insulted
4. Those who insult our master Muhammad saw despite our sincere invitation to dialogue... just think what you would like to do to a person who insults your mother and multiply it by a hundred and apply it on such a person ONLY after you have implemented the justice of Islam on society... because then you have setup an example and the person who is offending is only doing it to create disharmony, false propaganda, attacking the very foundation of our deen and on top of everything our State...
The prophet saw tolerated all insults during the Meccan phase of Islam's mission... We are presently in a similar state... We should oppose these insults like Muslims used to do in the Meccan era... Zaid Bin Hartha RA attempted to shield the prophet saw when the people of Taif were throwing stones at Muhammad saw...
However when the Islamic State was established in Madina and Muhammad saw showed with example how Islam solves the problems of the world, after that blasphemers were dealt with extreme brutality and violence... One of the persons that was not forgiven at the time of liberation of Mecca from the kuffar was a woman who used to blaspheme against the Prophet saw by writing insulting poetry against Islam... and the Muslim army killed her... even though all of Mecca was spared and forgiven...
Similarly another person was blaspheming against the prophet saw so the prophet saw sent a team of his best warriors (including Wahshi who had become a Muslim at that time) to kill the person and this person was killed...
This issue has to be understood in this technical framework... This is the bigger picture of the whole issue...