Reaction to my BBC interview

As I stepped out of the BBC studio interview and checked my phone, I noticed that my twitter feed (@tajimustafa) had exploded with countless reactions to the interview I had just done covering Muslim reaction to the film insulting Prophet Muhammad (saw) and ‘free speech'. Listeners to the program were tweeting me their responses; some agreeing with points I made, some disagreeing, and some raising further questions. One of the categories of responses was that Muslim reaction is violent and disproportionate to the original provocation i.e. insults of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). For many Westerners who nowadays hold very little as sacred or worthy of respect, it is not surprising that they think that insulting a Prophet of Allah (swt) - a figure hugely loved and respected by over a billion of the world's population - is an overreaction.

Many also fail to appreciate the wider context; that Muslims see these latest attacks as the latest in a long line of attacks on Islam and Muslims be that occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, the Danish cartoons, desecration of Qur'an in Afghanistan e.t.c.

Dominant Western narrative - ‘Muslim rage'

Another reason for this misunderstanding is the narrative promoted by Western governments and media. When the Muslim world erupted as it did, there are a variety of issues to explain to a non-Muslim audience in order for them to appreciate why the reaction was such; how Muslims view the Prophet (saw), how Muslims feel under attack especially over the last ten years, the role of America in the Muslim world, the failure of Muslim rulers to react appropriately leaving people to feel that they have to stand up and demonstrate in defend of the honour of the Prophet (saw). Instead of tackling such complex questions, the issue is reduced to a simplistic explanation. In this case, the simplistic explanation (narrative) put out by many media outlets and Western governments was ‘Muslim rage'. Indeed, Newsweek, the once respected international news magazine, had this as its front cover headline - with a suitable picture to match! The narrative was basically that Muslims are over sensitive, that they do not understand free speech, and that they are prone to violent and irrational reactions. So, much of the subsequent reporting, discussion and debate - including my BBC interview - revolved around these themes. Largely forgotten was the original provocative insults, the US governments insistence that it could not ban it as that would be counter to its belief in ‘free speech', the fact that insults do sometimes provoke a reaction or that it is uncivilised behaviour to go round insulting people especially when you claim you want to live in peace with them.

The vast majority of protests in the Muslim world were peaceful and whilst we do not condone the violence that took place at some protests, one understands the deep sense of anger and hurt that Muslims feel at such gratuitous insults on our guide, mentor and Allah's Prophet (saw). It is important that Muslims in the West also voice their upset by raising their voices at peaceful protests that we take these opportunities to engage with non0Muslim neighbours and colleagues explaining the wider context and why we hold the Prophet (saw) in such high esteem. It is also an opportunity to challenge the dominant narrative and to get them to think about the non-existent of ‘free speech' in any absolute term and the uncivilised behaviour and problems that it has lead to even in Western societies where some now complain of a growing culture of rudeness, insults and anti-social behaviour.

Unfortunately, a few Muslims in the West have been so affected by the dominant narrative - that Muslim reaction is just irrational and violent rage - that some started to claim that the Prophet (saw) never reacted to insults so Muslims should remain silent about such insults, or that Muslims should not even demonstrate peacefully - something even non-Muslims do not say. Their selective reading of the seerah of the Prophet (saw) means that they ignore incidents in the seerah where the sahabah reacted to some of those who vilified the Prophet (saw), and where the Prophet (saw) consented to their response. Rather than examine and question the dominant narrative of western governments and some of the Western media, they have become apologetic. The irony is that some of these people would protest vehemently if members of their family were insulted, yet they expect Muslims not to protest when the best of Creation is insulted!

The Prophet (saw) said, ‘None can be a (complete) believer till I become dearer to him than his father, son and the entire mankind.' (Muslim)

Taji Mustafa

Media Representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain