By Mohammad Danial Jeffri Amran
Digital era has seen transformation and evolution of strategy against Islam. The bad news is that seemingly, it doesn’t end, but worsen day by day.
Ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), misquoting Islamic texts, attacking Quranic narratives, to an extremity of making fun of Almighty God, have been a common practice, particularly in social media platforms.
In social media, brazenly, there are irresponsible individuals, who tore down pages of the Holy Quran, step on it, and burn it intentionally to provoke the Muslims.
How did it eventually root down to this?
It is due to Islamodioum that has been actively raised by cunning individuals in the West to justify a series of violences against Muslims. Misconceptions and misleading information and content through easy access from anti-Islam websites, have bombarded the Muslims with many made up “controversial” subjects.
Many sinister claims are made which can be generalised to specific.
Islam Supporting Violence
An easy means to attack Islam is to link the religion of peace to violence and barbarity.
Although we can hardly address any violation in the Holy Quran, an argument of the Quran supporting such an idea will eventually base on the so-called cherry-picking of ‘Sword Verse’ (Fun fact: we can never trace a single utterance of the word ‘sword’ in the Quran).
Such is associated with Chapter of At-Tawbah verse 5, which reads:
“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush..”
At a single glimpse, it is easy for us to fall into such an ideal narrative of the Orientalists.
However, why didn’t they read the full text of the verse and the verse after it, which gives the full context and justice of the whole situation?
“But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. (9:5)
And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of Allah . Then deliver him to his place of safety. That is because they are people who do not know. (9:6)”
Even if we fall into their deceptive argument, it is still questionable. Say Muslims are to slay as they cherry-pick, we can pinpoint, “where are then, the rest 1.7 billions of Muslims who unquestionably adhere to the Holy Scripture? Even the Holy Quran itself is memorised by kids as early as 3 years old. Why aren’t they waging war as presumed?”.
There you have the answer!
In a nutshell, picking verses out of context, being deceptive and dishonest are the only ‘weapons’ these individuals possess against the perfect ‘din’. Muslims therefore have to step up to the game and deal with any form of provocations rationally, not emotionally. ***