A Consequence of the Innocence

All of us know what sort of a purpose movies like the innocence of the Muslims and caricatures of that kind serve. They uproot the Muslim world, violence happens, and a lot of mess is made. For certain elements, specially in the West, it is a litmus test of the volatile temperament of the Muslim world. But such events play another very cogent role. That is conversion. Events such as these draw attention of many people to the religion of Islam. Indeed, many are converted as a result of their curious study of the religion of Islam and its Prophet, Muhammad (May peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

This idea struck me after an encounter with a Danish convert in Copenhagen once upon a time. The person was in his sixties and converted to Islam after a keen study of the religion as a consequence of the Danish cartoon controversy. I tend to forget the name of the person but I do remember that he talked to us (myself and another guy) about logical reasons why Islam prohibited certain things, for instance, homosexuality and lesbianism. He was a kind man, as normally Europeans are.

Europeans are extremely nice people generally. It is not hard to find a kind hearted person in most of the European countries in one's daily life. Be it your taxi driver, the person standing on the cash counter, or a work place colleague. A myriad of gestures of kindness is not difficult to receive. People are generally a lot more open-minded too, specially compared with the mindsets of the underdeveloped world. Work ethic is Western countries is specially commendable. European laws, regulations and culture are such that it is not difficult to integrate. Such are the reasons for European counties to be favorite destinations for many to seek work. 

Muslim countries in particular, and Asian and African countries in general, need to learn a great deal from the attitudes of the West. Indeed, West is considered a role model in so many spheres of our lives. Muslims have a propensity towards looking up to West or the civilians there as role models. This is true about the average non-Muslims (or let's call them infidels, from an Islamic point of view) living there. People are more humane and genteel. And average Muslims have endless praise for them and their social systems. I have attended numerous such gatherings where this has been discussed.

When some of the Europeans read about the doctrine of Islam, they do it very thoroughly. They thoroughly read about the Quran-e-Hakeem and about the life of the Prophet of Islam i.e. Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). And in doing so some of them choose to convert to Islam. We call them Muslims by choice. Such converts become better role models for the likes of us who are Muslims only by chance. And sometimes all of this happens as a consequence of ridiculous movies and peeving caricatures.