We’ve heard that again and again. A writer’s right to write. Then people come up with fancy empty platitudes like ‘freedom of expression’ and ‘freedom of thought’ to defend people like Salman Rushdie and likewise. Maybe ‘freedom of thought’ is a too heavy phrase for Mr Rushdie. His apparently ‘blasphemous’ arguments were not something new; he was reiterating old and outdated questions on the authenticity of Prophet Muhammad. The Muslim intelligentsia has a long undisputed legacy of taking criticism constructively and responding accordingly. But criticism and abuse are two radically different things. Although Islam itself teaches to respond to evil with good to diffuse the powder keg, but one must … Continue reading Shihab Khan