The burning of the Quran in Sweden
By Justice Markandey Katju
Recently a right-wing Swedish-Danish politician burnt a copy of the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This has generated a storm of protests and outcries by Muslims all over the world.
There have been similar incidents in the past e.g. where the Holy Prophet was insulted by making cartoons about him.
I am totally against hurting anyone’s religious sentiments. But the question is what should be the reaction to such mischief?
In my opinion, it is best for Muslims to ignore it.
Such rascals only want to provoke Muslims by such mischief for their self-publicity, and you fall into their trap by reacting to it. But by ignoring it you spoil their game, and the matter will come to an end, no one even noticing it.
Hali, the biographer of the great Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib, has written that once someone asked Ghalib why he does not respond to malicious criticism. Ghalib replied ”If a donkey kicks you, do you kick it back ?”
I may here narrate a personal incident which happened when I was Chief Justice of the Madras High Court ( 2004-2005 ). One day during the lunch interval when I was sitting in my chamber, two judges, who were sitting on the same bench, came to meet me. They looked very grim and were very upset because a leaflet had been distributed in the High Court calling them a pair of donkeys, and they showed me the leaflet.
On hearing this, and on reading the leaflet, I started laughing. This made them more upset, and they said ”Chief, we have been insulted, and you are laughing ?”.
I then said, ”Look, you better learn how to ignore all this, or you will get blood pressure. Nowadays so many things are said about judges, and you must develop a thick skin, otherwise, you will not be able to function. These are professional hazards of a judge, which are best dealt with by ignoring them”.
I then told them that if they issued a contempt of court notice to someone they suspected the matter will drag on, possibly for months, causing them a lot of agony, and making them a butt of jokes among lawyers But if they ignored it, the matter will end the same day.
When I said this, they too started laughing, tore up the leaflet they had brought, and left in a good mood.
So my appeal to all Muslims is to ignore such provocations by such rascals.
The Holy Prophet also used to ignore insults
