A 1938 play titled Gas Light was about a husband who tried to convince his wife that she had gone mad by tinkering with the gas light and then pretending that only she could see the changing brightness of the light. The aim was to get the wife sent to a mental asylum so that the husband would get her inheritance. The play gave rise to the term gaslighting; manoeuvrings to make one’s opponent appear in a bad light or as the aggressor in a conflict, usually combined with playing victim for maximum impact.

The term gaslighting came to mind when I saw the news about Muslims around the world up in arms over the burning of the Quran by a Danish politician. What I saw was just a racist taunting the Muslims by putting on a show of burning a book (allegedly the Quran) in public. Sadly, many Muslims took the bait and in doing so helped the small time racist politician become a celebrity racist politician. The gaslighting stunt paid off big time; the politician was given police protection after he was attacked by people who were angered by his action.

Muslims were understandably upset but as a Muslim myself, I think we should not let ourselves be driven by anger when responding to the book burning stunt. Muslims live by the words of Allah that are in the Quran, not by the physical book or other media that carry the texts of the Quran. There are verses of the Quran to be recited at major life events of a Muslim, from childbirth to the day he’s laid to rest, but there is no need for the physical book of the Quran to be present at any of the occasions. We recited verses of the Quran in our daily prayers, again without needing physical presence of the text. Of course we hold the physical Quran dear as it holds the texts of Allah’s words but our faith will not be shaken simply because an ignorant racist burns the Quran.

Ignorance should not be met with anger, for anger, however righteous, will only make things worse. This is highlighted in a hadith about a Bedouin who urinated in a corner of a mosque. Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) and his companions were at the mosque. The companions started to rebuke the Bedouin but the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) stopped them, and when the Bedouin finished urinating, the Prophet ordered that a bucket of water should be poured over that place, and the companions did so.

If the companions had continued rebuking the Bedouin, he would have likely turned towards them to respond, while still urinating. This would have surely led to the urine being spread over a much larger area and made it more difficult to clean up. Worse still, he would not have been in an amicable state to receive enlightenment about what should and should not be done in a mosque. No sane man would be in a good mood after being interrupted with a harsh rebuke while taking a pee.

One important point that must not be forgotten is that burning is the acceptable way to dispose damaged Quran text. The Islamic Affairs Department of Terengganu routinely conducts incineration of damaged Qurans that the public send to them to be disposed of. Caliph Uthman was the first to burn Quran texts that were not written in the correct order when he initiated the compilation of the complete Quran verses onto physical medium. This was done after many people who had memorised the Quran passed away.

Garnering media attention by fiery stunts is not new; it was done very successfully 30 years ago, according to the Norwegian documentary movie “Satan Rides The Media”. The documentary highlighted how the media had blown up the Satanists and Black Metal music’s supposed influence in the torching of churches in Norway in the early 1990s despite the police advising them not to do so as there was a lack of evidence pointing in that direction. The overblown Satanist and black metal hype made musician Varg Vikernes, who was only 18 years old when he was first arrested on suspicion of arson, into a sort of cult guru. When Vikernes was given a 21-year jail sentence for the murder of a fellow musician and the torching of churches, more churches were burned down, not only in Norway but also in other parts of the world and the documentary said the arsonists were probably inspired by Vikernes.

Using freedom of expression as an excuse to let the promotion of racial or religious hatred fester is not new. This is because the definition of freedom of expression is always a prerogative of the government of the day in a country or region, especially if they were powerful enough to brush aside any opposing views. In the run up to World War II, Hitler and his Nazi party formed the government in Germany. The Nazis were not only free to express their hatred towards the Jewish populace, later on they were also free to act out their hatred by oppressing and killing them – men, women and children alike. And it is worthy to note that the Nazis also started their “freedom of expression” against their perceived enemies by burning books, loads of them, in huge bonfires, in 1933. Just 90 years ago.

If the burning of the Quran were to be hailed as the epitome of freedom of expression, I will not be surprised if some neo-Nazi radicals were to put Hitler on a pedestal as a champion of tolerance and freedom of expression using the same argument.

Preposterous? Maybe, but what is more preposterous is how it took just 90 years for racists to again be backed by the law to spread their agenda of hatred.