In some ways it is proving difficult to distinguish between the new and old regimes in Libya as reports emerge of widespread torture and consequent deaths in detention centers run by the new military security agency and various militias. The overthrow of the Qaddafi regime has had an enormous impact on Libya’s southern neighbours, most notably in Mali. Libya’s Muslim Brothers have already demonstrated their political savvy in the creation of the new Libyan government by successfully demanding that two-thirds of the new assembly’s seats be reserved for candidates from political movements, a regulation that virtually guarantees the Muslim Brotherhood a dominant role in the new government as one of Libya’s only well-organized political movements (AFP, January 28). -- Andrew McGregor

Salman Rushdie's Indian Mullah critics, the beardless as much as the bearded, have reason to celebrate. They have forced the government into surrender to their demand of keeping Rushdie away. How much ill-will they have created against Muslims in the country in this process, of course, does not matter to them. They are in a state of Jihad against India, the same as their Pakistani counterparts. Read the Urdu press where most of the columnists are Mullahs, some openly bearded, some with their beards well hidden in their stomachs. You would seldom find a good word about India. Nothing positive at all. ...

It is a shame that many of the Pakistani people I have been interacting have bought the government-fed idea that Ahmadiyah Muslims are not Muslims. Shame on them, they have not only lost political freedom, they have lost their minds as well. As a Muslim, I am disappointed that Pakistan has deprived the Muslim world of a Nobel Laureate,.... -- Mike Ghouse

That’s why some scholars have also defined Barelvism as a kind of ‘folk Islam’ that may be riddled with some superstitions but is said to be far more moderate and pluralistic than the faith advocated and interpreted by its Deobandi or Salafi counterparts. The ST has demanded the release of Governor Taseer’s under-trial murderer. Ironically, such are the issues on which the ST sees itself being on the same page as those it detests. -- Nadeem F. Paracha

It is true that the vast majority of Muslims abhor violence and terrorism, and that the Koran and various schools of Islamic law forbid the killing of innocent civilians. It is true, as the vast majority of Muslims believe, that the main message of Islam is peace. Nevertheless, it is false to assume that the Koran or Islamic law cannot be used to justify barbaric acts. The terrorists are a product of a specific mindset that has deep roots in Islamic history. They are nourished by an Islamic tradition that is intrinsically inhuman and violent in its rhetoric, thought and practice. They are provided solace and spiritual comfort by scholars, who use the Koran and Islamic law to justify their actions and fan the hatred. -- Ziauddin Sardar

Mali has experienced perhaps the most significant external repercussions from the downfall of the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Traditionally, the Tuaregs controlled caravan routes across the Sahara. In days past, those caravans carried gold, spices, salt or dates. Today, contraband including weapons, untaxed tobacco and even narcotics traverse the desert routes. Banditry remains common in the region. -- Scott Stewart

Nearly 150 years ago, “Sir Syed”, founder of the Aligarh Muslim University, argued against book-burning and ban-seeking. In his biography, Hayaat-e-Javed, of the then reviled and now revered man, Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali approvingly wrote that Syed Ahmed Khan consistently held the view that words must only be fought with words. Khan would go out of his way to procure controversial writings. His advice to fellow Muslims: Must read anti-Islam, anti-Prophet literature. If the content is scurrilous, ignore them. However, if the criticisms are of a serious nature, the only option is to place your response in the marketplace of ideas. By burning books or demanding a ban, you only create the impression that Islam has no answers to offer. -- Javed Anand

While this indicated the Western intellectual community’s absolute disregard for the feelings of almost a third of global population (the Muslims), and their latent hatred and revulsion of Islam, it also betrayed an audacity of colossal measure and intensely pernicious myopia of the book’s author. He took a fictitious report from the work of the early biographic accounts, which were written in the literally style and mental framework and imageries of the era and abounds in fantasy, fables, poetic imageries and speculations verging on the fantabulous, the grotesque and the bizarre [2]. In other words, he spun his entire novel around a gossip, to covertly degrade and revile Islam, its Prophet, his wives and some of his companions. And lo and behold – he is regarded as a great intellectual of the era.

There is a saying that when an elephant falls into a ditch, the crow picks at its head. Islam has now fallen into any abyss of hatred and Islam-ignorant writers, no matter the level of their scholarship, pick at it and are showered with accolades, become public celebrities and advisors on Islam. But the truth ultimately prevails for it is captured in the pages of the Qur’an and all may rest assured, the book is going to remain there unaltered [3]   -- Muhammad Yunus, NewAgeIslam.com

From Bradford to Bombay, Muslims who can see through the lame politics of the episode should stand up and, matching the hooligans of 1988, step on to the streets—this time to read the book loudly rather than to burn it. They should print out copies from the Internet, distribute them freely (surely Rushdie won’t mind), and organise public reading sessions. And when the heavens don’t fall, it will be clear that the mullahs were wrong, that no book—howsoever blasphemous—can shake the foundations of a 14 centuries old and a billion-strong faith. -- Saif Shahin, NewAgeIslam.com

I don’t deny the right of people to eulogies Rushdie and regard his writings as the litmus test for the protection of right to speech. In India, believers of all faiths have lived together for thousands of years. In the thousand years of Muslims presence in India we do not come across any writing abusive of Hindu gods and religious figures by any prominent writer or poet. We do read the poems of Ras Khan in Brijbhasha eulogising Lord Krishna, or Abdul Rahim Khankhana translating Ramayana and Mahabharata into Persian. A book can well be written on the contribution of Muslim scholars and poets in propagating and appreciating Hindu gods, goddesses and religious books. In India there is hardly any example of writings by Hindu or Sikh writers critical of the Prophet or the tenets of Islam. -- Shahid Siddiqui

“What we want is moral and financial support to be productive citizens of this country. But look who came to our help when we needed it, who changed our life, who gave us exposure to the outside world, who extended help and took us out from the well where we had been languishing like frogs; not some politicians, not some mullahs, not some military generals, but USAID; with the tax money of American people,” -- Kahar Zalmay

Bangladesh and Pakistan, having emerged as a single Muslim state in 1947 through the partition of India, went their separate ways after a bloody war of Bengali liberation in 1971. At some later point, though, it became hard for one to distinguish the politics of the two nations one from the other. Both countries have gone through long periods of military rule, with democratic politics getting stymied in the process. -- Syed Badrul Ahsan

No freedom is absolute — not even in the anything-goes West. Blasphemy is a serious crime in many European nations including in Denmark. Every freedom is qualified. Every right comes with responsibility. You can't go around happily waving your big stick and hitting people in the name of freedom. The freedom of your stick ends where my nose begins. And if you think you have a right to offend, well, others have an equal right to take offense. If Rushdie is free to exercise his creative freedom to attack people's sacred icons, shouldn't his victims too have a right to exercise their freedom of action to deal with him? -- Aijaz Z. Syed

What is the significance of the title of your book The Satanic Verses? Has it not some historical connection? Do not the verses which refer to the three goddesses, condemned as Satanic and repudiated by Allah, the same as your reference to them in your novel? Your words are so clear that no other inference seems possible: “These verses are banished from the true recitation, al-qur’an. New verses are thundered in their place.” “Shall He have daughters and you sons?” Mahound recites. “That would be a fine division!” “These are but names you have dreamed of, you and your fathers. Allah vests no authority in them.” -- Rafiq Zakaria

“Hizb ut-Tahrir will establish the Khilafah state which will eject USA, Britain, India and their allies from Bangladesh. The Khilafah will build this country as the starting point for becoming a global super power. This is by securing the basic needs of the people and solving the long running problems faced by the people such as poverty and unemployment, industrializing the country’s economy, building the army as a strong and advanced fighting force, and unifying with the Muslim Ummah. “ -- B.RAMAN