The notorious creature which goes by the name of Alvin Tan is an embodiment of intolerance and hate. He wakes up and sleeps in that cocoon of intolerance.

As a Muslim who is currently studying in Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia, I was enraged by his antics which are designed to magnetise attention to power the engine of intolerance which he runs. This however doesn’t mean that I’ll fight intolerance with another form of intolerance. I will desist from threatening to kill him. I will resist the temptation of putting a bounty on his head.

Why am I of this opinion? Didn’t he use my holy book as his toilet paper? Didn’t he mock the Azan (an Islamic call to prayer)? Didn’t he equate my religion to Nazism? How much more can we take?

This isn’t the first time that Muslims like me have been confronted with this form of bigotry. We still remember the notoriously delusional Terry Jones, the Quran-burning pastor who is also incidentally the author of the book ‘Islam Is of the Devil’. We still remember the trailer of the movie called ‘Innocence of Muslims’ which portrayed Prophet Muhammad “as a fool, a philanderer and a religious fake”.

There are two common traits in the barrage of bigoted acts.

Firstly, before these acts were made, the members behind the engines of bigotry were nobodies. They were just the few who lived on this planet populated by more than 7 billion people. Pastor Terry Jones was just another pastor until he openly declared that he will burn the Al-Quran. Alvin Tan is popularised by his Islamophobic acts. The film ‘Innocence of Muslims’ only gained traction due to its bigoted elements.

This shows that their actions are partially driven by the craze for popularity even if it comes at the expense of religious and national harmony. This also shows that we are partially to be blamed for quenching their thirst for popularity. Every ‘like’ and ‘share’ which Alvin Tan gets is a drop of gasoline which fuels his bigotry.

Secondly, these acts were specifically designed to defame the beautiful religion of Islam or the concept of moderation. In an interview with the BBC, Alvin Tan expressed that he’s being persecuted by the Malaysian government. “My intention was to expose the extremism and violence that have become commonplace in Malaysia for many years, despite the label ‘model moderate Muslim nation’.

This shows that he intends to provoke a disproportionate response from the public to signal that he has always been right. That we Malaysians are indeed a bunch of extremists. That we Muslims are indeed intolerant creatures who cannot stand any forms of provocations.

Pastor Terry Jones proudly promoted the movie ‘Innocence of Muslims” to provoke a violent response which will then validate his distorted views of Islam. He then was able to proudly say to his congregation that, “I was right all along. Islam is a religion of violence.”

Putting and end to inflammatory prophecies

We should stop singing to the tune of these bigots. Let’s put an end to their inflammatory prophecies. We are above and beyond their narrowmindedness. If they wear the mantle of ignorance and intolerance, we should wear the mantle of compassion and common sense. As the saying goes, “do not fight fire with fire”. In a race to the bottom, they’ll definitely outcompete us.

In Islam, the message of compassion was well-established by Prophet Muhammad. He persevered through the humiliation and torture of having stones thrown at him by the people of Thaif. He even showed compassion when faeces were thrown at him. There are multiple verses in islam which corroborate the message of compassion and proportionate justice.

Malaysians have been faced with countless of challenges since the time of independence, yet we have persevered to become who we are today. A nation which is beautifully diverse. A nation which embraces the concept of unity within diversity.

Let us not descend to the level of the few firebrands who intend to tear the fabric of unity apart from our hearts and souls. Let us not descend to the level of intolerance showed by the few who survive by tearing us apart. Most importantly, Let us not descend to the level of un-Malaysianness because we are the hearts and souls of Malaysia.

Not matter how hard they try to break us apart, we’ll glue ourselves back together. We’re stronger together. No form of bigotry can break this unbreakable bond apart. The ‘Malaysian bond’.

SYED SADDIQ SYED ABDUL RAHMAN is a part-time lecturer at Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) Malaysia and is Asia’s best debater, winning the United Asia Debate Championship in May 2015.