Though French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo claims that ‘comic’ book biography of the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has been edited by ‘Muslims’ and is ‘halal’, it has every reason to receive condemnations and in the worst case scenario, violent reactions from across the world.

Followed by outrage against amateurish film ‘Innocence of Muslims’, Charlie Hebdo had set the Muslim world ablaze through its ungainly caricatures. Yet its publisher Stephane Charbonnier could tell an international wire service: "I don't think higher Muslims could find anything inappropriate."

The reaction to the publication so far has been muted while an earlier anti-Islam film ‘The Innocent Prophet’ launched has been completely un-noticed since its mid-December launch.

Imran Firasat, who claims to be a former Muslim from Pakistan, collaboration with another anti-Islam American pastor Terry Jones, to produce the film in Spain.

The world has not lately seen angry Muslims taking to the streets despite several attempts to provoke them, all this at a time when Islamists are winning the elections, or leading uprisings against decaying tyrants in the Middle East.

Leave aside mocking cartoons, any depiction of the Prophet (peace be upon Him) is declared offensively invariably by all schools of thought in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqah).

The provocations recorded in 2011-2012 are not unique in nature. After Danish and Norwegian newspapers followed by other European publications displayed 12 cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) in 2005 and early 2006, embassies and businesses were set a light besides 200 lives being lost in the riots.

Though chain of events brought to the fore sensitivities of Europe's growing minority, yet no lesson was learnt.

In 2009, Yale University Press surveyed two dozen experts on Islam, terrorism and diplomacy whether it should use the cartoons in a forthcoming book. The university found out that none of the interviewee advised re-publication of the cartoons. The Yale respected their wisdom and refrained.

Yet there is no dearth of editors, film-makers and writers who simply don’t care. Salman Rushdie can be one case in point while this other ‘former Muslim’ Imran Firasat is the most recent example.

“I don’t feel as though I’m killing someone with a pen. I’m not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it,” said Charbonnier, publisher of French publication told journalist, after people of 20 nations vented anger and violence at varying degrees.

Unlike mullahs in the Muslim world, whose intellectual grooming and societal exposure can be rated as minimal, the ethno-religious anarchists in the Christian world generally are no ordinary folks living on charity. However, the violent reaction of Muslims in the wake of such provocations feeds into the notion of clash of civilizations.

Stigmatizing the other qualifies as one of the primitive forms of ignorance. Since the industrial revolution and decline of Muslims, the West has portrayed them as rivals, repressive and medieval. Europe did away with clergy long ago and boasted of superiority over the Muslim, finding religious beliefs as well as personalities their most vulnerable spots.

Muslims, on the other hand, have stereotyped the Christian west as colonizers, devoid of moral values. Even today, in most Muslim societies, white western women are considered loose and non-believers in Christianity and the values it preaches.

With the fall of Soviet Union, Islam was characterized as the next threat to the world order, stereotyping of its followers became an accepted norm in political as well as social arena.

As the world increasingly saw Muslims as threat to global peace and prosperity and war were waged in Afghanistan and Iraq, an optimist rose from an unlikely region to introduce the phrase ‘alliance of civilizations’ in 2005.

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