Eminent Urdu litterateur, Hasan Kamal, in his column, Kaheta Hoon Such, published in Rashtriya Sahara (April 5) raises this question in the context of the Dutch Member of Parliament Gerrit Wilder’s controversial film, Fitna, “Are we giving an appropriate reply to enemies of Islam?”

He asserts that Muslim protests, demonstrations and boycotts of goods of the concerned countries cannot stop the continuing onslaught against Islam and the Quran. He writes: “The campaign of enemies of Islam cannot be stopped merely by protest. Reply to a book can be given only with a book. No Muslim writer came up with a rejoinder to Salman Rushdie’s book — Satanic Verses — with a book. It was a Christian nun, Karen Armstrong, who replied through her book, Muhammad.”

Kamal wonders if those who are familiar with Rushdie’s book and agitated against it have heard of Armstrong’s book. The fact is that her book is a rare document on all aspects of the life and character of Prophet Muhammad, the like of which has perhaps never been written in English. It became a bestseller in the United States and Europe and the people in those countries could understand the reality of Islam and the character of the Prophet, writes the columnist. Kamal also talked of a film made by Mustafa Aiqad, The Message — originally made in Arabic, entitled Al-Risala many years ago. The film presented both sides of Islam, but cleared many misunderstandings about Islam. But when a dubbed version of the film was released in

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