{"id":93720,"date":"2025-11-14T13:02:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T18:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/?p=93720"},"modified":"2025-11-14T13:02:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T18:02:25","slug":"what-would-muhammad-do-silencing-the-prophet-liberal-islams-cowardice-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/2025\/11\/14\/what-would-muhammad-do-silencing-the-prophet-liberal-islams-cowardice-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"What Would Muhammad Do? – Silencing The Prophet: Liberal Islam\u2019s Cowardice In Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was once the darling slogan of liberal Muslims in the West, their talisman against suspicion, their get-out-of-Guant\u00e1namo-free card. In the shadow of 9\/11, when Muslims were being strip-searched at airports, interrogated at borders, and rounded up in their neighborhoods, Western Muslim leaders found themselves endlessly parroting this question. It was their shield, their mantra, their desperate attempt to prove to the \u201ccivilized\u201d world that they were not, in fact, bloodthirsty savages. The Prophet Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu, they said, was compassionate, tolerant, patient, merciful, endlessly forgiving\u2014more yoga instructor than warrior, more monk than statesman. And so, every Friday sermon, interfaith dinner, and panel discussion circled back to the same soothing line: \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But how curious the silence today. Gaza burns, Palestinians are starved and slaughtered in numbers that recall the darkest chapters of the twentieth century, and the \u201cgood\u201d Muslims\u2014the liberal Muslims, the moderates, the tireless ambassadors of interfaith kumbaya\u2014suddenly forget their favorite question. Nobody wants to ask what Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu would do in the face of genocide. Why not? Because the answer is too obvious, and too uncomfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Post-9\/11 Muhammad: A Pacifist Mascot<\/b><\/h2>\n

Let us recall the context. After 9\/11, Muslim leaders in the West scrambled to perform what might be called the \u2018Great Pacification of the Prophet.\u2019 No longer the man who organized armies, brokered treaties, defended his community, and met aggression with force\u2014Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu was rebranded as a pacifist saint. His patience in the face of insults was exalted. His forgiveness of enemies was endlessly quoted. His emphasis on inner struggle (jihad al-nafs<\/em>) was turned into the *only* jihad worth mentioning.<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal was transparent: to convince a deeply suspicious Western public that Muslims were not ticking time bombs. \u201cSee?\u201d these Muslims pleaded. \u201cOur Prophet is just like your Jesus\u2014peaceful, forgiving, nonviolent.\u201d The \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d question became their version of \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d\u2014a saccharine slogan perfectly fitted for bumper stickers and youth group T-shirts.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was not entirely disingenuous. The Prophet Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu did indeed show patience, did indeed forgive, did indeed emphasize inner reform. But the narrative was highly selective. It was also deeply political. In the \u2018War on Terror\u2019 climate, Muslims were under enormous pressure to prove their loyalty, to sanitize their religion, and to present Islam as a benign spiritual hobby rather than a political force.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Vanishing Question<\/b><\/h2>\n

Fast forward two decades. The bombs fall on Gaza. Hospitals<\/a>, schools, and refugee camps are obliterated. A population penned in like cattle is starved, denied water, denied medicine. The word \u201cgenocide\u201d is whispered at first, then shouted openly. Muslims across the world watch in horror, rage, and despair.<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, those same liberal Muslims who once found their tongues so nimble with the phrase \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d now fall mute. Where are the interfaith panels, the carefully rehearsed sermons, the op-eds in The Guardian? Where are the hashtags and the bumper stickers?<\/span><\/p>\n

The silence is not accidental. The silence is strategic. Because everyone knows what Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu would do in the face of genocide. And it does not fit the pacifist rebranding.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Uncomfortable Answer<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Prophet Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu, faced with the annihilation of his people, did not advise patience and Twitter activism. He did not retreat to his prayer mat and wait for celestial justice. He organized. He defended. He made it an obligation for his followers to resist. The Qur\u2019an itself makes the duty explicit:\"\" \u201cWhat is the matter with you that you do not fight in the cause of God and for those oppressed men, women, and children who cry out, \u2018Lord, rescue us from this town of oppressors!\u2019\u201d<\/em> [Surah An-Nisa; 4:75]<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not an obscure or fringe interpretation. It is the mainstream of Islamic tradition: defensive jihad is mandatory when a community faces extermination. For Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu, the defense of the vulnerable was not optional, not metaphorical, and certainly not reducible to therapy-speak about \u201cresisting your lower self.\u201d It was concrete. It was armed. It was non-negotiable.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if one were to ask, honestly, \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d in the face of Gaza, the answer would be devastatingly clear: he would organize a protection force, and he would make defense a duty. He would not wring his hands about \u201cmessaging\u201d or fret about what white liberals might think. He would not outsource morality to the State Department. He would stand between the slaughterer and the slaughtered.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that is precisely why the question is not being asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Liberal Muslim Dilemma<\/b><\/h2>\n

Here lies the dilemma of the \u201cgood\u201d Muslim in the West. For two decades, they have invested heavily in the pacifist-Muhammad narrative. They have reassured their governments, their colleagues, and their neighbors that Islam is peace, that jihad is just a personal detox retreat, and that the Prophet was basically a life coach with a beard.<\/span><\/p>\n

To now say, \u201cActually, Muhammad would call for armed defense of Palestinians\u201d is to risk unraveling two decades of carefully curated branding. It risks losing the approval of the very Western societies they have bent over backwards to placate. It risks being lumped in with the \u201cbad\u201d Muslims\u2014the militants, the radicals, the ones forever marked as barbarians.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, better to stay silent. Better to issue vague platitudes about peace, condemn \u201cviolence on both sides,\u201d and retreat into the comfort of interfaith dinners. Better to mock or sideline those \u201cuseful idiot\u201d imams who dare to speak the uncomfortable truth. Better to remain respectable, even as Gaza burns.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Politics of Selective Piety<\/b><\/h2>\n

The irony, of course, is glaring. When cartoons of the Prophet appeared in Denmark or France, the \u201cgood\u201d Muslims were quick to remind us: Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu ignored insults. He forgave his enemies. He never condoned mob violence. And they were right.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Silencing

The true taboo question then is not \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d but \u201cWhy are liberal Muslims afraid to ask it?\u201d [PC: Aliaksei Lepik (unsplash)]<\/p><\/div>But when it comes to genocide? When children are pulled from the rubble, when families are obliterated in their homes, when a besieged people cry out for help\u2014suddenly, the Prophet is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, the selective piety that once filled conferences and press releases evaporates. The Prophet, once paraded as a mascot of moderation, is now locked in the attic, too embarrassing to bring out.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not simply cowardice. It is complicity. It is the internalization of Western hegemony so deep that one\u2019s own religious tradition must be amputated to fit the demands of respectability. It is to reduce Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu to a caricature\u2014first as a saintly pacifist, now as a silence-inducing taboo\u2014rather than grapple with the full complexity of his legacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Real Taboo<\/b><\/h2>\n

Here, then, is the true taboo question: not \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d but \u201cWhy are liberal Muslims afraid to ask it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is not flattering. They are afraid because they know the truth: Muhammad would not sit idly by in the face of genocide. He would act. He would fight. He would obligate his followers to defend the oppressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that answer does not play well at interfaith luncheons. It does not reassure security agencies. It does not flatter the liberal order. So the question is buried. The Prophet, once deployed as a prop for Western acceptance, is now silenced by those same Muslims who once could not stop invoking him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Conclusion: The Prophet They Dare Not Name<\/b><\/h2>\n

\u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d was never really about Muhammad \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu. It was about politics. After 9\/11, it was about survival: Muslims needed to prove they were safe, and so they fashioned a Prophet who was permanently nonviolent. Today, in Gaza, the same question would expose a truth too dangerous for \u201cgood\u201d Muslims to utter: that their Prophet was not only merciful but militant when justice demanded it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so the silence speaks volumes. The \u201cgood\u201d Muslims have trapped themselves in their own narrative. They are so invested in the pacifist Prophet that they cannot now call upon the real one. They have chosen approval over integrity, respectability over responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

But history is merciless. When future generations ask, \u201cWhat did you do during the genocide in Gaza?\u201d the \u201cgood\u201d Muslims will not be able to say, \u201cWe asked what Muhammad would do.\u201d They did not dare. And perhaps that silence will be remembered as their loudest answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

– Beyond Badr: Transforming Muslim Political Vision<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Terminal Hypocrisy Of A Crumbling West And The Dawning Of A New Age for Muslims<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was once the darling slogan of liberal Muslims in the West, their talisman against suspicion, their get-out-of-Guant\u00e1namo-free card. In the shadow of 9\/11, when Muslims were being strip-searched at airports, interrogated at borders, and rounded up in their neighborhoods, Western Muslim leaders found themselves endlessly parroting this question. It was their shield, their mantra, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":93725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10162779835525413_128059875822":"","twitter_22332114_22332114":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10162779835525413_128059875822","service":"facebook","timestamp":1763143440,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_22332114_22332114","service":"twitter","timestamp":1763143440,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_payment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_user_ghostwriter":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6043,86,8992,6044,6049,25,6964,10818,7657],"tags":[4158,9813,932,385,7214,125,154,4509,158,7239],"coauthors":[11517],"class_list":["post-93720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society","category-family-and-community","category-featured","category-featured-home","category-featured-society","category-injustice","category-leadership","category-palestine","category-social-justice","tag-featured","tag-featured-society","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-islam-3","tag-israel","tag-muslim","tag-muslim-leadership","tag-palestine","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Would Muhammad Do? - Silencing The Prophet: Liberal Islam\u2019s Cowardice In Gaza - MuslimMatters.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Post 9\/11, every Friday sermon, interfaith dinner, and panel discussion circled back to the same soothing line: \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d But how curious the silence today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/2025\/11\/14\/what-would-muhammad-do-silencing-the-prophet-liberal-islams-cowardice-in-gaza\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Would Muhammad Do? - Silencing The Prophet: Liberal Islam\u2019s Cowardice In Gaza - MuslimMatters.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Post 9\/11, every Friday sermon, interfaith dinner, and panel discussion circled back to the same soothing line: \u201cWhat would Muhammad do?\u201d But how curious the silence today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/2025\/11\/14\/what-would-muhammad-do-silencing-the-prophet-liberal-islams-cowardice-in-gaza\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MuslimMatters.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/muslimmatters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-14T18:02:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/gama-films-hpv81oxYZ34-unsplash-1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Professor Junaid S. 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He served as president of the US-based National Muslim Law Students Association (NMLSA), and is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), the South Asian Muslim Studies Association (SAMSA), and the American Council of the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS). 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Ahmad","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/48512b7493407a4a29c01f1acbe24119","url":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0298-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0298-150x150.jpg","caption":"Professor Junaid S. Ahmad"},"description":"Prof. Junaid S. Ahmad has a Juris Doctor (law) degree from the College of William and Mary, USA. He is the Director of the Center for the Study of Islam and Decolonization in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has been teaching Law, Religion, and Global Politics for over a decade in Pakistan, South Africa, Malaysia, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. He does a wide array of consultancy on issues related to international law and international affairs. Junaid is also the founder and Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) - Pakistan. Over the years, he has been associated with the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Al-Awda (The Palestine Right to Return Coalition), along with various interfaith initiatives and groups working for peace and justice - including Peace for Life (PFL) and the US-Pakistan Interreligious Coalition (UPIC). Most recently, he co-founded JUST-IS, a global network advancing interfaith solidarity against militarism, and is also a part of the Palestine solidarity group, Movement for Liberation from Nakba (MLN). He served as president of the US-based National Muslim Law Students Association (NMLSA), and is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the American Sociological Association (ASA), the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS), the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), the South Asian Muslim Studies Association (SAMSA), and the American Council of the Study of Islamic Societies (ACSIS). 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