I think Muslims need to understand something uncomfortable. Non-Muslims do not owe Muhammad their respect. They do not believe he was a prophet, and some do not even consider him a good man. You can disagree with them, but you cannot demand that they see him the way you do. Your reverence for someone does not create an obligation for the rest of the world to revere him. So, are we going to kill everyone who insults Muhammad, or are we going to learn to practise our religion in a world where not everyone shares our beliefs? Because the world is not going to become Muslim just to protect our feelings. We have two choices: learn to live with our differences or spend our lives fighting a world we cannot control. You cannot force people to love your prophet by making them afraid to criticise him. You can only teach them to fear those who claim to love him.

Dear Muslim, would you defend the same things if another religion demanded them? Imagine being told you deserved to die for leaving Christianity. Imagine being a woman whose husband controls your life in the name of religion. Imagine being a child forced into marriage because adults claim God permits it. Would you accept these things simply because someone told you God approved of them? Or would you question them? It is easy to defend a rule when you are not the one suffering under it. If something is unjust when another religion does it, your religion's name should not make it just. Before you defend a rule, imagine being the person forced to live under it.

I have been in places where people tell me, “Abdulmalik, you don’t behave like a typical Muslim.” And honestly, I understand why they say that. They have seen Muslims mistake hatred for devotion, defend cruelty in the name of Islam, and abandon common sense the moment religion is involved. They have seen people justify injustice, excuse extremism and call blind obedience faith. So when they meet a Muslim who questions these things, they are surprised. When people are surprised to meet a Muslim who rejects hatred and cruelty, ask yourself what shaped their expectations in the first place. I am a Muslim, but I refuse to defend everything done in the name of Islam.

If some Muslims aren't fighting for Sharia in the UK, they're fighting over halal in the US. Fighting over hijab laws in Canada. Jihadist violence in France. Child marriage in Afghanistan. Punishing women over dress codes in Iran. Oppressing women in Somalia. Destroying places of worship in Nigeria. Different countries. Different controversies. Yet Islam keeps coming up. And whenever people question the religion, the cries of Islamophobia begin. But seriously, how long can we blame the world for criticising us without examining the things they criticise? If we are always defending Islam against criticism, when do we stop and ask whether some of that criticism is justified? At what point does defending a religion become refusing to confront its problems?

The way some Muslims question other people’s beliefs, condemn them to hell, and justify hostility towards non-Muslims, one cannot help but ask: What exactly was Muhammad’s message from God?

Dear Muslim, the Christian who rushed your child to hospital, lent you money when you were stranded, or stood by your family when life became difficult is not your enemy simply because some religious scholar called him a kafir. Think about it. Someone has shown you kindness, but you are being taught to look down on them because they don't share your faith. How does that even make sense? Never let someone else's religious teachings make you blind to the goodness of a person whose character has spoken for itself. Allah will judge how you treat people, not how quickly you learn to despise those who believe differently.

A man collapsed in sujud at a mosque. The rows around him kept praying until salaam. Only then did anyone check on him. He had passed away. Maybe nothing could have saved him. God knows. But watch that video and ask yourself: if it happened beside you, would you break your salah? If his life is in danger, you should interrupt your prayer if necessary to get him help. Call for help. Do not stand there completing your rakat while someone needs urgent assistance. A prayer can be repeated. A life cannot. Many of us were never taught this. We were taught to fear breaking the ritual more than we fear failing the person next to us. What is the point of completing your salah while neglecting a human being who needs your help?

Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, ISWAP and those who kill people for blasphemy invoke the Prophet's name. Even those who justify child marriage in his name claim to be honouring him. So what exactly does adding (SAW) to his name prove? You can mention the Prophet in every sentence and still betray his message with your actions. The truth is, honouring the Prophet goes beyond adding a salutation to his name. It means respecting his message, not turning his name into a shield for cruelty and irrationality. Stop acting bizarrely and policing my faith simply because I called him Muhammad without adding (SAW). A salutation on your tongue means nothing if your actions contradict the message you claim to honour.

All I did was ask you a simple question, and look at how you responded. I never asked you to stop believing in Jesus or become a Muslim. I simply asked why you can't extend the same respect to Prophet Muhammad that I extend to Jesus. You believe Jesus is the Son of God. That's your belief, and I'm not insulting you for it. Muslims believe Jesus is a prophet of God, and we believe Muhammad is His final messenger. You don't have to agree with Islam, but if your only response to a genuine question is insults, hatred and profanity, then what exactly are you trying to prove? Disagree with me all you want, but at least have the decency to do it without insulting an entire religion.

I have attended numerous religious lectures where scholars tell us not to love non-Muslims because they are kafir and supposedly among the worst people in the sight of Allah. But I always ask myself: Can we sell to them? Yes. Can we seek their help? Yes. Can we allow them to treat us in hospitals? Yes. Can they be our teachers, bankers, colleagues and business partners? Yes. We trust them with our money, our health, our education and even our lives. So why should their religion suddenly become a reason to hate them? If we can trust non-Muslims with our lives, what exactly makes them our enemies simply because they do not share our faith?

Headlines you can hardly imagine hearing about Christianity: “Couples beheaded for kissing inside a church.” “A man gives his 9-year-old daughter away in marriage.” “Someone insults Jesus and is lynched by Christians.” “A man converts from Christianity to Islam and is marked for attack.” I wish I could say the same about Islam and my Muslim brothers. 😢 No belief is worth a human life. No prophet needs a mob to defend his honour. And no God should be used as an excuse to abandon our humanity.

When it comes to dealing with people, your religion isn't the first thing I look at. I look at your character. Being deeply religious doesn't automatically make you honest, kind or trustworthy. Sometimes, religion becomes a performance, and the people who talk the most about God are not always the people who treat others right. I judge you by how you treat people, not how loudly you profess your faith.

Some Muslims will defend child marriage, killing for blasphemy, executing apostates and stoning women to death simply because these practices are justified in the name of Islam. Must we defend everything in the name of religion, even when our humanity should make us question it? When did defending Islam become more important than defending human beings? Where is our conscience?

Some Muslims have been taught what to believe, what to fear, and whom to hate. The moment they start questioning any of it, they are made to feel guilty for asking questions. That is how brainwashing works. You become afraid to question the very things you were taught to believe.

Muslims don't like this post because we have become allergic to the truth. We would rather defend a lie, attack whoever exposes it, and pretend we are defending Islam than admit something is wrong.

Some Muslims say Allah wants us to kill those who insult Him. Christians preach forgiveness. Some Muslims defend stoning women to death for adultery. Jesus told the accused woman to go and sin no more. Some Muslims defend killing people for leaving Islam. Christians argue that people should be free to leave their faith. Yet, we insist we worship the same God. Perhaps when Christians say we don't worship the same God, they are trying to separate their understanding of God from practices they consider irrational. And honestly, can we blame them for questioning it?

There are thousands of religions on earth. Apart from Islam, which other major religion still beheads people, stones women for adultery, kills for blasphemy, or punishes people for leaving the faith? At what point do we stop defending these acts in the name of God?

For too long, fear has been used to protect religious authority from difficult questions. A Muslim asks questions, and suddenly he is a kafir. He challenges a ruling, and suddenly he is accused of blasphemy. And when blasphemy can get you killed, people learn to keep quiet. Not because they are convinced, but because they are afraid. That is what happens when fear replaces reason. People stop asking questions, not because they have found the truth, but because they fear the consequences of searching for it. But times have changed. You can frighten people into silence. You cannot frighten the truth into disappearing.

We blame the media, Jews, Christians, the West and Islamophobia. But we rarely blame ourselves. Not the scholar preaching hatred. Not the father marrying off his little daughter in the name of Sunnah. Not the leaders demanding death for blasphemy in the name of Sharia. Everyone is guilty except us. We blame the world for misunderstanding us, yet we refuse to confront the very things we accuse the world of getting wrong.

Muslims, there is a difference between believing Muhammad was sent for all humanity and expecting all humanity to believe in him. The first is a religious belief. The second is an expectation you cannot impose on the world. Billions of people were born into different faiths, raised with different beliefs, and reached different conclusions about God. You may believe your prophet is for the whole world. The whole world, however, is not obligated to believe he is theirs.