I think one of the reasons why muslims are getting a bad rep is because, in general, we have a defensive attitude. We expect offense and therefore we are easily provoked. Protests are sometimes necessary to highlight an issue but we don’t need to start protests at every given opportunity, we don’t need to keep lecturing how peaceful Islam is, that just annoys people!
Here’s an example of a pointless speech given by Richard Dawkins to the atheist community. Now 90% of my friends are atheists so I’d be the last person to point fingers at them but this speech/protest did annoy me because he basically takes offense of what the Pope had said and just bashes him in response! One man is even holding up a “Pope hid sex abuse” banner! :smack: I find this childish!
Ok, the pope shouldn’t have said what he said but you also shouldn’t have said what you said. Why the constant bashing?
The point I’m trying to make is that, we don’t have to adapt a completely carefree attitude BUT, we need to get rid of the defensive attitude and ignore the haters. “Live and let live” goes both ways..