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When he showed a film about Islam and homosexuality, a young man leaped from his front-row seat and tried to attack Vilks, who escaped without injuries, although his glasses were broken after running into a police officer during the chaos.  This unleashed the fury of 15 to 20 young men and women — the Associated Press said they were all younger than 20 — either fighting with the police officers or shouting in Arabic "Allahu alakbar," or "God is great." Swedish police officers swiftly ushered Vilks from the room unharmed while subduing the crowd. But this incident, which was captured on video, is disturbing — to say the least. It exposes a dangerous movement of Muslim youth turning toward violence and censorship as a means of defending their faith. Not understanding their own religion, they are being deceived by so-called scholars or radical imams and jihadists into believing that such attacks are justified.  If this week's attack was an aberration, I — as a Muslim — would still be troubled, though I also know that one radical doesn't speak for my religion. But we've seen this scene, or acts much worse, too often in recent years. Since Vilks published his controversial cartoon in 2007, he has received numerous death threats and was the target of an alleged assassination plot in March involving Colleen LaRose, the Texas woman now known as "Jihad Jane." South Park's recent episode showing Mohammed as a costumed bear caused outrage among Muslims, culminating in death threats against the show's producers. Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim man with ties to a terrorist organization, in response to his film critical to the treatment of Muslim women. He was left with a knife in his chest.  The perpetrators have one goal: censor anything — or silence anyone — critical of Islam or the prophet Mohammed. Can you imagine if followers of every faith did this? What if Christians threatened violence to anyone who said Jesus did not die for their sins? What if Jews attacked anyone claiming the Holocaust was fiction? In our 24/7 world, in which information can traverse the globe with the click of a mouse, this type of thin-skinned reaction is especially dangerous. Denmark's Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which published a dozen Mohammed cartoons in 2005, ignited a global tinderbox of jihadists outraged by the "blasphemy."  What makes these reactions doubly troubling for me is that Islam does not support people who violently censor free speech. The Quran guarantees freedom of speech on four occasions, teaching Muslims to respond to people who criticize their faith by asking for proof of their claim. The Quran forbids compulsion in thought. Should a person go as far as to insult a Muslim, the Quran forbids retaliation in any form, explaining that a Muslim's only option is to simply "turn away from them" or "sit not with them." No violence, anger or aggression.  This is supported by the actions of the prophet Mohammed himself. When he was once returning from an expedition, a man insulted him. The remarks upset Muslims, and one believer even suggested that the culprit should be killed. The prophet Mohammed, however, did not permit anyone to do so and, instead, instructed to leave the man alone.  True Muslims follow the guidance of the Quran in response to insults. These violent Muslims invite insult and derision to Islam because they blame Islam for their calls to violence and censorship. I will respond the way the Quran instructs me to: by asking for proof of their claim. Furnish the proof, so that educated Muslims can expose the fraudulent use of our faith.  Censorship enforced by individuals is bad enough, but when the state gets involved, freedom of thought is threatened on an entirely new scale. That's what has happened in several majority-Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. All three have implemented anti-blasphemy laws to prevent any criticism of religion.  Saudi Arabia treats blasphemy as apostasy, which it claims is punishable by death. Afghanistan uses its blasphemy law to persecute religious minorities, dissenters, academics and journalists. The death penalty is the answer. In Pakistan, too, anyone even indirectly insinuating an insult to the prophet Mohammed can be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. When countries endorse such punishments for blasphemy, it follows that millions upon millions of people are exposed to such tortured thinking. And the intolerance spreads. But censorship is not an issue with Islam. This is an abuse of religion by political figures in intolerant countries, which then spreads and infects the minds of Muslim youth in other nations, including those in the West. Call it the globalization of intolerance. From my Islamic lens, this is unacceptable, and Muslims must reform themselves and come back to the true teachings of Islam.  The real lesson in all this: You can actually learn something from those you try to censor.  Harris Zafar is the national director of community service for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Youth Association and a freelance writer in Portland, Ore. He can be contacted at hrzafar@gmail.com.  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
The attack of a Swedish artist this week illustrates once again how a few angry, ill-informed voices can disparage and entire faith.