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Is Priest Who Inspired Video Worth All The Rage?

Nervana Mahmoud argues that a rational, mature, intellectual response — not blind anger — is the way to handle anti-Islam clerics like Zakaria Boutros, who's seen as an inspiration to those who made the infamous video. There's no silencing those who challenge Islam, but one can gracefully stand up to the challenge, she writes.
A supporter of the religious party Idara Sirat-e-Mustaqeem holds a placard during a rally with some 600 other protesters against an anti-Islam film made in the U.S. mocking Prophet Mohammad, in Lahore September 23, 2012. A Pakistani minister offered $100,000 on Saturday to anyone who kills the maker of an online video which insults Islam, as sporadic protests rumbled on across parts of the Muslim world.     REUTERS/Mohsin Raza   (PAKISTAN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST RELIGION)

As more details have come out about the men behind the anti-Islam video that enraged parts of the Muslim world, it was disclosed that they are devotees of Zakaria Boutros, a fiery priest who for years has been on a mission to discredit Islam and its Prophet Muhammad.

What makes Boutros unique is his approach? The 77-year-old Egyptian did not just study Christian theology; he claims that has devoted his life to studying Islam, the Quran, Muhammad’s sayings and Islamic jurisprudence. He has researched both medieval and contemporary Islamic texts, and he has done this all with the aim of finding “alleged” inconsistencies and exposing what he believes to be a “fake” religion.

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