On August 29, 2012, in Gulf news, I wrote an article titled: ‘Fighting hatred with dignified tolerance’, about the burning of the Quran, in which I said: “…it would seem that those who want to light the fuse of Muslim rage have found a sure way of doing so.” I should have said “ways”, instead of “way”. For, within two weeks, the infamous and disgusting video clip, The Innocence of Muslims, was released to coincide with the 11th anniversary of 9/11, causing predictable death and destruction in parts of the Muslim world.

I also suggested that a highly respected Islamic centre, such as Al Azhar in Egypt, take the responsibility to issue a cool and rational statement after the next wilful or even accidental burning of the Quran. It should condemn it and demonstrate why such act is insulting to the 20 per cent of the world’s population and that such acts will be futile, from now on, because they will not succeed in inciting violence. It should rise above any vengeance or violence. I was predicting that when Muslims, who revere their Prophet [PBUH] and worship God, rather than the First Amendment, learn that Al Azhar has shouldered the responsibility to respond on their behalf, they would be far less likely to resort to violent protests.

One could argue that the reactions of Muslims are spontaneous and genuine and certainly not uniform; and will not be modified by the issuance of such a statement by Al Azhar or any other learned body. That may be true for the next episode — and there will be a next episode — but once the process becomes an accepted routine, it is likely to be quite effective. In any event, what is a better alternative?

Muslims should not allow themselves to be manipulated by provocateurs who delight in their predictable reactions, which confirm to the West the impression that Muslims are violent people, to be shunned and despised and feared and therefore could be imprisoned and tortured and killed in order to protect western values. For, once a whole people are demonised, such actions become readily acceptable, as we have seen in truckloads in recent times.

So, what would it take to persuade the World Islamic Congress to actually put this idea on the agenda of their very next meeting, before more avoidable loss of life takes place? Knowing the deep divisions and chronic mistrust among the different governments of Muslim nations, it will take a lot of persuasion and many meetings before anything positive could come out of this. But even if there has been a delay of years, that will still be a desirable outcome and a great achievement.

Here then is an appeal, to the leaders of the most populous Sunni and Shiite Muslim countries — such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Turkey and Egypt — to instruct their ministers of foreign affairs to meet fairly urgently and select a universally respected Islamic centre to speak out for the Muslim world when the enemies of Islam strike next. They could even make it an annual rotating responsibility, if they are so jealous of each other, just like the presidency of the European Union.

There should be agreed guidelines about the statement to be made and any possible action to be taken. Once the statement is issued, they could collectively sue those responsible for such insults in their own countries of residence and make an example of such transgressions. For even in the West, there are recognisable red lines between free speech and hate mongering, which are applied rigorously, when it comes to some other ethnic and religious groups. In France today, there are laws that impose jail sentences on those who question the Holocaust. It should also be a test of whether these liberal countries apply double standards when it comes to Muslims.

Professor Jeremy Waldron, in The Harm in Hate Speech, explains that pollution can result from repetitive individual emissions. Similarly, expressions of supposedly private hate combine to produce the poison of hate mongering against whole races and religions.

Dr Qais Ghanem is a retired neurologist, radio show host, poet and novelist. His two novels are Final Flight from Sana’a and Two Boys from Aden College. His non-fiction book My Arab Spring, My Canada is to be published by Amazon in October 2012. He lives in Canada.