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392chapter sixProphet (ß) wanted to prevent has in fact turned out to be a politicalreality. The use of force and violence by political rulers has becomea feature of everyday life. And yet, the sword that our honourablescholars presented to the rulers as a gift turned out to be doubleedged,as we explained earlier. While in the past it allowed oppressiveregimes to fight their opponents with brutality, it left the politicalopposition with no choice but to acquire the same brutal mentalityin their fight against the political order. Once again, the pretext of‘forbidding what is wrong’ is used today for purely political reasons,only this time accusations of kufr are being turned against the politicalclass itself.ConclusionTo prescribe what is right and to proscribe what is wrong is a divineduty. Allah did not set up fixed rules that can be automaticallyapplied in how to exercise this duty. Instead, He left this to be doneaccording to what is ma#råf, that is, widely recognised and what isperceived as good taste and common sense within any given society.What needs to be prescribed or proscribed is what is shared by mostpeople as accepted norms of good or bad social practice. The conditionis that, for the implementation of such norms, violence and forcemust not be used. Whoever forces people to pray five times a day,and whoever forces women to wear a Saudi-style Èij§b, regardless ofthe cultural norms of their country, has not properly fulfilled God’sduty because something has been enforced that is not commonlyshared or practiced. In an age of mass communication and globalisedforms of interaction (global village), we propose six general principlesthat are indispensable for the fulfilment of God’s duty:1.2.freedom of speech: nobody should fear prosecution or punishmentfor expressing his thoughts and ideas in public (radio,newspapers, television, books, internet, etc.);civil society and nongovernmental organisations: these shouldbe given as much support as possible (be they human rightsorganisations, societies for the protection of animals, consumerwatchdog organisations, professional associations, or environmentalcampaign groups), but they should not use force and