What is the validity of the claim that it is obligatory to be gentle with the people of innovation?

Question:
May Allah reward you. We read in some of the books of the Salaf (the earliest generations) that they would boycott a person if he ate a meal with an innovator. Then we hear people saying that it is obligatory to be gentle with the people of innovation and those who hold opposing views, such as the liberals, the Rafidah (the Twelver Shi'ah), the Murji'ah (a sect that excluded deeds from faith), and their like. What is the response to this claim?

Answer:
This claim refutes itself. If we are gentle with people who are a danger to the Muslim community, our gentleness will destroy the community. Therefore, it is necessary to restrain their evil and resist their evil. It is necessary to resist their evil and warn the Muslim community against them, after calling them to the truth and clarifying the truth to them. If they accept it, praise be to Allah. If they do not accept it, it is necessary to resist them, and it is not permissible to remain silent about them.