Is it correct to stop following religious scholars whose views contradict my convictions, such as one of them saying that it is obligatory not to offend the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, due to his prophethood and not his noble person?

An ordinary person is not qualified to pass judgment on the sayings of scholars; rather, if they doubt their fatwas, they should consult others. Not everyone who speaks about religion is a scholar, for knowledge is a highly esteemed rank. Speech that implies permissibility of insulting the Prophet (peace be upon him) is null and void and constitutes major disbelief that expels one from the fold of Islam, by the consensus of Muslims. Therefore, anyone who insults the Prophet (peace be upon him), or finds fault with him, or attributes a defect to him, or alludes to him in a demeaning way, or curses him, or attributes to him what is unfitting, or reproaches him for what befell him, is considered to have insulted him and is to be killed.