How many times have we heard the term “misunderstander of Islam”? Applied consistently to those who dare to challenge Islamic hegemony, when you misunderstand Islam, you have no credibility. You are marginalized, ostracized and shunned as just a nut, only the voices in your head keep you company, they say. So how is it that there are so many of them among the Muslim population?
It seems if you ask around the Muslim world, everyone misunderstands Islam. How can this be? What would make so many be so clueless as to the teachings of their religion?
When I say that Islam wants to rule the world, I am called a hatemonger. When I say sharia law is creeping into western civil law, I am accused of demeaning a religion. When I say that Islam is a patriarchal society where men control women I am said to be a Islamophobe. My view that Islam is more political than spiritual is shouted down as being intolerant.
So how again are all these Muslims misunderstanding the “religion of peace”?
Maybe they keep reading the Qur’an, and following the example of Muhammad who is “al-insan al-kamil” or the perfect man. In almost all categories, Islam was the clear choice for all aspects of life and society. The good news, if it can be called that, is the rejection of Al-Qaeda by all Muslim countries except Nigeria Nigeria
From the LA Times, Dec 6
"Majority of Muslims want Islam in politics, poll says," Reporting from Beirut -- A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries' political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
According to the survey, majorities in Pakistan , Egypt , Jordan and Nigeria
Muslims in Indonesia , Egypt , Nigeria and Jordan
Turkish Muslims were the most conflicted, with just more than half reporting positive views of Islam's influence in politics. Turkey
Despite an overall positive view of Islam's growing role in politics, militant religious organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah spurred mixed reactions. Both groups enjoyed fairly strong support in Jordan , home to many Palestinians, and Lebanon Pakistan and Turkey
Al Qaeda was rejected by strong majorities in every Muslim country except Nigeria
Al-Qaeda needs a good PR firm, or a good bombing.
9 comments:
"You are marginalized, ostracized and shunned as just a nut [...]"
If the shoe fits...
When more people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined, the shoe fits...
How does one apologize for such a standard - an ideology - which allows misogyny, pedophilia, rape, theft, deception, enslavement, subjugation, terror, murder and genocide?
Hey Fruitbat, can you explain to me how these Muslim terrorists are theologically violating the basic tenets of their faith?
"When more people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined, the shoe fits..."
Well, I guess if you want to agree with me that the shoe fits, I'd be silly to attack your logic there. So we're agreed. Barry's a nut.
"How does one apologize for such a standard - an ideology - which allows misogyny, pedophilia, rape, theft, deception, enslavement, subjugation, terror, murder and genocide?"
I don't. You might ask the Catholic Church, though. They seem to have had a pretty good history with all that stuff. Or did you not want the same standards to apply to your favorite holy book?
For the record, I am not a Muslim, and I object to a great deal about Islam in general, and in specific. However, I try to avoid making the mistake of confusing "the book" with "the reader."
When you read the Bible, do you rush out to your local incense and bead shop to kill some Wiccans? Of course not. Somehow, you manage to avoid doing that. And when you see a woman in church who's not wearing a hat... do you forcibly shave her head? No. This is because you interpret the plain language of the Bible into a form more palatable to you. The vast majority of Christians do this.
Likewise, the vast majority of Muslims somehow manage to spend their whole lives without killing or enslaving a single infidel. Do you suppose a similar thing is going on there? If not, why not?
Sure, a tiny minority of the world's Muslims are terrorists. But then again, a tiny minority of the world's Christians are terrorists. And a tiny minority of the world's Jews. And Hindus. And agnostics. And [fill in the blank].
This is what the author of this blog can't seem to grasp. Imagine a random Muslim man somewhere in... let's say Yemen. We'll call him Khaled. Reading selected suras from the Koran doesn't tell you a damned thing about what Khaled believes, any more than reading selected verses from the Bible tells you what a random Methodist in Iowa believes. We have a pretty good idea about what Barry believes that Khaled believes, but Barry has NO evidence to support his assertions, because he's never even met Khaled.
Of course, Barry has outright stated that, should Khaled come out and say, "Hey, I don't think terrorism is justified by Islam," Barry will disbelieve him, because Barry deliberately misunderstands the concept of taqiyya in order to pretend that Muslims are all involved in a globe-spanning conspiracy to fool everyone into thinking that they're peaceful when they're really not.
What Barry's doing here is either disingenuous propaganda or tinfoil-hatted idiocy. I'll let you decide which.
Islamic scholars are unanimously in agreement that Mohammed’s deeds and words are used as a standard of behavior and as a moral compass.
There is a major difference between what's done in the NAME of religion versus what's dictated by religious DOCTRINE.
Christians are to follow the example of Christ, as Muslims are to follow the example of the prophet Mohammed - which group are violating the tenets of their faith?
Islam is unique in having a developed doctrine, theology, and legal system (Sharia) that mandates warfare against unbelievers (Kafiroon)...
Who's being disingenuous?
Adams understood the misunderstanders...
-"…he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind…The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God"-
~John Quincy Adams~
Islam is unique in having a developed doctrine, theology, and legal system (Sharia) that mandates warfare against unbelievers (Kafiroon)...
You keep talking about Islam like it's a big monolithic thing, which it isn't. Different sects believe different things. Fred Rogers and Fred Phelps, while both Christians, would probably disagree on almost everything, despite each looking at the same book. Likewise one Muslim may disagree with another on almost everything. And the "kill all the infidel" stuff is taken both literally and seriously by only a tiny percentage of Muslims.
If you're going to insist that there's only one possible way to interpret the Qur'an, you're simply not to be taken seriously in any discussion on the matter.
You don't get it do you Fruitbat, it's not how I nor you, or those of us in the west interpret it, it's how it has been interpreted by Islamic scholars over the course of the last 1400 years, carried out by the point of a spear. It's how it's being interpreted today. It's how Al-Azhar University, the oldest of all universities in the Muslim world interpret it, which pre-dates Saudi oil money (wahhabi influence), established in 971 A.D., by the Fatimid (Shiite) dynasty.
Jihad is an Islamic religious duty before Allah, and the Qur'an and Sunnah explicitly spell out what's in store for the Kafiroon, but I doubt very seriously Fruitbat you've read the Qur'an or the Hadith, nor any other scholarly work concerning Islamic Jurisprudence. Your ignorance of fiqh shows.
Considering Sunni make up roughly 80-90% of all Muslims worldwide, how do the schools of thought differ concerning Jihad from the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali fiqh when it comes to the Kafiroon?
How they are the Kafiroon to be treated by Muslims, since all are based directly on the Quran and Sunnah ?
"You don't get it do you Fruitbat, it's not how I nor you, or those of us in the west interpret it, it's how it has been interpreted by Islamic scholars over the course of the last 1400 years, carried out by the point of a spear."
No, it isn't, and it's silly of you to suggest that it is. It's about how the vast majority of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims interpret it, and it's self-evident that the vast majority of them interpret Islam as a religion that does not require them to go out and kill the infidel.
Think about that number. There are around 1.6 billion Muslims. If they all -- or even a substantial minority -- felt that it was incumbent upon them to go kill non-Muslims, we'd certainly know it by now.
(And your "serious doubts" about what I have and haven't read are erroneous, so kindly swallow the pretense of expertise; you aren't going to be able to bluff your arguments through.)
If you really want to know what today's average Muslims think, here's a radical idea: go ask some.
I don't really care what the average Muslim thinks, why do I need to ask anyone about Islamic doctrine when Mohammed is the only standard for truth in Islam?
Luckily most of those 1.6 billion who are now Muslims never chose to be so. How many of them would choose to live their lives without the constant domination of Islam if they had the option?
If an expert gives advice about Islam that agrees with Mohammed, the expert is right, and If an expert disagrees with Mohammed then the expert is wrong.
It's just that simple..., Islamic teachings are very straightforward...
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