Dervish

You know what I’m tired of? Atheists (and others) making out like us Muslims are on the outside of the circle of humanity and that we have to prove something in order to be admitted. You speak of tolerance, “Sheena,” yet your comments are, well, bigoted (and tired…).

Insha’Allah , ya Irving, insha’Allah !

What’s tiring about monotheists in general is when we don’t buy their self-contradictory “godfulness” they automatically assume we all are atheists with no inclination whatsoever toward anything spiritual. This is a fallacy. I disagree with a lot of atheists/scientist-materialists preach and hold as their own absolute truth. The happy balance is the middle ground between hard core religionists and atheism. A lot of people who have developed aversion toward the folly of religions in general often opt for a more esoteric spiritual path that doesn’t necessary have to preach about God. Eastern religion meditations isn’t about worshipping God or anything supernatural, but who can argue that they are not spiritual? Muslims, you gotta learn a lot of beauty outside Islam that is so abound in this world. That way you can empathize with other human beings better (despite their creed or lack thereof). A lot of Muslims from Islamic countries think that infidels are morally corrupt, bad, disgusting, etc…but when they see and live among infidels in the west they realize how wonderful secular humanistic values that their hosts are practicing which is almost absent in their own Islamic heavens. Don’t tell us about Islam being hijacked when you only care about what non-Muslims think of your religions. Care first about what your brothers/sisters think of islam which tells us in the first place of what islam is all about. Blame them, not us. Put your own house in order first than you can start looking for scapegoats. What formerly moderate Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are going through right now with more Islamic radicalism and conservatism tells us even more why islam is the problem, not the solution. The more Islamic Muslims are the more they are divorced from civilized, humanistic values that appreciate tolerance and differences, the more they become a nightmare for non-Muslims. Care to explain to us why is that? Is it because Islam is so perfect and unblemished and so beautiful? Look at the arab expansionism in these countries that relegates their own more beautiful, tolerant and colorful traditions/cultures to a lesser rank. Is this something to celebrate? Hardly. What’s so beautiful about Arabic culture, do tell us? Its appreciation of women or pluralism? Its honor killing? Or its draconian, hypocritical Islamic laws? Lets’ be honest and call a spade a spade.

What irks me even more is when a westerner converts to islam in the comfort of their own secular, liberal, humanistic western home and then preach to us that islam doesn’t do this, it doesn’t do that, westerners are so prejudiced, bigoted, blah…blah..blah without even caring to see the reality of the Muslim world in which majority of Muslims live in. That’s your wishful thinking/delusions. Get your butt out to those Islamic countries and experience yourself what life under religious dictatorship feels like! If islam was so perfect why were 100% of these Islamic countries suffer from the same malady and causing others so much headache in the process?

yes maryam, your blog is about your own personal journey and interpretation/belief about Islam which is fine and cool but if you see what’s going on at the muslim world at large there is an extreme tension between being a modern human being with universal values and a good Muslim which means an absolute adherence to a 1400 years old book and the codes of ethics of the medieval arab as exemplified by the holy prophet which includes murder of political oppositions, stoning to death, pillaging, womanizing, raping, you name it.

That Islam will give birth to extreme violence and fascism is etched on the stone, it is wrtitten all over the pages of the Koran and Hadith. When a religion demands absolute obedience and faith to an ancient book as the actual unchanging verbatim words of the all-knowing God, you can’t expect anything else coming out of that but what we are seeing in the Islamic world today in increasing worrisome frequency. That’s hardly a generalization! How you can’t see that is beyond me! I have lived in Indonesia before moving to US and see it for myself how Islam at the very best doesn’t educate the masses to be more critical and progressive looking as what the believers always seem to force others to accept without questioning. My poor opinion is not on Muslims per se but Islam because I see it for myself the more they are dwelling in the religion the sicker they become (the moderates and the Muslims by name only obvioulsy don’t count, and yes there is a minority of progressive, liberal Muslim thinkers which don’t find acceptance among the mainstream Orthodox, and many times they are threatened with death/fatwas). It’s a global religion, so what? If Nazism wasn’t banned and was let to florish it would have been a global religion too! That doesn’t mean anything. What an ideology teaches is what we should look into when deciding its merit. And I see little in Islam.

I have often thought that Islam is going through a reformation similar to what happened in Christianity about 500 years ago. Given that there is approx that length of time between the founding of the two religions do you think that makes sense?

And yes Jamila there is some good stuff in Islam but I feel the negatives (and the seriousness of it) overrides the positives. Most people don’t need a religion to be gentle, courteous, charitable (it’s something inherent in people in general that’s why we can see this quality in every people of any religion) but they need one to hate and to die for. In that way Islam is more harmful than beneficial cause the benefits may not be attributable to Islam after all (since we see that in other people from other religions too) but the harm to humanity is clearly motivated by the fascist doctrines of Islam (or its interpretation if you like, it really doesn’t matter) and these things we don’t see in other religious followers in quite the same degree.

I like this analogy because it clearly sums up what’s going on in the Muslim world today: Just because not every smoker suffers from lung cancer it doesn’t mean that smoking doesn’t/can’t cause lung cancer. Just because not every Muslim is a lunatic, hate-mongering terrorist it doesn’t mean that Islam doesn’t cause that.