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Lee Normandy
United Kingdom
16 January, 2006
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Americans will start to respect Islam when Muslims treat Islam with respect and defend it against terrorism. Thus far -- with notable exceptions in Jordan and Bangladesh where great efforts against radical Islamism (which I agree is not Islam at all) have been made -- Muslims remain silent and inactive, apparently expecting the West either to tolerate terrorism done in the name of Allah (swt) and the Prophet (bpuh) or fix the problem for you. In America, which has the richest, best educated, and freest Muslim population in the world -- and the most SPOILED -- there are no efforts to remove Saudi- and Pakistani-trained terrorism-advocating preachers of violent, militant jihad and world domination. They make no effort to rid even their own mosques of the cancer that threatens the survival of Islam. And while Muslims worldwide bury their heads in the sand -- or smugly give tacit agreement to terrorism while pretending not to -- Islam as a precious, revered, beautiful religion is beaten eaten alive by radicalism while Muslims go on an ego trip about how everybody has to listen to them now that the dirtiest one of them has killed 3,000 people from 80 countries in New York. The faces of Muslims cheering and dancing in the streets when those people were killed is etched in the minds of Americans forever.
Before 9/11 Americans didn't know much about Islam. What they knew was that they had Muslim neighbors who were kind, respectful and exemplary citizens. They were well-educated, polite, and their children were well-behaved. What they know now is that when Americans die Muslims dance in the street. What they know now is that hatred is being preached from 80% of the mosques in America (using free speech rights that don't exist in much of the Muslim world) and that Al Qaeda leaders living in Pakistan regular call for the killing of Americans. What they also know is that not once in America since 9/11 has there been a Sunni rally against terrorism. The Shi'as have held a few but the Sunnis could give a damn whether Al Qaeda takes over all of Islam and whether extreme, brutal hudud punishments replaced the pluralistic, healthful, kind, just shari'a that existed in the Ottoman Empire.
America doesn't owe Muslims "understanding" as long as they will not rid their house of the evil ones who are the real infidels. The simple fact is that as an interfaith activist in this country, I work harder than ANY of the Muslims I know to try to protect the reputation of Islam while smug U.S. Muslims -- and Muslims around the world -- play mind games like the one in this article. How many Muslims do you know that are out there fighting Al Qaeda for possession of Islam??? How many??? But you guys get into trouble with a bad dictator, and you expect the takfir Christians to come fix it for you. The Shi'as in the United States lobbied the American government for 25 YEARS to take Saddam out of power. And you'll notice it's not the Shi'as who are complaining in Iraq. It's the Sunnis who behead people when they don't get their way and say it's Allah's (swt) will. It's not Allah's will. It's greed.
Now, if you're willing to have Islam and the names of Allah (swt) and the Prophet (swt) dirtied by thugs who rape women, torture journalists, behead translators and bomb children when they're getting toys from U.S. Marines in Baghdad, then don't blame us if Islam is destroyed as a religion in the next century.
Because, I can tell you this: If you guys screw around and let bin Laden and that idiot Al-Zawahiri detonate a nuclear device any place on this planet, it's over. Every government in the world will make Islam illegal as a religion and start deporting Muslims. And whatever country they do it to will lay an nuclear egg on wherever these guys came. If there's a nuclear, chemical or biological attack on any country in the world that is the size of 9/11, it's OVER for Islam all over Asia, Europe and the Americas.
So I would suggest rather than whining about what America should do for you next -- in foreign aid, in "understanding" -- you get off your lazy, arrogant butts and shed YOUR BLOOD to rid your beautiful religion of Al Qaeda, tawdry madrassash, and your own arrogance that you can play "footsy" with the very people who are destroying Islam while you stand by and take whatever gains you can from the violence while pretending it's just that you're so misunderstood. Your silence is NOT misunderstood. Everybodsy in the world knows what you're doing.
NOW ... IF YOU WANT ISLAM TO BE RESPECTED, YOU, AS MUSLIMS NEED TO BE RESPECTABLE.
AND YOU NEED TO GET OUT THERE AND CLEAN OUT OF ISLAM EVERY TERRORIST THAT IS. THAT MEANS YOU HAVE TO GROW A BACKBONE AND HAVE SOME COURAGE AND BRAVERY. YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO MAKE THE SACRIFICE OF YOUR BLOOD TO SAVE YOUR RELIGION. THAT'S **** YOUR JOB **** NOT OUR JOB. |
Jordan
Canada
16 January, 2006
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Great Article
This is one of the best overall articles on Islam vs West I have ever read.
However, I think there is a very serious problem overlooked by the author.
The religion of Islam can be peaceful and tolerant, but as you stated, Islam is also a political, social, and economic system.
It is the economic aspect of Islam that is the most troubling. While based on the best intentions, Islam as an economic policy is as a much of a failure as communism or any other Utopian solutions.
Any society based on fundamentalist Islam, instead of neo-liberal capitolism, will no doubt fail.
As islamo-economic poverty sets in, so does violence, intolerance, and backwardness.
Unfourtunately, unlike communism, Islam is divine. Fundamentalist will never blame Islamic ideology for their economic failure... it is blastphemous.
That leaves only one other option... blame the rich, namely Israel and America. They are the bullies, the evil ones who kept these societies in poverty... it is a cold-war flashback.
How do you convince a population to keep the religion, but abondon all the economic and political aspects of the Koran? |
Shuja
Pakistan
17 January, 2006
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Conflict is between believers, not nations.
Conflict between Islam and christianity is not entirely of 20th century origin. During the entire Islamic history we will find many such examples, when muslims and christians were fighting against each other, sometimes it was for the cause of controlling the holy lands of Palistine and at others the reasons were simply religious. History tells us that during the last thousand years it happened many a times that muslims have defeated christians and vice versa.
To date, this situation continues to remain the same, the only difference lies in the fact that this happened to be the 21st century and humanbeings as a civilization had evolved to a much higher level, as compared to the centuries of the past, if this is seen purely from a materialistic point of view. A muslim living in any part of the globe, however backward or advance may be, simply cannot live in dark ages without having any link with modern day world's realities, whether he is against the present policies pursued by the west or not. There may be some points over which muslims does not agree entirely to the world view and that may had cause decadency and backwardness in their thoughts, but that is not to be seen as a sign of war like conflict with the world. We should need to equip ourselve with the same development and progression which the west had gone through earlier and this in no way means that we will be adopting their ways , but we should live ourselves for what we believe in and should make it an example for the rest of the world to follow.
The problem is that many amongst us live in a world which they believe is overwelmed by west but neither fully understand and follow the western school of thought and nor they have made there own system. I think we should address more to our own ignorance and prejudices then just to be criticizing those who are not following our values and judjments. If I were to be absolutely realistic, at this stage a world with muslims as a large power will only be a "dream not come true". We will never become super power by just bearing with the threats made to us by the super powers and surviving but will require more ability then that. |
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Ahson Saeed Hasan is a journalist/researcher based in Washington DC. He has written extensively on issues of international affairs, foreign policy, and fundamentalism. Currently, Mr. Hasan is Senior Editor in Federal Document Clearing House, a media concern based in the Washington Metropolitan area.
