So…
1. A bunch of Jesus freaks beat the hell out of a Jew. And a Muslim came to his defense. Amazing!
2. A Muhammad freak from Canada strangles his daughter and now it’s proven that Canadians can be stupid, too. The response from both sides has been disgusting. One side says “Ban Islam!” and the other side says “Hijab is a requirement, so parents must convince their daughters of this, or else they’ll both be failures.” What the hell? As I commented on another blog, filicide is not a Muslim practice or invention. Just ask these kids. But people are crazy and hysterical and so “Islam killed Aqsa”.
Oh, indeed, we Muslims hate Jews, the West, women, girls AND Jesus. Every move we make is controlled by Islam. We never, ever “speak out” against atrocities because we really do support terrorism and murder. We are all plotting against you every moment of our lives!
Not.
A fairly significant portion of the kids I worked with have been physically assaulted in a serious way by a parent and it would not be impossible for some of these incidents to escalate to death (one of the kids was stabbed by his father during an argument and another had his head slammed against a brick wall and was left with impaired motor function). While all of these fights had some sort of catalyst, the violence was ultimately another thing entirely. While I hesitate to say anything that sounds authoritative about the case in Canada, because I simply don’t know enough about it, it would not surprise me if this argument about hijab was a smaller part of a larger pattern.
Needless to say, I have been seeing the few conservative pundits and writers who acknowledge the NYC story saying the media should leave the religious aspect of the rescuer alone, it’s irrelevant. Same group of people who look for a muzzie in every new psycho shooter.
Oh, for the day when people can be rational and intelligent-minded and separate actions of some Muslims from Islam. Sigh-am I dreaming of modern day Utopia…?
Excellent post.
Ahadith are tricky. I wish I could ignore them entirely but I can’t; there are so many gems from the messenger mixed in with the refuse, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which. I mean, sure, there are ahadith that contradict each other, the Qu’ran, and just basic common sense and logic, but there are also beautiful admonitions for believers and explanations of our relationship to the most high, and statements that are universally regarded as reliable (although those are few in number). While I did leave Sunnism a while back I could not entirely join the Qu’ran only movement for several reasons, one of which being the cult of personality around certain people (e.g., the 19ers) and another being that I didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater (sorry if I overuse this phrase).
As for Al-Khidr (may god be pleased with him) in the Qu’ran, that is a parable with several layers and many elements and to take away the idea from it that “Islam allows the murder of rebellious children”, pro or con, is to massively miss the point.
(Several idiotic comments were removed.)
Regarding the Quran-only movement: I think the majority of us are not associated with any personality and I am certainly not. I think your observation, while true, also applies to any other “Islamic” movement. Whether it’s a cult around the Prophet Muhammad or around a scholar or a number… But I think Quran aloners are usually the least likely to associate themselves in a cultish way to a personality.
Regarding the baby: I don’t believe he should have been in the bathwater to begin with. (If that makes sense, metaphorically…)
A word in relation to comments on this site which claim that Islamist terrorism is supported only by a tiny minority of Muslims. This is a very general claim, not just confined to this site. Unfortunately, this claim is not supported by surveys carried out within Muslim groups in Europe, the United Kingdom and even in the United States. These surveys indicate that Islamist suicide bombings and general acts of Islamist terrorism have enormous support within Islam. The REAL problem here is that moderate Muslims are in denial with regard to the terrorism perpetrated in their names and the huge support for these murders. Just look up the independent survey results!
I see no reason at all why I, as a muslim, should have to read any survey results to tell me what a bunch of idiotic masses supposedly think my religion says.
I don’t know what “moderate Muslims” are or are not in denial about. If they have any brains at all they realize that extremism and terrorism are big issues within their community.
Now, please tell me how you think the problem of “Islamism” may be solved by me.
Or do you think Islam = Islamism and there’s nothing I can do because terrorism is an Islamic command?