Is this religions a system of beliefs based on peace, or riddled with calls for violence and fierce opposition to another reference of religion?
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal |
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has invited discussion (and invoked controversy) by suggesting the following:
“If Islam does not support what is happening in the name of Islam, then they need to stand up and stop it. . .Many Islamic leaders argue that these are the acts of a radical few.
“And the fact is that radical Islamists do not believe in freedom or common decency nor are they willing to accommodate them in any way and anywhere. We need to stop pretending otherwise.
“How many Muslims in this world agree with these radicals? I have no idea, I hope it is a small minority. But it is clear that far too many do, and it is clear that they must be stopped.
Then:
“Let me be blunt about this. I want America’s allies to trust us and respect us, and I want our enemies to fear us. Every day our enemies spend their time trying to avoid our justice is a day they are not plotting against us. And I fear that in recent years this has not been the case.”
In short: Islam has a problem. . .
Is Jindal an out-of-touch right-wing nutjob? Or do we have to face the fact that Islam has a problem? National Review recognizes that Jindal gets something about Islam which many government officials want to ignore.
Frankly, he is not alone in his sentiments.
Fareed Zakaria |
From CNN's Fareed Zakaria:
I know all the arguments against speaking of Islam as violent and reactionary. It is a vast world of 1.6 billion people. . .but let's be honest. Islam has a problem today. In 2013, according to the State Department, of the top ten groups who perpetrated terrorist attacks, seven were Muslim.
Of the top ten countries where terrorist attacks took place, seven were Muslim majority countries.
Zakaria included India and the Philippines in that list, yet those countries are neither officially Muslim nor recognized as majority Muslim countries. Hinduism is a dominant religion in India, while the Philippines identifies as a Catholic country with animist cohorts.
The Pew Research Center rates countries on levels of restrictions governments impose on the free exercise of religion. Of the twenty-four most restrictive countries, nineteen are Muslim majority.
There is a cancer of extremism within Islam today.
Zakaria then suggested that only a small minority of Muslims approve terrorist acts. . .
While some moderates confront these extremists, not enough do so, and the protests are not loud enough. How many mass rallies have been held against ISIS in the Arab World today?
From a wider, historical perspective on Islam, Zakaria argues that Islam is for the most part a religion of peace, and mentions that Muslims and Jews coexisted for centuries in a number of countries. What the host neglects is that the core tenets of Islam advocate for violent means against infidels, and that there are a number of accounts in which Muslim fighters and their countries engaged in the most extreme acts of violence and desecration against non-Muslim countries. While Zakaria incorrectly faulted critics of Islam as oversimplifying the issue, even Zakaria's focus on extremism in Islam cannot be ignored.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi |
Egypt’s new President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared the following:
I say and repeat again that we are in need of a religious revolution. You, imams, are responsible before Allah. . .. The entire world, I say it again, the entire world is waiting for your next move… because this umma is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost—and it is being lost by our own hands.
Charlie Rose interviewed confirmed atheist and modern liberal apologist/comedian Bill Maher. In this segment, Maher dismisses Rose's naiveté about Islam:
I think that liberals should stop booing me for pointing out that Islam is not like other religions, it is a unique threat. . .
Maher slammed Howard Dean claiming that he is just as Muslim as anyone else in the world, and then said:
There are illiberal beliefs that are held by vast numbers of Muslim people. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you leave the Christian religion, you should be killed for it. Vast numbers of Christians do not treat women as second class citizens. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you draw a picture of Jesus Christ, you should get killed for it. Most Muslim people in the world do condone violence just for what you think.
From secular reports to Muslim accounts, to atheistic philosophers' questions and comments, and the research, statistics, and accounts which they refer to, it is evident that there is something wrong with Islam, and I am not just saying this myself.
That thinking—I am not saying ‘religion’ but ‘thinking’—that corpus of texts and ideas that we have sacralized over the years, to the point that departing from them has become almost impossible, is antagonizing the entire world. It’s antagonizing the entire world!
Is it possible that 1.6 billion people [Muslims] should want to kill the rest of the world’s inhabitants— seven billion of them—so that they themselves may live? Impossible!
I am saying these words here at Al Azhar, before this assembly of scholars and ulema [religious authorities] —Allah Almighty be witness to your truth on Judgment Day concerning that which I’m talking about now.
All this that I am telling you, you cannot feel it if you remain trapped within this mindset. You need to step outside of yourselves to be able to observe it and reflect on it from a more enlightened perspective.
Now, the President of Egypt, the largest country in the Middle East, is calling for a revolution in how Islam is understood and practiced. He has not problem with the religion, but rather its political applications and implications.
Mosab Hassan Yousef |
The son of one of Hamas' Founders, Mosab Hassan Yousef, takes a more radical view, declaring the very God of Islam is evil. Here are some of his most devastating critiques of Islam:
The problem is in the god of Islam. This is shocking and unfortunately this is the reality about this god. He's the god of torture. He's a god, the deceit god. . .I'm not trying to offend Muslims. I love them. Those Muslims are my family. Some of them will be offended, but many of them will wake up.
. . .
Every Muslim who reads the Koran, and they allow themselves to listen to this Koran and believe it at the same time, that this is from God, I think they are sick, and they need help. I believe that Islam is collapsing already. It looks from the outside [that] it's growing, but from the inside it's collapsing. It's not giving answers to the people, it's not improving their lives.
. . .
They [Hamas] are starting to suspect everyone. They tortured and killed their own people. . . Hamas leaders are responsible for torturing their own members.
Yousef recounted that the sheiks and Islamic teachers focus on certain parts of the book. What Yousef described as a bipolar religion, Islam permits believers to hold onto whatever beliefs they want to, including tenets which justify violence, yet at the same time define Islam as a religion of peace. "Islam is the most bipolar religion on earth, that you can find whatever you want."
Richard Dawkins, a well-known British atheist and academic, repeatedly demanded devout Muslims to inform him and the British audience of the consequences of apostasy in Islamic countries, yet they refused a number of times to answer the question. What are the consequences? Death.
Visit this website, and learn about the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, men and women who have renounced the religion, citing numerous concerns, including Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam.
Richard Dawkins, a well-known British atheist and academic, repeatedly demanded devout Muslims to inform him and the British audience of the consequences of apostasy in Islamic countries, yet they refused a number of times to answer the question. What are the consequences? Death.
Visit this website, and learn about the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, men and women who have renounced the religion, citing numerous concerns, including Political and Legal Status of Apostates in Islam.
Bill Maher |
Charlie Rose interviewed confirmed atheist and modern liberal apologist/comedian Bill Maher. In this segment, Maher dismisses Rose's naiveté about Islam:
I think that liberals should stop booing me for pointing out that Islam is not like other religions, it is a unique threat. . .
Maher slammed Howard Dean claiming that he is just as Muslim as anyone else in the world, and then said:
There are illiberal beliefs that are held by vast numbers of Muslim people. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you leave the Christian religion, you should be killed for it. Vast numbers of Christians do not treat women as second class citizens. Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you draw a picture of Jesus Christ, you should get killed for it. Most Muslim people in the world do condone violence just for what you think.
From secular reports to Muslim accounts, to atheistic philosophers' questions and comments, and the research, statistics, and accounts which they refer to, it is evident that there is something wrong with Islam, and I am not just saying this myself.
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