A useful book review/lecture Irfy.

Interesting how youngsters in the West usually only gain a narrow perception of Islam.

Broader Islamic education COULD moderate extremist ideas that have crept in.

However, on the other hand broader Islamic education may pull back young men (who are becoming secular like the rest of us) into Islamic seperatism.

I would put forward that most religious kids, be they of Catholic parents or strongly Muslim parents, generally grow out of devout religion, become less God fearing. They become more secular.

They become more interested in the ordinary values of people around them and less interested in religious THEORY - which can be (and is) used as an excuse for violent acts on Earth.

This presents a difficult mixture of teaching kids that they are Muslims and teaching them that they are Australians.

Pete
http://spyingbadthings.blogspot.com/

My posts in the past have generally been supportive of this author, and I have in the main been critical of some of his more blinkered and unthinking detractors. However in this essay I am most concerned about the phrase "the World Trade Centre twin towers collapsed".

There is, in this turn of phrase, the suggestion that they just fell down of their own accord. Collapse - being an intransitive verb - has this connotation. I would hate to think that this author, whose work I have in the main respected, is in some small way trying to distort history.

The fact is that he twin towers didn't fall (intransitive verb), they were pushed (transitive verb).

I agree with the Twin Towers bit,Irfen kind of blurs over that bit .I think it is probably easier to tiptoe around some subjects but it is not as honest.
Bringing together two differing cultures is always somewhat difficult but when it is Islam plus or versus any other culture, it is better not to try.
It doesn't matter how much the West has tried to live with Islam, even to the point of appeasement, Muslims are always going to feel victimised, marginalised, hard done by because Muslims cannot get on with anybody-not even other Muslims. That is proved by the horrors that confront us in the media daily.
The West and the East, in this case, will never meet in truth.Or peace.

'The book contains some inaccuracies. Husain erroneously claims HT was the ideological forebear of al-Qaida, a claim experts on political Islamism would dismiss. However, it is an elegantly written and honest account of one young British Muslim's journey into and out of different forms of political Islam. Cultural warriors will be disappointed by Husain's central thesis: that greater exposure of Muslim youth to mainstream Islamic theology provides an effective antidote to Islamism.'

You're not turning into an apologist for the HT crowd are you Irfan? I'm still waiting for a clear anti-HT comment from you. After all, HT is unfortunately still alive and very active within Australian society.

Secondly, the BEST antidote to Islamism is not more Islam but a good dose of scepticism and critical thinking. In other words, a good dose of science and the scientific worldview.

I dare any Islamist (or Muslim)to read the following classic texts and still be a gung-ho true-believer;

'The Selfish Gene' (Dawkins)
'Breaking the Spell' (Dennett)
'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' (Dennett)
'The Meaning of Things' (Grayling)
'The Human Mind' (Pinker)
'DNA' (Watson)
'God is not Great' (Hitchens)
'Why I am not a Muslim' (Warraq)

Nothing destroys religious fundamentalism like a good dose of scientific naturalism.

Of course, Muslims don't need to be brainwashed to the point of Islamism to be undesirable nutcases.

Here is a recent 'Muslim Village' exchange that is unfortunately not that atypical. Just do a search under apostasy/apostate on the website and you will see what I mean;

http://forums.muslimvillage.net/index.php?showtopic=36512&pid=594043&st=0&#entry594043

'Such beliefs aren't based on anything other than western minded thinking and ignorance of classical Islamic doctrine. The fact is, us layman DON'T have the right to our own opinions. We must follow the majority of 'those who know'. IE. The majority of the Ulema.

I'm not advocating an inquistorial style witch hunt to find out who is an apostate or not, but I am in favour of those who openly claim to be ex-muslims and work against it, being killed....'

Some moron called 'Freeman' posted this comment. He needs a good dose of 'Dawkins' to help eradicate the Islamo-virus from his mind. Poor soul

Oh thank God. I'm so glad we have determined the reason why Islamist are as they are. Now we can all make the changes necessary to accommodate their angst and the world will be at peace. I suppose I will have to kill a few innocent bystanders until the world makes the changes necessary to address my likes and dislikes.