Islamic theocracy in action

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/11261473/Watch-Pakistani-actress-Veena-Malik-faces-26-year-prison-sentence-for-blasphemy.html?WT.mc_id=e_3719619&WT.tsrc=email&etype=frontpage&utm_source=email&utm_medium=Edi_FAM_New_TEST_V2_2014_11_29&utm_campaign=3719619

At least they didn't cut the actress's head off. Yet.

Hi Grateful,

You suggest that " .... When the terrorists kill Muslims you show no compassion for the victims or interest in why they are being targeted."

But I did write:

"I wonder if the Islamo-fascists especially target Muslims who criticise Islamo-fascism."

By 'random', I mean that the innocent people killed are not known to, or specifically targeted by, the Islamo-fascists: if they appear to oppose such fascism, they they'll do.

My heart goes out to all those 'moderate' Muslims who oppose, perhaps secretly, the doctrines and actions of the fascists. Ultimately, the conflict with fundamentalism, all Islamic fundamentalisms, has to be resolved within Islam: the dogma that none of it can be ever criticised or modified since it is supposed to the literal word of Allah (even if first written by him in Syriac or Aramaic rather than Arabic), the right of a Muslim to abandon his or her beliefs - basically the right to question, which is so fundamental to the Enlightenment - still has to be fought for and won within Islam.

As long as the right to question, modify, and re-interpret the bits and pieces of the Koran - even to disbelieve any of it - is denied at point of death, then Islam will remain bogged down where Christianity was five hundred years ago, pig-ignorant and benighted.

So 'moderate' Muslims have my full sympathy: they have a very hard and long row to hoe yet. I hope a start can be made within my lifetime, most likely by a multitude of young women following Malala Yousefzai's courageous example. Perhaps even some Australian feminists may take time off to offer some sort of support for their Muslim sisters.

Joe

“Moderate” Moslems distressed by being lumped together with real (i.e. Koran-faithful) Moslems remind me of the plaintive letters to newspapers from Roman “Catholics” lamenting that the Roman church wouldn’t “let” them use contraceptives. The answer to a religion that can’t accommodate reform (as reform would destroy its basic objective) is simple. Apostasy. Junk the cult. My own wife, once indoctrinated like millions of others, junked the theocratic Roman cult along with all religion before I first met her, and has never looked back. There is absolutely no moral obligation on believers in a cult to try to reform it. There are many prominent apostates from Islam, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq, Salman Rushdie. Their apostasy is a living example to others.

A couple of cautions here:

#1. Islam is not the only source of injustice to Moslem populations. Zionism, imperialism, Sino-fascism, Serb racism, Burmese chauvinism all bear down on Moslems who can only be applauded and supported for striking back - at those imposing the injustice, not at people who are not doing so.

#2. Apostasy is hazardous in countries in which Islam is well entrenched such as Britain, Europe, the Arab world, some ex-Soviet lands. Australia is heading that way and it is in our interest to oppose the trend. The way forward is to absorb and uphold the individual rights flowing from the 18th century Enlightenment and the 20th century war against fascism. To uphold them in particular against throwback individuals and cults that seek to reverse them. Like Islam.

Thank you, Jules, I couldn't have said it better :)

Regards,

Joe

EmperorJulian,

When I did some study on Islam and the West, the tutor liked using Bernard Lewis references as he considered him an authority on Islam. At the end of the course we were all negative about Islam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Lewis
In Lewis' view, the "by now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century" with "no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition."[44] He further comments that "the fanatical warrior offering his victims the choice of the Koran or the sword is not only untrue, it is impossible" and that "generally speaking, Muslim tolerance of unbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom, until the rise of secularism in the 17th century."[45]

Fr Samir, a Jesuit Scholar of Islam also states what is occurring now is unprecedented. He also says the same about Secularism.

Here is an explanation by a native Egyptian Jesuit who takes into account recent history and the growing extreme secularism in the West; poor education in Islamic countries . Exacerbated by the West’s meddling in the middle east.
http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-samir-on-isis-what-they-are-doing-is-diabolical/%23ixzz3CCHeuFxw#.VAboCz0ayc0

Hi Constance,

That telephone interview with Father Samir has so many insights, especially his conclusion:

"I don’t like to say this word, but, in a way, what they [ISIS] are doing is diabolical; it’s something the world has never seen in history. We’ve seen a lot of cruelty, but this is a planned cruelty. This is why I think there’s no future for them in the long term. But in the short term, they will win more and more, and we have to stop them. Now."

Thank you.

Joe