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The Forum > Article Comments > 'Unimagined: a Muslim boy meets the West' > Comments

'Unimagined: a Muslim boy meets the West' : Comments

By Irfan Yusuf, published 1/4/2008

Book review: 'Unimagined: a Muslim boy meets the West', by Imran Ahmad, is a light-hearted memoir which dispels Muslim stereotypes with deft.

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Geert Wilders' new movie paints a bleak picture of the Koran. You know, all those nasty verses inspiring the terrorists. He wants Muslims to tear out the offending pages:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/020472.php

Initially I thought "you're dreamin Geert, ain't no Muslims gonna tear up the word of God". But the more I read Irfan, the more I realise that very few Muslims actually read the Koran. So few, in fact, that it looks like none of them will object if we go ahead with Geert's call to ban the Koran:

http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3094

Admittedly I haven't read all of Irfan's words (and hey, who can?) but, if he and his ummah never discuss anything inside the Koran, then it looks they won't mind if we ban it in the West. So we've found a way to avoid world war 3: ban the Koran! Irfan, you da man!
Posted by online_east, Tuesday, 1 April 2008 11:17:03 PM
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OK, I'll bite. Geerts is a right wing extremist whose raison d'etre is to stir up racial trouble.

Ban the Koran. Wow.

Perhaps the same logic could be applied to the Bible, which also has some particularly nasty pieces in it.

I thought the piece was essentially saying that Muslims are just like the rest of us. That sounds eminently sensible to me.

Unfortunately there are politicians who benefit from creating a false dichotomy between people. One former one comes immediately to mind.
Posted by Passy, Tuesday, 1 April 2008 11:48:04 PM
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John..(Passy) err..'no' you cannot ban the bible because it has 'distasteful' bits in it.....

HOWEVER..IF..the Bible has something like this: (A modified quote of Jesus.. may the Lord excuse me..he knows my reasons)

Matthew 10:

7"Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19But when they arrest you,......

This now(the following) is the 'NON-Biblical' version which would see ME agreeing to ban the Bible. (but it is actually a paraphrase of the Quran)

"Fight them, with all your might.. fighting is obligatory for you disciples.. even though you don't like it. Take swords.. take weapons of all description and fight in the way of God.. to defeat them...then make a great slaughter among them..tie them up.. and carve off their heads"

NOW..THE REAL BIBLICAL CONTINUATION.....

"...do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."

WOW! now 'that's dangerous isn't it ? "talk"... you will be given what to..."SAY"

Any reasonable man or woman who does not see the STARK contrast between these approaches to those who would fight against us because we are Christians....is to be kind.. 'retarded'... and I'm not joking...

Jesus mention of him bringing a 'sword' was in connection with the above... the swords were those of the persecutors..NOT the Christians.

As I've always maintained...always.. but ALWAYS assess and evaluate the behavior of 'Christians' in the light of their Biblical foundation!

Dragging up historical events from the Old Testament simply does NOT apply to today in the way that the life and teaching of Jesus do.

(so, any critic..don't even bother to drag up the Midianites, Amalekites or any other 'ites')
Posted by BOAZ_David, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 11:31:39 AM
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With all due respect to all.....in reading comments here, not just on this thread, but older ones on Islam as well, with few exceptions, all I see are spiritually bankrupt people, who cannot discern right from wrong, or good from evil. There is not, and never will be, anything good, or "equal to all others," about Islam. If you cannot see this with your own eyes, then I am afraid there is no hope for you, and no point in discussing this.
Posted by Liza, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 12:38:59 PM
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Passy, stereotypes and equivalence arguments are useful if all you are seeking is reinforcement of prejudice. The issue is not that "Muslims are just like the rest of us", the issue is the ideology of Islam (ideology being the better predictor of Muslim behaviour in the long-term).

Robert Spencer on the Bible:

http://tinyurl.com/35pjsl

In short, the consensus view among Jews and Christians for many centuries is that unless you happen to be a Hittite, Girgashite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, or Jebusite, these biblical passages simply do not apply to you. The scriptures record God’s commands to the Israelites to make war against particular people only. However this may be understood, and however jarring it may be to modern sensibilities, it does not amount to any kind of marching orders for believers. That’s one principal reason why Jews and Christians haven’t formed terror groups around the world that quote the Bible to justify killing non-combatants.

http://tinyurl.com/2wylat

Certainly Christians have committed violent acts in the name of Christianity. But have they done so in obedience to or defiance of Christian scripture and the teachings of the church? During the Crusades, it became customary for those who joined the effort to be referred to as "taking up their cross," echoing Jesus's statement: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).

But this admonition says nothing about war or violence and has always been understood as a call to conform one's life to the demands of the Gospel. And so it is with all biblical passages that the Crusaders and Crusader theologians invoked: they took clearly spiritual passages and applied them to warfare ...

... The fact that he [St. Bernard] must instead resort to passages about spiritual warfare only makes more obvious that Christianity lacks a martial tradition in the New Testament, just as it lacks a New Testament doctrine of warfare against unbelievers.

In Islam, however, the situation is quite different.
Posted by online_east, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 6:34:28 PM
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Boaz: "Dragging up historical events from the Old Testament simply does NOT apply to today in the way that the life and teaching of Jesus do.

(so, any critic..don't even bother to drag up the Midianites, Amalekites or any other 'ites')"

Cool. Online_east says that muslims don't read the qu'ran so we should be able to ban it.

Clearly, the old testament stuff ain't relevant to jesus's life, as you just said.

So we can ban the old testament then boaz?

Actually, I hate censorship, but I'll be amused to see how you justify this one...
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 6:52:42 PM
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