Islam Itself Is Holding Muslims Back
Terrific essay via thereligionofpeace.com, Islam Caused Islamic World Decline, by Andrew Stunich. An excerpt that gets into the background something I often explain about Islam, that being a true Muslim, per the Quran, necessitates the conversion or killing of all "infidels." More on the necessary inflexibility and primitiveness of Islam throughout his piece, and how that holds Muslims back in myriad ways. But first, that excerpt:
Islam is a revealed religion with a distinct set of unchanging rules and guidelines to follow. It is not a religion that is supposed to "come from within" like some new age religion. It seems quite incongruous to claim that one believes that Muhammad was Allah's prophet and therefore profess to be a Muslim and then reject clear Islamic doctrine as established by Muhammad when the Qur'an demands that Muslims obey Muhammad and follow his "perfect" example. The religion is named Islam, meaning submission, because its founder, Muhammad, claimed that is the word Allah said to him in several alleged revelations. (Fn 1) Otherwise, the religion would surely have been known as Muhammadanism or something similar thereto.I applaud on moral grounds any Muslim that rejects the violent and hateful aspects of Islamic doctrine, but it seems that at a certain level of modification from the Islam Muhammad preached and practiced, one ceases to be a Muslim. We would all be better served if adherents to evolved or reformed versions of Islam would more accurately self-identify under some other designation.
Instead, we see Ahmadiyya Muslims, many Sufi Muslims, and Bahai Muslims all believing they are "Muslims" when they have deviated so far from the religion Muhammad preached and practiced that Muhammad would hardly consider them Muslims. Muhammad once ordered a mosque, whose members were practicing a heretical form of Islam, burned and his followers burned it to the ground with the heretical Muslims inside thereby establishing in Islamic doctrine that schisms were not only not to be tolerated, but should be violently suppressed. (Fn 2)
Sikhs should be praised for admitting that they are adherents of a new religion that combines aspects of Islam and Hinduism. Many Muslim sects should follow the Sikh's example as it would help alleviate much of the confusion that arises whenever Islam is analyzed and it would limit fundamentalist Islam's ability to hide its true nature.
Because so many Muslims do not practice fundamentalist Islam, the religion often masks its true nature very effectively. Any religion, no mater how clear its doctrines, varies in practice depending upon the nature of the culture where it is practiced. This principle is especially true for Islam. Islam is a syncretic religion that incorporates beliefs from other religions, particularly Arabian Paganism, Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. Because it is already a syncretic religion, Islam has historically readily absorbed increased influence from the other religions previously practiced by new Muslim converts in specific regions. The most well known being the Islam practiced by many Shiite Muslims. Over time, Islam often shed the increased influence in some regions as the old religions in various locales faded from memory, but in some regions, such as Iran, the influence of the prior culture and religion leaves a permanent mark that can greatly alter Islam--not always for the better as exemplified by Iran's Islamic government.
Sometimes, however, the foregoing process does improve Islam with the unfortunate result that fundamentalist Islam, with the help of religiously sanctioned deception known as taquiya, often evades full blame for its extremely violent and hateful doctrines. As will be shown below, real or fundamentalist Islam started as an extremely aggressive, warrior religion and its beginnings set the stage for the Islamic world's eventual decline.
In the sixth century, all of human civilization and advancement were in the middle east. In the seventh century, all advancement stopped. Not slowed, not diminished. Stopped.
What happened between the sixth and seventh centuries to cause this?
Mohammed.
I don't think that's a coincidence.
brian at July 8, 2008 7:35 AM
Accusations of racism in 3... 2...
Jim Treacher at July 8, 2008 8:10 AM
Don't forget accusations of ignorance, since we're misinterpreting or taking the Qu'ran out of context whenever we infidels write about it.
juliana at July 8, 2008 8:16 AM
y'know what? FUCK THE QURAN.
Even if you had a set of bedrock principles by which to live your life that were unchanging, principles that are designed to prevent the growth of knowledge are inherently BAD.
brian at July 8, 2008 8:53 AM
Amy,
You know my feelings about Radical Islam from past posts and so know that I'm no fan whatsoever of it.
However, personal experience leads me to believe that Islam itself (as opposed to Radical Islam) isn't the problem. I have a very good friend in Seattle who is a devout Muslim in that he prays 5 times a day, goes to mosque on a regular basis, and just generally takes his religion very seriously.
With that said, he's very westernized. He's much more of a consumer (shopper) than I am, is more obsessed with sex than most anyone else I know (in a good way), and is a positively contributing member to society at large, his family, and the company he works for.
So I'm not at all convinced that "Islam" is the problem but rather the way certain old men lead others down strange and destructive paths.
Robert W. at July 8, 2008 11:06 AM
P.S. Where the hairs on the back of my neck go up is when I encounter Politically Correct Nonsense.
Just when I think things are going down the toilet in my country of Canada, I pay attention to news over in Europe. There things are clearly worse. Here's an example.
Robert W. at July 8, 2008 4:16 PM
Robert W.- we had something in Minnesota where a Muslim student threatened to kill the service dog of a disabled student in his class. The disabled student dropped out of the school for fear of his service dog. Then the school excelled in the CYA form of press release. Enjoy-
http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080512/NEWS01/105120058
Juliana at July 8, 2008 4:32 PM
Thanks for posting. IMHO the Somali student should be charged to the full extent of the law, the teacher and principal should be forced to stay home without pay for 2 months, and Mr. Gary Loch, the "diversity coordinator" should be fired and forced to volunteer 100 hours at a local SPCA. Then his position should be removed and replaced with one entitled a "Common Sense Coordinator".
Oh by the way, "misunderstandings" seems to be the new buzz word in your country these days, doesn't it?! :-)
Robert W. at July 8, 2008 6:35 PM
I have found no indication of any discipline levied towards the Somali student. He tried to deny a citizen of a protected class something he was guaranteed by law, but apparently the needs of the disabled are not as PC-sexy as tolerance for the needs of Muslims.
Yup, that's ONE of our many new buzzwords...two generations removed from the Greatest Generation, and we're terrified of a confrontation where we might be seen as intolerant.
Juliana at July 8, 2008 6:48 PM
Robert W. posted al ink to a UK telegraph article on german police dogs wearing booties "to avoid offending Muslims." I read the original story in several German newspapers--the booties are for police dogs working in downtowns where there is often debris in the street, including small pieces of glass that don't get swept up. Some dogs were getting their paws hurt. The booties were for that, NOT out of respect for entering Muslim places of worship (or any other clean INDOOR place). I have no idea how the story got that twisted. Where are those UK libel laws now?!
Monica at July 9, 2008 6:19 AM
OK, just read the UK article (not just looked at the photo) and it IS about the UK and apparently out of respect for Muslims. What's confusing is that the photo is of a German police dog and came from the series I read in the German papers, where the booties definitely were for safety reasons.
Monica at July 9, 2008 6:31 AM
We over here in the so-called Western world should say to hell with islam and any instance of abiding by islamic law. If something in the United States offends a muslim then it's just too fucking bad. That's our problen now, too many people are offended in too many ways. The solution to this is to look the other direction. I will personally begin to protest when sniff dogs in my country are caused to have to wear booties because some retarded muslim is offended by feet. This is the most retarded ass shit I've ever heard of.
Joshua at August 5, 2008 10:30 PM
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