Reform Cannot Come To Islam While We All Lie That It Is "A Religion Of Peace"
It is decidedly not. It is a totalitarian political system dressed up as a religion. It is the greatest danger to Western freedoms, our way of life, and our lives -- and those of the countless Muslims it claims as victims: Muslims who are murdered for being gay, for being apostates, for being "not Muslim enough," for insulting Mohammed or Islam.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who grew up Muslim, explains at PragerU:
I believe that a reform of Islam is necessary and possible. And only Muslims can make that reform a reality. But we in the West cannot remain on the sidelines as though the outcome of this struggle has nothing to do with us. If the jihadists win and the hope for a reformed Islam dies, the rest of the world will pay a terrible price. The terror attacks in New York, London, Madrid, Paris and many other places are only a preview for what is to come.For this reason, I believe that it's foolish to insist, as Western leaders habitually do, that the violent acts committed in the name of Islam can somehow be divorced from the religion itself. For more than a decade, my message has been simple: Islam is not a religion of peace.
When I assert this, I do not mean that Islamic belief makes all Muslims violent. This is manifestly not the case: There are many millions of peaceful Muslims in the world. What I do say is that the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly stated in the sacred texts of Islam. Moreover, this theologically sanctioned violence is there to be activated by any number of offenses, including but not limited to adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality and apostasy--that is, to leave Islam.
Those who tolerate this intolerance do so at their peril.
As someone who has known what it is to live without freedom, I watch in amazement as those who call themselves liberals and progressives--people who claim to believe so fervently in individual liberty and minority rights--make common cause with the forces in the world that manifestly pose the greatest threats to that very freedom and those very minorities.
She lays out what she sees as the road to possible reform of Islam:
Instead of contorting Western intellectual traditions so as not to offend our Muslim fellow citizens, we need to defend both those traditions and the Muslim dissidents who take great risks to promote them. We should support these brave men and women in every way possible.Imagine a platform for Muslim dissidents that communicated their message through YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. These are the Muslims we should be supporting--for our sake as much for the sake of Islam.
In the Cold War, the West celebrated dissidents such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakharov, and Václav Havel, who had the courage to challenge the Soviet system from within. Today, there are many dissidents who challenge Islam, but the West either ignores them or dismisses them as "not representative." This is a grave mistake. Reformers such as Tawfiq Hamid, Asra Nomani & Zuhdi Jasser and many others must be supported and protected. They should be as well known as Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, and Havel were in the 1980s.
If we do in fact support political, social and religious freedom, then we cannot in good conscience give Islam a free pass on the grounds of multicultural sensitivity. We need to say to Muslims living in the West: If you want to live in our societies, to share in their material benefits, then you need to accept that our freedoms are not optional.
Islam is at a cross roads of reformation or self-destruction.
But so is the West.
via @Mark_J_Perry
"Islam is at a cross roads of reformation or self-destruction."
With 23 percent of the world population, and growing, not even close.
Isab at October 10, 2016 11:22 PM
Agree w/Isab. There's no reason for them to change immediately is there? That's probably Amy's point.
Saudi Arabia and other ME countries will not change their school curriculum, our current President has gone out of his way to ignore Christians being targeted in the ME, and those Muslims comfortable in the West have no incentive to do much of anything.
I'm not sure why Greens continue to prevent energy independence here (it's got to be more carbon friendly than shipping oil from overseas). Reducing our and the world's dependence on ME oil should be a good thing.
Bob in Texas at October 11, 2016 5:28 AM
I will say that I'd love to know how many Muslim parents in the U.S. would be comfortable with their kids having Jewish friends at school or inviting them over for dinner. (And how many of them actually LET their kids know that, verbally or nonverbally, when those practices would go against the Koran, IIRC.)
lenona at October 11, 2016 8:57 AM
Both sides share in the blame, but I hold Republicans more responsible (and here's Conan with some sarcastic remark about how supposedly liberal I am).
I would have preferred we left the Middle East alone. "Thanks for selling us the oil, enjoy your bloodthirsty bickering. When you're ready to join the civilized world, you know where to find us."
I just wish I knew, or someone could explain to me, why it is so almighty important to both parties that we accept them over here.
I just love how our politicians are so cavalier with our lives. Aesop's Fables, The Farmer and the Viper, from where we get the expression "viper in our bosom." Look it up.
Patrick at October 11, 2016 9:13 AM
Patrick,
I totally agree w/you about this rabbit hole we went down. I guess Africa set up the "we have to do something" thinking to prevent genocide and then we NEEDED ME oil so ...
Why Merkel and others thought Beirut would not happen to them is totally foreign (ha ha) to me.
The only logic I can think of is that she, her family, and their peers will not be affected. Refugees and 18 year old males will sure as hell not be in her neighborhood.
Bob in Texas at October 11, 2016 9:55 AM
Wonder if it's our money being sent ...
"Since the 1990s, indigenous and foreign extremists financed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other hardline Islamist states have embedded throughout southeastern Europe and created a sophisticated infrastructure consisting of independently controlled mosques and madrassas, safe havens in isolated villages for new recruits to be indoctrinated, hidden, and trained."
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/terror-crossroads-europe%E2%80%99s-doorstep
Bob in Texas at October 11, 2016 12:01 PM
> It is a totalitarian political
> system dressed up as a religion.
I like the way you keep saying that. It's not trite or anything... And every time you say it, it becomes a little more true!
Because that's how it works! The secret that the Vatican doesn't want people to know is that Papal infallibility actually applies to ALL of us... Capiche? So reality conforms itself to any idea expressed with obsessive repetition by anyone.
Remember when ketchup became a vegetable? This was in the 80's. School lunch programs were being criticized, but the Reagan administration said they were nutritious because ketchup —long regarded as a mere condiment— was actually a vegetable. And everybody was all like, 'GTFO, ketchup isn't a vegetable.'
But the Reagan administration stuck to its rhetoric! They said "Yes it is! Ketchup *is* a vegetable... A nourishing one, too!"
And as we now know, ketchup is one of the most nourishing (and delightful!) vegetables in America, bringing both fulfillment and essential micronutrients to millions of American lunches every single day... Especially those of the little children! About whom we care most of all.
So to sum up: It's important that Amy keeps on saying "(Islam) is a totalitarian political system dressed up as a religion." Because not only will that help the little people understand what's "Really™" going on, with both religion and politics as well as with also Islam, but saying it also helps it be true. To life. In the real world.
So Go Go Go!
Crid at October 11, 2016 11:05 PM
Patrick, I never said that you were "supposedly liberal."
Conan the Grammarian at October 15, 2016 8:10 PM
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