A Muslim speaking out
I’ve seen others, too.
ADDENDUM:
In response to some of the comments, I’ll add that of course her speaking out doesn’t change anything regarding jihadis, their goals, and their grip on so many ordinary Muslims. Nevertheless she models the possibility of disagreement within the faith. She is hardly alone, either. But the reason I included this video is because I often read commentary on the right side of the blogosphere saying something like, “Where are the moderate Muslims? Why aren’t they speaking out? I haven’t heard or seen a single one.”
They indeed exist. The problem is that they don’t seem to matter much if at all. That doesn’t negate the fact of their courage.
Clearly a good person and very brave indeed given her speaking out publicly.
From the supplied link: “Ahmed is a practicing Muslim but is critical of elements of Islam…”
Like all Muslims reformers, she is unable to accept the truth of the religion she embraces.
“The Quran contains at least 109 verses that speak of war with nonbelievers, usually on the basis of their status as non-Muslims. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.” https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
I’ve written about this before but apparently it bears repeating.
Islam cannot undergo a reformation. That is because Mohammed repeatedly proclaimed that he was not the author of the Qur’an. But that Allah was the author of the Qur’an. Muhammad claimed to be illiterate but was miraculously enabled to take dictation during repeated visits by the Archangel Gabriel who transmitted Allah’s words to Mohammed. The archangel watching over his shoulder and ensuring his accuracy.
And therein is the rub; the ‘actual’ words of a perfect and infallible ‘God’ cannot be revised by a fallible, flawed humanity. So not even a comma can be changed in the ”sacred’ Qur’an. Allah’s calls for violence against the unbeliever not only cannot be changed, they must be acted upon by the believer.
And therein lies the insolvable quandary for the Muslim reformer; to reform the Qur’an requires changing Allah’s words and the only way the words can be changed is either to declare that Mohammed was either a liar or deranged. In either case, Islam’s theological foundations collapse.
I think that Muslim reformers hope to persuade themselves and others that Qur’anic commands to kill Jews and other infidels applied only to Muhammad’s initial campaign to lead Arabia from polytheism to the worship of Allah. It’s a hard sell, but the only way to redeem Islam and make it a modern religion.
“It’s a hard sell, but the only way to redeem Islam and make it a modern religion.”
Kate…my dad used to say, “Spit in one hand & wish in the other. Then tell me which one fills up first.”
Islam must be “contained” because it will not be reformed.
But who, in a position to be heard & taken seriously, has the stones to make that statement in public?
I’d like to reinforce what Geoffrey Britain wrote. Expressed another way: “Moderate” Muslims don’t matter. As Mark Steyn would write, it’s the militants (in any movement) that “make the running.” They’re the only ones who matter as far as consequences go.
In 2007, I did a sort of review of a then-new book, political scientist (Stanford PhD) Gregory Davis’s Religion of Peace? Islam’s War Against the World. The “review” is here: https://vdare.com/posts/book-recommendation-religion-of-peace-by-gregory-davis
Here are three quotes from the Davis book:
[page 4]
“Of course, Muslims (like Christians, Jews, and members of any religion) often fail to understand or live up to the standards of their faith. But what distinguishes Islam from other religions is that when it is correctly understood and practiced, Islam actively seeks the subjugation or destruction of everything that is not itself. Non-Islamic religions may seek the conversion or evangelization of others, and their devotees may employ force against others from time to time. But Islam is the only religion whose basic animating principles pit it against the rest of the world, ensuring that war is the natural and obligatory state of affairs.”
[page 19]
“To be clear: we are talking about Islam — not Islamic ‘fundamentalism,’ ‘extremism,’ ‘fanaticism,’ ‘Islamo-fascism,’ or even that over-used euphemism ‘Islamism.’ We are talking about Islam proper, Islam in orthodox form as it has been understood and practiced by devout Muslims from the time of Muhammad to the present.” [emphasis in original]
[closing paragraph]
“The West must awaken to the fact that it is facing nothing less than the resurgence of the greatest war machine in world history: an ideology that holds the killing of others, the plundering of their wealth, the conquering of their lands, the enslavement of their people, and the destruction of their institutions to be among the highest virtues and the stepping stones to salvation. Islam, while it continues to lack a centralized political structure, is nonetheless reacquiring the means of war it has used to such deadly effect in the past. Yet it seems that the secular West today is determined not to hear the bad news. It is hoping against hope that things are not as bad as they seem. It is hoping that the myriad acts of violence around the world done in the name of Allah are somehow not indicative of ‘real’ Islam. It is hoping that Muslims throughout the world calling for the destruction of America and Europe are just blowing hot air. It is hoping that Islam — a religion founded by one of history’s great warlords; a religion that waged wars of aggression and conquest for a thousand years, that slaughtered and enslaved untold millions and invented modern genocide, and that today is the only force in the world that produces terrorism, suicide bombings, hostage-taking, organized rape, and massacres on a global scale — that this strange, seething, violent mass is somehow ‘a religion of peace.’ Rejecting this fiction and standing up to be counted will determine whether or not we survive the twenty-first century.”
She is living in another galaxy if she thinks Islam can be reformed. It can only be destroyed. Tell ya what: get a copy of The Critical Quran. Read it through and talk to me about reforming that
I can’t believe no one has “edited” her Wikipedia entry to cast her as an Islamophobe. It’s actually a fair-minded entry for a change.
@Richard Cook. I have that book. The thing is, you still have to plow through the text of he Quran itself, which is excruciating. I’ve set it aside for the time being.
}}} A Muslim speaking out
Not enough, unfortunately. What moderates there are are too cowed to stand up to the fanatics.
My only response to that can be, “Well, when the shit hits the fan, assume you’re going to be grouped with the fanatics… because there don’t appear to be very many non-fanatics…”
Of course her speaking out doesn’t change anything regarding jihadis, their goals, and their grip on so many ordinary Muslims. Nevertheless she models the possibility of disagreement within the faith. She is hardly alone, either. But the reason I included this video is because I often read commentary on the right side of the blogosphere saying something like, “Where are the moderate Muslims? Why aren’t they speaking out? I haven’t heard or seen a single one.”
They indeed exist. The problem is that they don’t seem to matter much if at all. That doesn’t negate the fact of their courage.
OTOH, here’s a taste of “reality”, Lebanese style:
“As Hezbollah attacks defy UN resolutions, Lebanon’s PM claims country commited to them;
“In surprise trip to south of country, Najib Mikati meets UNIFIL chief, claims he seeks ‘to reaffirm peace-loving Lebanon’s respect for all legitimate international resolutions’ “—
https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-hezbollah-attacks-defy-un-resolutions-lebanon-pm-claims-country-commited-to-them/
Key “conception” (in opening grafs):
“Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati reaffirmed on Tuesday Beirut’s commitment to a UN resolution that ended a 2006 conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, as cross-border fire along the Lebanon-Israel border continued to intensify.
“Hezbollah has been violating that resolution incessantly since the start of the Israel-Hamas war….” [Emphasis mine; Barry M.]
And the rest is “commentary”…
File under: The Cognitive Dissonance will set you free…
Those within the Muslim faith who disagree with the Koran, are much like the Flat Earthers who disagree with everyone else who believes the earth is a globe. Ultimately they don’t have any real argument to back up their assertions, and it falls apart in a real world context.
I have a neighbor Muslim family. They’re a young family with his parents living with them. The parents came here from Bangladesh. The parents both dress in traditional Muslim garb. The son and his wife seem westernized except when they go to mosque. They are observant in that way.
I’ve told him that I have no problem with the five pillars of Islam but am very opposed to Salafism/Wahabism. He was not comfortable with that but said he understood. He claims to be a moderate and I have no reason to doubt him. He seems friendly enough but we’re not close at all.
I have not seen any of them since October 7th. I’m not looking forward to seeing them as the war will be sitting there like a steaming pile of garbage, even if it isn’t discussed. Hoping for the best as things go along.
Well, it would be nice if the NEWS MEDIA would show moderates denouncing these actions with the same speed that they show Muslims celebrating them. My perception is that the few Muslims that hate terrorism wait a while, poke their heads up to see if they can come out, and then speak out. That’s from what the media decides to show me. What I do know is that nothing Hamas did in the attack was new. When your world view is the House of Peace (Moslems) and the House of War (everyone else) it narrows your thinking. Much like Calvinists divided people into the elect and sinners. Islam is stuck in the ninth century and everyone else in the world can’t live with that.
I think these actions speak louder than her words, unfortunately.
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/just-as-cruel-as-the-terrorists-many-ordinary-palestinians-joined-in-hamass-atrocities-against-israel/
I’ve lived in the UAE for almost a decade. The Emiratis I work with all seemed moderate and tolerate and very hospitable. I see no hostility here
Their government sees great advantages in working with the West and turns its security apparatus against radicals.
So there is a moderate Islamic society and government out there. Of course that could change quickly.
Related:
“After The Horror, Resolve”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2023/10/24/after-the-horror-resolve/
Geoffrey Britain’s comment above is excellent. How dare some mere human declare that “The Literal, Eternal, Perfect Word Of God Himself” (the Koran) is wrong? Not going to happen.
Please note: That thing about Islam meaning “submission” (to the will of God). A good Muslim doesn’t question or judge the rules of his religion. Allah has a perfect plan for humanity, and Believers are called to bring his plan into being here on earth. They will do the will of God, BECAUSE it is the will of God. (Even if non-believers consider their actions repugnant – We’re not of the Islamic “Borg” and so we don’t count.)
Another good article for understanding Islam and why it can’t be changed is at
http://www.citizenwarrior.com/2009/05/terrifying-brilliance-of-islam.html
Dear JJ:
You have my sympathy for your unfortunate proximity to a family of moslems. My advice is to never, ever relax your vigilence, especially as their children become adolescents. The second generation of moslem immigrants are frequently the most easily radicalized. Were I you, I would be looking for another place to dwell and in the meanwhile, I would make certain that appropriate means of defense of self, family and propery are close at hand at all times. To paraphrase Reagan, “Trust but learn to shoot.”
A danger sign of whether Muslims are radicals is whether their women wear face veils. In the US, even the hijab (head covering) can be a sign of a trend towards stricter Islam.
I had a group of female Muslim friends in Cairo. Most of them did not wear the hijab, and said their mothers, in the early twentieth century, had fought against it. My Muslim friends would cross the street to avoid passing a woman wearing the full black abaya and face veil, saying that one can’t even tell if that’s a woman under there, and it might be a criminal.
These women and their husbands were culturally Muslim, not close followers of the Qur’an. What Whitehall describes in the UAE sounds similar.
The problem comes when Muslims from the 75% or so who are not radicals get sucked into the fundamentals of the faith. This can happen even in families with a very modern outlook, because the traditional teachings are there, and if they read them and accept them, they can turn violent. A fundamentalist Muslim believes the violent commandments are God’s will.
Count me in with Geoffrey Britain et al.
If Islam could have reformed, by now it would have reformed. Islam hasn’t reformed, because it can’t be reformed.
Islam is a supremacist, literalist religion committed by Allah to subjugating the world to Islamic rule by any means necessary, including violence.
However, individual Muslims may find understandable human ways to ignore, cope with and moderate Islam’s sharp edges.
But they won’t make a difference to Islam and they had better have their bodyguards lined up.
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer), thanks for the advice.
Since the summer of 2020 when the Antifa violence got within three miles of my community, I’ve had plenty of defense and security measures in place. We have an excellent police force that is minutes away from where I live.
I’ve done what I can. But I have to live my life. Que sera, sera.