(Please read author's comments box below first.)
"Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie,
but rather mourn the apathetic,
throng the coward and the weak
who see the world's great anguish and it's wrong,
and dare not speak."
- Ralph Chaplin
(9/11/01 - The day Islamo-Fascists woke the sleeping giant.)
(Al Quaeda videotaped beheading.)
(Hamas terrorists - the guys who slaughter innocent civilians in malls, nightclubs and buses - holding Korans.)
( Digging up men, women and children murdered by Saddam Hussein, most of which were blindfolded and shot in the head. The current body count is over 400,000, but the estimated total of executions is 1.2 million. )
"If Saddam Hussein had not been deposed, the majority of Iraqi's would have ended up in mass graves."
- Latika Padgaonkar, The Pioneer, New Delhi
More on Mass Graves -
www.medyaarts.com/mg_reviews.htm
www.usaid.gov/iraq/legacyofterror.html
Also visit massgraves.info
(I'm proud to report that one of my poems is on that site. Click on the "poem" link to read it.)
Before you read anything else, read this article (written by an Iranian woman, not a westerner.)
The Silent Holocaust: Why Humanity Must Achieve Victory Over Islam - by Azam Kamguian
www.secularislam.org/humanrights/silent.htm
Every psychologist tells his patients, "Before your problem can be solved, we must identify what the problem is." This is also true of problems with nations, communities, and religions. Problems within religions, however, are engulfed by a larger problem - the total unwillingness by devotees of that religion to rethink what they have been programmed since birth to believe without question. This is true of all religions. As a friend on this site so wisely pointed out (see author's comments below), "It's a religion they've believed their entire lives and it has become part of their identity. If something is wrong in Islam and you highlight it, it feels like you're telling them that a part of their very personhood is wrong."
However, I believe that this issue is important enough to walk through the fire of denial, defensiveness, and blind faith on the part of Muslims. I did the same thing several months ago when I posted a series of columns on things that confuse me about Christianity. ("Big Question" series 1-9) A few Christians got upset because I was questioning their faith, but the vast majority were respectful and understood what I was trying to do - deepen my own understanding and faith, and open the door of communication so that, perhaps, problems could start to be solved, at least in the minds and lives of those people who read the articles and were moved to respond.
If you are a Muslim and you address me respectfully, I will reciprocate. As you can see from some of the responses to this column, however, that was often not the case. I understand that this must be a difficult time to be Muslim - fearing Muslim extremists on one side, and fearing racist non-Muslims on the other. But I am not the enemy. Believe it or not, my goal in posting this piece was to improve the image of Islam, not help destroy it. It is being destroyed by Muslim terrorists. In this column, I am challenging good Muslims to help restore the image of Islam by protesting the extremist minority who are making your lives difficult.
There are some harsh criticisms below regarding Islam. I tend to make my points in a very passionate way. It's just the way I write. But my goal, again, is to provoke thought and communication, and to urge any Muslims who might read this to confront the extremists who are damaging the image of their faith, and educate them on what Islam is supposed to be about. If it truly is the "religion of peace", then Muslims who don't support Islamic terrorists or condone their actions need to speak, write, act, and march much more than they are currently. I am greatly distressed by the lack of outrage on the part of the good Muslims toward terrorism, and every other non-Muslim I know is, too.
I have already been attacked by a few Muslims for posting this column, saying I lump all Muslims together. I hope you will be able to see that I do not. When referring to the terrorists who are making all our lives dangerous and difficult (even the lives of good Muslims), every time I use the word "Muslim", I always put the word "extremist" or "fundamentalist" or "fanatical" in front of it. Yet I am accused of religious intolerance by those determined to label this as such and write me off as anti-Muslim rather than do the uncomfortable meditation that my points require. I would also criticize a racist or intolerant rant if I saw it, but there is a big difference between questioning facts about a religion and its followers, and blindly hating.
Change is never easy, and that is particularly true in regard to questioning one's lifelong beliefs. As a result, pride and the desire to "win" the argument overrides rational thinking. Then we shake our heads and wonder why nothing ever changes in this troubled world.
My Muslim critics claim that I have no right, as a non-Muslim, to criticize Islam or any Muslims, even the terrorists. As I expected when I posted this piece, I was dismissed as anti-Muslim. One person even began to attack Christianity, turning it into a boxing match between Jesus and Mohammed, even though I'm not a Christian and I admit in the article that all religions have had their dark periods. However, even if I were a Christian, I would still consider atrocities committed by Christians in the distant past to be irrelevant because radical Christians aren't the problem in the world TODAY. Radical Muslims are. And when those who should speak (good Muslims) don't, those who shouldn't speak (non-Muslims) must. Unfortunately, a westerner making well-justified criticisms of Islam is doomed to be perceived as religious intolerance, and certainly would not be considered or meditated upon by a Muslim extremist, which is why it is more important than ever for good Muslims to stand up and be counted. After all, I'm not the one who needs to be convinced that Islam is the religion of peace, the Muslim extremists are.
If anyone wants to organize a Muslim march against extremism and terrorism, I will happily join it and fight anyone who tries to stop you. And if you convince me that any of my points below are wrong, I will gladly edit them. I wish I was.
To the article -
In the name of being politically correct and to prove how liberal and open-minded they are, many in the west are quick to defend the real cause of the war on terror - Islamic extremism. They even go as far as blaming all the current troubles with Islamic terrorists on President Bush, even though there were hundreds of attacks BEFORE he was elected, such as the first attack on the Twin Towers, the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Africa and the U.S.S. Cole.
In their good-hearted attempts to squash anything that resembles religious intolerance, Muslim apologists continously parrot the mantra that Islam is the "religion of peace" and claim that the Qur'an is a good book that has been misinterpreted and distorted by fanatical, fundamentalist Muslims. This is not entirely true. By and large, the Koran, like the Bible, is a good book. Unlike the Bible, however, the Koran has not been sufficiently updated by right-thinking people to meet the human rights requirements of the modern world.
If no Muslim is able to misinterpret passages of the Koran, why do terrorists always recite prayers to Allah as they are killing innocent civilians or blowing themselves up? Why do they believe they will be rewarded with 72 virgins for their martyrdom? I guarantee you - the terrorists at the controls of the planes on 9/11 were screaming "Allah Akbar!!" as the planes hit the towers. Obviously, their ideology is backed up by their religion, at least in their minds, because they were able to derive from the Koran that it is not only okay but virtuous to kill non-believers. (Infidels.)
Here are a few examples -
Intolerance in the Koran -
"Slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers, that they be expelled from the land with disgrace, and that they shall have a great punishment in the world hereafter."
Koran 5:34
"O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends, for they are friends of each other, and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people."
Koran 5:51
Justification for terrorism in the Koran -
"Remember Allah inspired the angels; I am with you. Give firmness to the unbelievers. I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; you smite them above their necks and smite all their fingertips off of them."
Koran 8:12
The Koran has many passages that cast women in a lower light than men. These passages are then used by fundamentalist Muslims to justify abuse of women, honor killings, etc. Here are just a few such verses from the Koran itself.
"A wife should never refuse herself to her husband, even it is on the saddle of a camel."
"Never will a people know success if they confide their affairs to a woman."
"A woman cannot fulfill her duties toward God without first having accomplished those that she owes her husband."
Muslim men consider women who are not virgins to be so filthy and defiled that in the Hadith, it is claimed that in heaven, after sexual intercourse, every woman becomes a virgin again. It is this kind of thinking that makes fundamentalist Muslims maim and kill their own daughters, sisters or wives when they suspect them of having sex before marriage, of committing adultery, or even of being raped. There are innumerable reports of men committing "honor killings" against any woman they consider to be "unclean".
Here is one such story, with photographs for anyone who thinks I'm exaggerating -
www.rozanehmagazine.com/julyaugust02/Mayjune02new/wpakistan.html
There are good Muslims, of course. That goes without saying. In fact, the role of the allied forces in Iraq is to help progressive Muslims in the Middle East win their country from the fundamentalists who want to keep them all forever locked in the Dark Ages.
However, the fact that only one of the 47 Muslim-dominated countries of the world are not free indicates that something is wrong not just with these societies, but with the so called "religion of peace" itself. After all, "the proof is in the pudding". The important questions are:
Why are so many Muslims misinterpreting the Koran, assuming it is a flawless book?
Why are 46 of 47 Muslim countries not free?
Why have their been over 8000 terrorist attacks by Muslim terrorists since 9/11?
Why are so many horror stories constantly pouring out of the Middle East of savage abuse of women and children?
We can't blame the war in Iraq for everything. Muslim terrorists were bombing, kidnapping, torturing, and hijacking long before that.
Every religion has its horror stories and dark periods. Christians and Catholics have committed atrocities in the name of their religions, too. I'm not a Christian. I'm not even religious. I believe if people don't do it, it doesn't get done. Bertrand Russell said, "Religion is the dragon at the gate of prosperity in the world." If we all believed that we were alone on this earth and had only each other to depend on, maybe things would be better. Instead, religion only gives us one more reason (other than race, nationality, sex, age, social status, etc.) to divide ourselves. As John Lennon said, without religion, we might be a little closer to becoming a "brotherhood of man" rather than backing our particular religions as if they were football teams, as the most vocal critic of this article did.
If a western, non-Muslim person (particularly a white male, like myself) breathes one word of criticism about Islam, he is immediately labeled by liberals as an intolerant bigot. The desire to be perceived as politically correct overrides a sincere search for truth, and a desire to make necessary, positive changes in the world. To make matters worse, Muslims will immediately start criticizing Christianity and other religions, in total denial of the fact that currently, the biggest problem in the world is not Christianity or Catholicism or Buddhism or Hinduism. It's Islamic extremism.
Behind almost every bombing, there is someone screaming "Allah is great!" The Islamic fascists are the Nazi’s of our age and ignoring them is no longer an option. The U.S. tried that before and we were attacked anyway. Why? Because Islamic terrorist groups did not approve of who we were friends with, and they considered us "infidels" in their holy land, as they do every non-Muslim. It wouldn't matter if we were there selling cookies. They would still want us dead. That's why aide workers are kidnapped and killed just as readily as soldiers and contractors. That is why Osama Bin Laden offered $5,000.00 to anyone who kills an American, anywhere.
The stated purpose of every terrorist group in the Middle East is to acquire nuclear weapons and turn the west, particularly America, into a “sea of fire”. I just hope the destruction of one of our major cities won’t be necessary before we wake up and smell the opium.
Before a war can be won, or survived, we must know the true face of our enemy. Most of us don't. Most of us think that most Muslims in the Middle East are peace-loving, benign people who just want to be left alone. This belief persists in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, such as bombings around the globe, the desecration of charred bodies of western contractors who went to Iraq to help rebuild their country, the beheading of any westerner unlucky enough to be captured, horrific human rights violations and atrocities throughout the Middle East (mostly against women and children), constant U.S. flag burning and threat-laden protests on the streets of Arab countries, and the conspicuous silence of most of the Muslim world.
Maybe we've all watched Disney's Aladdin too many times, so we have happy, fantasy images in our mind when we think of the Middle East, instead of the real-life images at the top of this page. Of course, I'm not referring to the entire Middle East, just the hot spots of entrenched fundamentalist oppression.
So how do the terrorists misinterpret the "Holy Koran"? It may have something to do with the fact that the Koran advocates killing any "infidel" (non-Muslim) anywhere in the Middle East if he/she won't convert to Islam. (See passages from the Koran above, highlighted in red.) There are also many misogynistic passages in the Koran, such as this one -
"If anything presages a bad omen, it is a house, a woman, and a horse."
The Koran also advocates taking girls of any age as brides. Mohammed himself married a 7 year old girl. But we should give him a little credit, though, because he waited until she was 9 to consummate the marriage.
Many people feel that statutory rape laws are unjust, and that girls should be able to have sex as soon as they begin menstruating. After all, if God didn't want them to have sex at 12 or 13, why would He give them their first egg at that age? Unless Mohammed's bride started menstruating at 9, which would make her a biological anomaly, his consummation of the marriage was what most people in the modern world would refer to as "child molestation".
Laws are created to legislate morality, and most people think it's wrong for men to marry and have sex with little girls. Children should be allowed to be children. If young people want to have sex when their natural curiosity awakens, it should be with other young people who they are attracted to, not someone they don't love, are totally repulsed by, and who they perceive to be an old geezer.
Of course, the reason Islam, Christianity and all other religions are biased toward men is because they were written by men, for men. Women get the short end of the stick every time.
Again, there are good Muslims, but their overwhelming silence makes them irrelevant, and even suspect. After all, if you make a claim about your opponent in a debate and he does not deny it, that implies agreement. When was the last time you saw Muslims marching en masse to protest the actions of radical Muslims? I haven't. Not only do most good Muslims do nothing, say nothing, write nothing, and refuse to protest the actions of the fanatics who are giving their religion a bad name, they attack any non-Muslim who does, as I have been attacked under this piece. This makes non-Muslims very, very nervous. If good Muslims were doing more to combat bad Muslims, I would not have felt compelled to post this column.
This is my own little way of shedding light on a subject that is not even being discussed throughout most of the Middle East. In fact, attempts to legislate equal rights for women are almost always roundly rejected by the courts as "Un-Islamic." Here's another article that proves it -
www.atheism.about.com/b/a/015219.htm
The journalist Azam Kanguian lived under horrific oppression in Iran for most of her life. She wrote:
"A free discussion of Islam is extremely dangerous, not only in countries under Islamic rule, but also in the west. Most keep their feelings to themselves. Those Muslims who disown or even criticize their faith publicly are likely to be accused of apostasy, a crime punishable by death under Islamic law - a penalty enforced by a number of Islamic states, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan."
By writing this article and suggesting that there may be some room for improvement in the Islamic world, I am apparently putting my life in danger. I think this issue is important enough to take that risk. This site is full of very powerful people - writers who can contribute something to this problem today, and young writers who will become the journalists of tomorrow. There is great power in the written word. The fact that every religion has its holy book is proof of that.
Here are a few more reasons I felt it was important to post this article.
1. To do my part to stop the killing in Iraq, most of which is committed by insurgents. I'm getting tired of hearing people say Americans are butchering Iraqi's. The Iraqi's have less to fear from our soldiers then they do from the insurgents, and everyone knows it, especially the Iraqi people.
2. To prevent a nuclear holocaust that will kill millions because Islamic extremists can't control their hatred; hatred which is endorsed by their god in numerous passages in the Koan. Yes, Christians did terrible things in the past, too, but right now, Muslim extremists are the problem. Every time a bomb goes off somewhere, there is a Muslim extremist screaming "Allah Akbar!", and yet they accuse the west of waging holy war. The hypocrisy is staggering.
3. Because I care about the welfare of women everywhere. If I could pinpoint one thing that made me write this article more than any other, it is the story at the top of this page about the women whose husband suspected her of adultery. He woke her in the middle of the night, tied her up, dragged her into the basement, tied her up by her feet, beat her with a board from head to toe, cut her nose off, plucked her eyes out with a heated knife, stuck his fingers into the empty sockets, cut her down and let her fall to the floor, almost breaking her neck, and left her for dead. But she didn't die. Her three children discovered her body, blood oozing from the holes where her nose and eyes used to be.
I wish I could say that story is a rare anomaly in the Middle East, but it isn't. It's very common. The only reason we heard about it is because the woman survived to tell the tale. I don't care what any Muslim says about it, it's wrong. Many Muslims say American women are cheapened and defiled in our oversexed society, and I would agree with them to some degree, but when a woman commits adultery here, 99% of the time, the worst that happens to her is a divorce. It's called "civilized behavior".
So if any terrorists do read this and are too filled with hate to see that I am writing this for humanitarian reasons, if they think I deserve to die for criticizing their culture, be warned - I'm not some 98 pound, female flight attendant. Cutting my throat won't be so easy. I'm a black belt and heavily armed. You don't scare me.
Okay, now that I got that out of the way . . .
To see only a few of the acts Muslims extremists are capable of performing in the name of their God, go to www.MichaelSavage.com and watch the videos there, but be warned - they are extremely graphic and vomit-inducing.
Change
Positive change doesn't usually come to pass because of one action by one person, but by many small actions by many people. It is toward that end that I posted this piece and will continue to fight, through writing and any other way I can, to end abuse of women in the Middle East and anywhere else it exists, and to protect my country from radical Muslim fanatics.
Please use the links below and do at least as much research as I have, and read/watch the following sources, before starting an argument with me about how virtuous Islam is.
Here’s a clip of what happens to children in Iran if they are caught stealing. Some say this is a just a clip of a show put on by street gypsies. I hope that's true, but either way, it's reckless child endangerment that should not be allowed in any civilized country.
There have been over 8000 terrorist attacks since 9/11. For a short list, read this article -
The Truth About Islam – A Former Muslim Speaks www.islamstrueface.blogspot.com/2005/07/muslim-atrocities.html
The Magnitude of Muslim Atrocities -
www.voi.org/books/siii/ch6.htm
More Truth About Islam -
www.thereligionofpeace.com
Also, google the name Azam Kamguian, a world-renowned Islamic scholar, and read her articles. Since she lived in Iran and experienced the abuse of being a Muslim woman firsthand, she is my authority on the subject, not some pampered westerner whose idea of suffering is Starbucks running out of cinnamon powder.
I also post this column because some of us in the west, even after the horrors of 9/11, still haven't realized the magnitude of this threat. Muslim terrorists have declared an all-out war on the west but our desire to feel good about ourselves is causing many to underestimate the depth of their hatred and intolerance, and we are making ourselves vulnerable as a result.
It is not just us the Islamo-fascists want to torture and kill, it is their own people. Cultures of death have been a fact of life in the Middle East since time began, but now that there are video cameras everywhere, WE have to see it. Even if we weren't being personally threatened, what are we, the civilized world, supposed to do? Stand by and watch while members of our human family are raped, tortured and murdered? Is feeling good about ourselves and basking in a fragile, ignorant peace truly virtuous if we are ignoring evil to do it?
If you still insist on thinking Islam is the religion of peace, I'm sure your heart is in the right place, and your desire to be tolerant toward every religion is commendable, but positive change cannot come about without cold examination of the facts.
The fact is it is wrong to kill a woman just because she was raped to "restore the family honor". It is wrong to cut your wife's nose off because she committed adultery. It's wrong to decapitate your own daughter and carry her head around the village saying, "Look, I restored the family honor" because she had pre-marital sex. It is wrong to put women in jail to protect them from their husbands, while the husbands who abused them remain free. I wish I was making these stories up, but I'm not.
Here are more links about how life is under Islamic law in the darker areas of the Middle East -
The Fate of Infidels and Apostates Under Islam -
www.iheu.org/node/1540
Human Rights of Women in Iraq -
www.iheu.org/node/1306
"Women all over Afghanistan are still being murdered, raped and imprisoned with impunity."
- Amnesty International
"Many people outside the country believe that Afghan women and girls have had their rights restored. It's just not true. Women and girls are still being abused, harassed, and threatened all over Afghanistan, often by government troops and officials."
- Zama Coursen-Neff, Co-author of the report and counsel to the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch
My parents are from Belfast, Northern Ireland. I've visited Belfast many times over the years. I remember being rushed away from unattended cars and other areas where police suspected a terrorist might have left a bomb. My relatives in Ireland have lived in fear all their lives of people who handle their grievances by attacking innocent civilians, so perhaps I have a special disgust for terrorists because of that. But I also have a special insight into that mindset for the same reason. And another irrefutable fact is that hatred is learned. I heard a small boy in Ireland ask his father, "Who are those people I'm supposed to hate, daddy?" That's how it works. Here's a perfect example.
From www.littlegreenfootballs.com/webblog/?entry=3346
This little girl in Gaza is taking part in a "graduation exercise" in a kindergarten run by the "Islamic Charitable Association". The blood on her hands is meant to commemorate the lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah.
Golda Meir said, "There will be peace when the Arabs love their children as much as they hate others."
Arabs throughout the Middle East are brainwashing and poisoning the minds of their own children in the service of their own hatred and bloodlust. This is particularly true of Palestinians, where the majority of parents can think of no higher purpose for the lives of their children than making homicide bombers out of them. (They are usually called suicide bombers but I think homicide bombers is more accurate.)
For more on the intentional mental poisoning and programming of children (yet another form of child abuse in the Middle East), visit -
www.betar.co.uk/articles/betar1059578683-php
In an interview, a Palestinian child said, "I hope when I get to 14 or 15 to explode myself." Obviously, any sane mother would discourage her own children from committing suicide for any reason. On the contrary, this boy's mother smiles proudly and pats her son on the head, eager to help him realize his dream - the dream she and his other hate-filled relatives planted in his eager-to-please, young mind. His mother even has a toy "suicide bomber" costume in the living room. She lets her son practice pulling the pin on the grenade while she serves tea to a visitor.
I'm not saying in this article that we should hate or kill anyone. God knows I don't want to repeat the cycle of hatred and vengeance that has created the crushing fear and despair in many parts of the Middle East. To assume the opinions expressed here are some racist diatribe or to write them off as religious intolerance would be to make the most elementary assumption possible. This is not aimed at peaceful, good-hearted, tolerant Muslims. It's aimed at the Muslims who are using the words of the Koran to justify their own hatred and bloodlust.
It is the responsibility of every person who thinks of him/herself as a humanitarian to protest human rights abuses in this "global village". We need to make enough noise to hopefully awaken the collective conscience of the Muslim fascists/terrorists/insurgents, assuming it hasn't been completely destroyed by all their seething hatred of the west.
Hopefully, we will also awaken the conscience of those Muslims who silently condone the actions of Muslim terrorist groups, and make them meditate more deeply on whether or not Islam truly deserves it's self-proclaimed title of the "religion of peace". But mainly, I hope the good Muslims of the world will rise up against the bad ones, make them stop destroying the image of their religion, and help prove the virtues of Islam to a very worried world.
After all, it is the responsibility of every humane human being to do something about that which he or she has become aware of. Though I have grave doubts due to the blindly fanatical mania of fundamentalist Muslims, I hope that someday the accumulative pressure of good people everywhere - Muslim and non-Muslim - will finally break the stranglehold that Islamic extremism has had on its own people, and now the world.
Peace.
Mark
Additional sources -
Afghanistan: Women Still Not “Liberated”
Police Abuse, Forced Chastity Tests, and Taliban-Era Restrictions in Herat
www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/herat1217.htm
Afghan Women Scarred by “Hidden” Abuse
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3543147.stm
Afghan Women Under the Tyranny of Fundamentalists
www.rawa.org/women.html
Aghan Women Still Suffer Abuse
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4592697.stm
www.vidilife.com/index.cfm?f=media.play&vchrMediaProgramIDCryp=C58E26FF-DDFE-40AF-85AB-C&ratedFlag=1
I've received a few attacks on this piece by people accusing me of religious intolerance. After misinterpreted everything I wrote in this article, insulting me in every way she could think of, and engaging in some first-rate Christian-bashing (though I'm not a Christian and it was totally irrelevant), my most vocal critic made these revealing statements:
It's Muslim terrorists who are ruining my life!
Muslim terrorists are the reason people throw trash at me!
Muslim terrorists are the reason I can't get a job!
It was then that I realized her hypersensitive and irrational criticisms had nothing to do with this column. I was just the skapegoat for all the non-Muslims she felt persecuted by. One would think this would make her angry toward the terrorists who are giving Muslims a bad name. No, the white, conservative male got it once again. (The only safe and acceptable target of intolerance these days.)
Anyway, I would like to share with you a few responses I received from some clearer thinking people here on AP who read this in the same spirit in which it was written . . .
"I'm sorry that they're attacking you. But it's a religion they've believed in their entire lives and it has become part of their identity. If something is wrong in Islam and you highlight it, it feels like you're telling them that a part of their very personhood is wrong.
Normally, if I find something wrong in myself, I change it. But they've got other people who don't find anything wrong with it to account to as well. So they're backs are against the wall by this article.
Change can only come when a people realise that something is wrong. And since that's a bitter pill for most people to swallow, I suppose it's expected that they'd give you hell! lol!
John the Baptist was a voice crying in the wilderness. Many people were saved because of him. And many people hated him. But that doesn't change the value of what he did or how many people he helped.
Jeremiah as well was given hell by people, for telling them what they were doing wrong. They only realised his worth after he was already dead!
So . . . you are no different, Mark.
Keep on giving righteousness and true virtue a voice. If you have been wrong about anything so far, you're human and God knows that. He also knows the nature and state of your heart and that all you have done and said has been geared toward positive change.
I love you for bein you. You are not alone. Cheer up. And pity the people who have yet to reach the point (and who many never reach it) in the journey of growth that you have."
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"This is certainly a well-researched essay, Mark, and I greatly appreciate all of the work that you must have put into it. I read every word, including all of the comments and your replies. I certainly wish there could be peace in this world, that women would be treated as equals of men, that all of the nations and religions could live together in harmony and respect, that people would no longer attempt to force their own will upon others, that everyone could enjoy a good standard of living, without anyone having to live in fear ever again. I hope your words, and the people who read them, can help the world to move in that direction."
~Charles~
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Mark,
I just felt compelled to send you a message after spending the past hour or so trawling through both yours and XpatiencegraceX's columns and every comment on each.
When I read your column for the first time, I didn't see it as bashing the Muslim faith, but more of an observation, and probably a good rant against, the treatment of women, etc., in some Islamic countries, why perhaps people act that way, why terrorists act, why some Muslims are silent against it, etc. I never saw it as having a go at anybody's faith.
Yet reading that girl's responses, she seems to have just interpreted you as a Christian, which I've seen you've said you're not, and then she made that column which pointed out all of the sexist comments in the bible, etc. Yes, it's true they are there, but also the topic of your column was not to do with that - and what she perhaps doesn't realise is that Christians, or most of them, aren't treating 'their' women the same way that some Muslims are. Sure, in history it happened but you were talking about what is happening today and why it is still happening.
Anyway, I know I made no contribution to anything there, but reading everything just moved me to say I admire, respect and fully believe in what you've said - I think you're very brave and in no way 'ignorant' as some people have said.
Bella
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A must-read -
Where are the Moderate Muslims?
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Once I read that the number of Germans directly involved in the Holocaust — giving orders in Berlin, building the infrastructure of the death camps, rounding up victims, piloting trains, releasing the gas, hunting down escapees and so forth — was 100,000.
In 1939 the population of the Reich was 80 million, so slightly more than one-tenth of 1 percent of the Germans were actually involved in murdering Jews.
Yet, somehow, I never see anyone trying to clear the German volk of the guilt of the crimes of Hitler's "tiny extremist minority." No, the verdict of history is that all Germans share the burden, because all Germans let it happen.
Today, many progressives in the Western world try to explain away crimes committed in the name of Islam. A Google search for the apologetic phrase "tiny extremist minority" turns up 252,000 results. Why is not the passive Muslim majority held to the same standard as the passive German majority?
And just how tiny is this "tiny" minority anyway?
Let's look at what some of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims believe.
In 2003, Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant, surveyed 15,000 Saudis. Nearly 50 percent supported Osama bin Laden. Last July the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of its sample of Pakistanis place confidence in Osama, and 60 percent of Jordanians support him. Is 60 percent a tiny minority?
The Pew Center also found that in Lebanon, support for suicide bombing in defense of Islam is 39 percent of its sample, and in Jordan it's 57 percent. Is 57 percent a tiny minority?
In October 2003, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah found that 75 percent of Palestinians in its sample supported the bombing of the Maxim restaurant in Haifa that killed 23 people, mostly Jews. Is 75 percent a tiny minority?
The London Telegraph reported in February that its ICM poll showed 40 percent of British Muslims in its sample favor applying sharia law in predominantly Muslim areas of the country. Is 40 percent a tiny minority?
In Turkey last year, a publisher issued a new $3.50 edition of "Mein Kampf." Previous editions cost $7. In the first quarter alone, the book sold more than 50,000 copies and reached the best-seller list drawn up by the D&R bookstore chain. Does a No. 5 book represent a tiny minority?
According to the Pew Center, large majorities of Muslims strongly dislike Jews in nations such as Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey. But it's hard to top Lebanon and Jordan, where the unfavorable rate is 99 percent. Who knew 99 percent could be a tiny minority?
A poll carried out by the London Guardian last year said 13 percent of British Muslims in the sample would support another 9-11-style attack on the United States. Another 15 percent were not sure. I wonder: Were these 15 percent really not sure, or did they simply choose to disguise their true feelings from a pollster?
The Muslim Council said the poll showed that the "overwhelming majority" of British Muslims "abhor" terrorism. That would be 72 percent opposing another 9-11, vs. 28 percent willing to consider it. There are more than 1.5 million Muslims in Britain, so 28 percent translates to 420,000 people who might be pleased to see more Americans leap out of blazing towers or definitely would be pleased to see more Americans leap out of blazing towers. I am not reassured.
A YouGov survey carried out for the London Daily Telegraph last July showed that 6 percent of British Muslims in the sample believe the 7-7 bombings were fully justified. Six percent is indeed a minority, but it's not quite a tiny one, and it's still 90,000 people, if the sample is translated to the entire target population.
Another 56 percent of British Muslims in the sample said they can understand why the bombers acted. Eighteen percent feel little or no loyalty to their country. Thirty-two percent believe "Western society is decadent and immoral" and "Muslims should seek to bring it to an end."
Seventy-three percent say they would inform the police if they knew something about a planned terrorist attack. This sounds nice, doesn't it? That "overwhelming majority" again. Until you realize it means that 27 percent of British Muslims would not inform the police of an imminent attack.
Last October a university in the conservative Turkish city of Diyarbakir released a survey on honor killings. It showed that 37 percent of the men and women in its sample believe that if a woman cheats on her husband, she should be killed. Another 21 percent would spare her life and just cut off her nose or ears.
The United Nations says there are 5,000 honor killings every year in the Muslim world. The London Guardian reported in November 2004 on a survey conducted by the Egyptian government that found that one in three women has been beaten by her husband. Eighty-six percent of the women in the sample regarded this as normal.
A large majority of women believe that refusal to have sex with their husband is grounds for a beating. In the survey reported in the London Guardian, 26 percent of women in their 20s responded they believe they deserve a beating if they burn dinner. Forty-two percent believe they deserve a beating if they spend too much money. Sixty-five percent believe they deserve a beating if they talk to another man.
I find these numbers frightening. Well-armed with facts and logic, you might be able to convince me that the "tiny extremist minority" of Islam is indeed a "minority," strictly speaking. But a "tiny" minority? I'm afraid I just don't buy it.
Here's a comment left on a blog by a Muslim in Iran. It's a perfect glimpse into the mindset I describe here.
"hey you mother fucker you dont understand the concept of ISLAM it is the one true way to becoming free and when you dont know anything about being a muslim dont go aroud the web talking shit you fukin white american mother fuker . yes the iranian population does not like to be called arab because we areant thats as simple as that i would know because im a iranian SHIITE MUSLIM and im proud to be musllim and i am prepared to die for the sake of ALLAH. the ayotollah khomeini was a great religious leader and had a whole coutry under his palm the fukin gay ass carter administration was scared out of there mind when we took hostages so fuk you. we will kill you american swine ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR .
hey you fukin american piece of shit when you do not know any thing about ISLAM then dont go on the web talking shit you dont understand that ALLAH is the one true diety and yes of course the iranian poulation (not the persian ) does not like to be called arab because we are not its as simple as that you fukin american bastard and to reply on what you said about the AYOTOLLAH KHOMEINI he was a geat religous leader who had a whole country under his palm he also had the gay ass carter administration scared shitless when he took hostages and about women most people do not understand why they were the higab i dont want to go on and on so tell me something how many women are raped in the muslim world to how many are raped in the rest of the world it is almost zero fukin zionist piece of shit.
IRANIANS WILL KILL AMERICANS fuk america and fuk you MUSLIMS AROUND THE WORLD ARE PREPARED TO DIE FOR THE SAKE OF ALLAH are you fuk you american swine ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR ALLAH AKBAR!!"
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The main article that led me to write this -
FIVE QUESTIONS NON-MUSLIMS WOULD LIKE ANSWERED
By Dennis Prager
(Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com)
"The rioting in France by primarily Muslim youths and the hotel bombings in Jordan are the latest events to prompt sincere questions that law-abiding Muslims need to answer for Islam's sake, as well as for the sake of worried non-Muslims.
Here are five of them:
(1) Why are you so quiet?
Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.
There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude? When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror?
(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?
If Israeli occupation is the reason for Muslim terror in Israel, why do no Christian Palestinians engage in terror? They are just as nationalistic and just as occupied as Muslim Palestinians.
(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?
According to Freedom House, a Washington-based group that promotes democracy, of the world's 47 Muslim countries, only Mali is free. Sixty percent are not free, and 38 are partly free. Muslim-majority states account for a majority of the world's "not free" states. And of the 10 "worst of the worst," seven are Islamic states. Why is this?
(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?
Young girls in Indonesia were recently beheaded by Muslim murderers. Last year, Muslims — in the name of Islam — murdered hundreds of schoolchildren in Russia. While reciting Muslim prayers, Islamic terrorists take foreigners working to make Iraq free and slaughter them. Muslim daughters are murdered by their own families in the thousands in "honor killings." And the Muslim government in Iran has publicly called for the extermination of Israel.
(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?
No church or synagogue is allowed in Saudi Arabia. The Taliban destroyed some of the greatest sculptures of the ancient world because they were Buddhist. Sudan's Islamic regime has murdered great numbers of Christians.
Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.
As a member of the media for nearly 25 years, I have a long record of reaching out to Muslims. Muslim leaders have invited me to speak at major mosques. In addition, I have studied Arabic and Islam, have visited most Arab and many other Muslim countries and conducted interfaith dialogues with Muslims in the United Arab Emirates as well as in the U.S. Politically, I have supported creation of a Palestinian state and supported (mistakenly, I now believe) the Oslo accords.
Hundreds of millions of non-Muslims want honest answers to these questions, even if the only answer you offer is, "Yes, we have real problems in Islam." Such an acknowledgment is infinitely better — for you and for the world — than dismissing us as anti-Muslim.
We await your response."
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