Green Energy
Robert Spencer has a post up this morning about the possibility of reforming Islam:
Everyone is looking for Islamic reformers and attaching massive hopes to Islamic reform. The thirst to find such people is so great, and the ignorance of Islam so widespread, that Westerners are ready to embrace and trumpet anyone who says some reassuring things -- even if he has no following, or only a tiny following, in the Islamic world, or if he is hounded and hunted as a heretic by the adherents of various Islamic orthodoxies, or if his prescription for reform is self-contradictory and unworkable.
Chebel's other recommendations are excellent. I hope they are adopted. But will a return to the original Islam really result in an intellectual flowering and enable the idea of violent jihad to be discarded? The Qur'an considers death "not a noble thing"? Yet it instructs Muslims to "kill the unbelievers wherever you find them" (9:5), promises Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111), and taunts the Jews that if they are really chosen of Allah, they will love death: "Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful" (62:6).
And Muhammad, of course, was a warrior. He fought in battles, he ordered the assassinations of his enemies, and he blessed those who carried out his wishes by killing those enemies. This is all readily established from Islamic sources -- and you can't get any more "original" in Islam than the example of Muhammad himself.
I have discussed here before the fact that I am considering writing a biography of Muhammad. I set it aside for awhile, but now I have a proposal in with a publisher; they're considering it. More and more I think such a book is necessary, since we hear from good people like Chebel that a return to original Islam will solve the problems of the Islamic world, and yet we also hear from the jihadists that it is they who are following the mandates of true, original Islam. Accordingly this is a question that needs to be resolved, and has large implications for public policy.
- Islam And The Golden Rule
An important post from Robert Spencer and Ali Sina: Yesterday a Jihad Watch reader wrote to me taking issue with an article I posted here at Jihad Watch four years ago, "The Golden Rule and Islam," by Ali Sina of Faith Freedom, author ofUnderstanding...
- How To Wage War Against Everybody — And Feel Good About It
ACCORDING TO the Qur'an, a Muslim must continually and aggressively advance the cause of Allah. It is his duty, whether he likes it or not. And if he doesn't want to burn face down in the fires of hell forever with nothing to drink but boiling...
- An Open Letter To Islamic Freedom Fighters Around The World
Heh, I like this guy's style. I hope he doesn't mind, but I'm lifting his entire post, and recommending you go check out the rest of his blog: Greetings to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Jamaat Islamiya, and CAIR.My...
- Reform In Islam Today..in Case Anyone Is Interested..sorry Eteraz. I Really Am.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-'Aziz: We Will Cut Off Tongues of Those Who Try to Distort Islam With Reform and Progress - They Are Serving the West Now Nayef is not exactly a paragon of moderation, or western ideals, or a descendent...
- 'only Dialogue We Want Is When All Religions Agree To Convert To Islam'
From WND "The day will soon come when the green flag of La Illah Illah Allah (There is no god but Allah) and Muhammad Rasul Allah (Muhammad is the prophet of Allah) will be raised upon the Vatican and all around the world and on the fortresses of those...
Green Energy
What The Hell Are You Talking About, Reform Islam? Are You Fucking Nuts?
Robert Spencer has a post up this morning about the possibility of reforming Islam:
Everyone is looking for Islamic reformers and attaching massive hopes to Islamic reform. The thirst to find such people is so great, and the ignorance of Islam so widespread, that Westerners are ready to embrace and trumpet anyone who says some reassuring things -- even if he has no following, or only a tiny following, in the Islamic world, or if he is hounded and hunted as a heretic by the adherents of various Islamic orthodoxies, or if his prescription for reform is self-contradictory and unworkable.
Chebel's other recommendations are excellent. I hope they are adopted. But will a return to the original Islam really result in an intellectual flowering and enable the idea of violent jihad to be discarded? The Qur'an considers death "not a noble thing"? Yet it instructs Muslims to "kill the unbelievers wherever you find them" (9:5), promises Paradise to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111), and taunts the Jews that if they are really chosen of Allah, they will love death: "Say (O Muhammad): O ye who are Jews! If ye claim that ye are favoured of Allah apart from (all) mankind, then long for death if ye are truthful" (62:6).
And Muhammad, of course, was a warrior. He fought in battles, he ordered the assassinations of his enemies, and he blessed those who carried out his wishes by killing those enemies. This is all readily established from Islamic sources -- and you can't get any more "original" in Islam than the example of Muhammad himself.
I have discussed here before the fact that I am considering writing a biography of Muhammad. I set it aside for awhile, but now I have a proposal in with a publisher; they're considering it. More and more I think such a book is necessary, since we hear from good people like Chebel that a return to original Islam will solve the problems of the Islamic world, and yet we also hear from the jihadists that it is they who are following the mandates of true, original Islam. Accordingly this is a question that needs to be resolved, and has large implications for public policy.
- Islam And The Golden Rule
An important post from Robert Spencer and Ali Sina: Yesterday a Jihad Watch reader wrote to me taking issue with an article I posted here at Jihad Watch four years ago, "The Golden Rule and Islam," by Ali Sina of Faith Freedom, author ofUnderstanding...
- How To Wage War Against Everybody — And Feel Good About It
ACCORDING TO the Qur'an, a Muslim must continually and aggressively advance the cause of Allah. It is his duty, whether he likes it or not. And if he doesn't want to burn face down in the fires of hell forever with nothing to drink but boiling...
- An Open Letter To Islamic Freedom Fighters Around The World
Heh, I like this guy's style. I hope he doesn't mind, but I'm lifting his entire post, and recommending you go check out the rest of his blog: Greetings to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Jamaat Islamiya, and CAIR.My...
- Reform In Islam Today..in Case Anyone Is Interested..sorry Eteraz. I Really Am.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-'Aziz: We Will Cut Off Tongues of Those Who Try to Distort Islam With Reform and Progress - They Are Serving the West Now Nayef is not exactly a paragon of moderation, or western ideals, or a descendent...
- 'only Dialogue We Want Is When All Religions Agree To Convert To Islam'
From WND "The day will soon come when the green flag of La Illah Illah Allah (There is no god but Allah) and Muhammad Rasul Allah (Muhammad is the prophet of Allah) will be raised upon the Vatican and all around the world and on the fortresses of those...