To Syed Rafey:Executions for criticism exposes lack of confidence in your Prophet

Submitted by Plato (India), Jul 28, 2007 at 03:11

Syed Rafey, you must have read Ashis Srivastava' s post to you by now. I have some further comments based on his reply.

Islam's triumphs always seems blood-soaked. You manage to kill a critic of your Prophet and that is celebrated. I can just imagine the joyous celebrations all over the Muslim world when, Allah forbid, a Muslim gets to assasinate Salman Rushdie.

You must have read Ashish Srivastava's reply to your comment about killing your prophet's critics. You see in it the difference between an Islamic (your) education and a Hindu (his) education. Islam has violence woven into its very fabric. Hinduism, even though there are wars and invasions in its legends, has "shanti" (peace) as its overarching principle.

I suspect, given the kind of education Muslim children undergo, criticism of the Prophet is seen as an unforgivable kind of violence. You cannot even comprehend that to us in the civilised world this is seen as barbaric in the extreme, as Ashish has demonstrated so eloquently.

You are a descendant of (though you may not like to admit it) or at least have the blood of Hindus or Buddhists and so heir to a culture and philosophy that is almost diametrically opposite of the violent monotheistic ideology you now believe in and practice. Polytheists almost by definition are tolerant of other cultures and practices whereas monotheism, again almost by definition, are intolerant of the Other.

Your posts, though couched in the language of understanding, stood exposed by your insistence on execution of unrepentant critics of your Prophet. Though there is only an invisible line that separates Pakistan and India an ocean divides the two countries when it comes to religious tolerance.

Do the Christians, the Buddhists, the Sikhs the Zorashtrians insist on the execution of critics of their founders? Which attitude argues for the confidence of its believers in the truth of what their founders said and did. They are confident that no criticism will detract from what their founders taught and did. But because Muslims insist on killing anyone who criticises their Prophet they are exposing their utter lack of confidence in what their founder did and taught. Muslims are demonstrating again and again with their treatment of apostates and blasphemers that their religion is a mental prison from which death is the only escape.

Ashish said: "You can even criticize my God based on issues.I will accept that .Even if you abuse Lord Krishna i will ask him forgiveness for you.Every one on this earth is a part of God.Every human being is a divine soul."

Tell us honestly, Syed Rafey, whether you can make a similar statement in Pakistan or any Muslim country. Replace God with Allah and Krishna with Mohammed and you will have every cleric in the land asking for your blood. In India they have books, articles criticising every aspect and every god of Hinduism, sometimes you have protest but I have never yet heard of anyone being killed by relgious sanction. They had some obnoxious practices in the past, but they have evolved. Islam insists on remaining a fossil of the seventh century.

"Do you think that your Prophet is so touchy that he will get angry at a small person who is criticizing him."

Mr Ashish was too polite to mention that persons who cannot stand criticism are small-minded. So are followers who will not stand criticism of their leaders. In the case of Islam the followers are just following the example set by their Prophet hmself who had several of his critics murdered. Why was your prophet afraid of criticim if as he says in the Koran "truth stands out from error". Only those who are in error need be afraid of criticim.

"Truth doesn't lie in religious books alone. Everybody has the right to his own interpretation of the truth."

Can you deny the truth of what Ashish has said in the above statement? Like beauty being in the eyes of the beholder, truth seems to be what the believer wants to believe. How else can you explain people believing that the sun goes and rests everyday, there is an impenetrable barrier between salt and saltless water, mountains are there to prevent the earth from shaking, sperm arises near the backbone, virgins can give birth (before the advent of IVF), the stars are in the lower heavens and the moon above them, shooting stars (meteors) are missiles for driving away the devils.....??

"This is the problem which has gripped the whole muslim community all across the world.Their mind is full of revenge.Even an enlightened muslim like you has not been able to rise above this feeling."

This problem has gripped the Muslim community because they are in the iron grip of a religion and its Prophet who requires them to shed blood for the purely non-viiolent act of denying the truth of the religion and its prophet. If you consider yourself a moderate Muslim and yet you insist that people who criticise your Prophet should be executed then what can be said about the not-so-moderate Muslim. Is it any wonder that the rest of humanity now consider Muslims to be a greater hazard to its health than global warming??

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