Can we do more feasible action?

Submitted by atheist mohammed (United Kingdom), Aug 31, 2008 at 11:55

Prepare,

I've read through your reply and I have to say that I find most of your argument convincing. Yet I need to emphasize few things.

1- Banning the PRACTICE of Islam in Europe may not be a feasible solution for several reasons. Banning the practice itself does not prevent or obstruct the radical Muslims from observing and spreading their ideology among the moderate Muslims or even non-Muslims. Radical Muslims do not need to continue growing their beards or wearing particular clothes to harbour their beliefs, especially when the atmosphere is against them. They can simply practice their rituals in private and use the advanced telecommunication technologies to communicate and spread the word of terrorism and exteremism.

2- Banning Islam itself in Europe may not be effective as well. Historically speaking, extreme measures to ban particular religions in Europe were frequently used with varying success. In 64 AD, Nero's brutal persecution of the Christian minority in Rome after the Great Fire failed to stop the spreading of Christianity in the Roman Empire and the whole world later on. The Spanish Inquisition of the Moriscos (i.e. those who were forced to convert from Islam to Christianity in Spain in early 1500s AD) succeeded in banning Islam in Spain but only by using the extreme harsh procedures of the Inquisition. More recently, the Nazzi's Holocaust exterminated 6 million Jews in Europe and forced most of the remaining Jews to flee for their lives.

3- Given the above points I doubt that you would agree to use measures similar to the Inquisition or the Nazzi's "Final Solution" to ban Islam in Europe. Note that Islam is the second largest religion in Europe and the world. The world is no longer splitted into isolated religious islands, it is now more like a small village. You may succeed to stop terrorism within Europe but this does not means that Europian interests in the world are immune to terrorism. Islamic terrorism is a global problem.

4- A quarter million Muslims and ex-Muslims marching the streets of London protesting against radical Islam may be seen as a comforting gesture to the West but it won't make any noticeable difference in the minds of the radicals. I belive that what we also need to do is to plant the seed of doubt in the Muslims' heads regading their religion. This may succeed in dragging many away from Islam (as was my case) or at least to contain the majority of Muslims world-wide within the rituals circle rather than the radical ideology circle.

5- Ex-Muslims, like myself, are perhaps the best to do that. However, we can not work individually to achieve this. I personally wanted to act more effectively in this regard by conducting a comprehensive research on how to penterate the minds of the radical Muslims and also the potential-radical moderate Muslims using my academic, racial, and religious background and knowledge. I think there are many other ex-Muslims who can join together to form a think tank to achive the goal. However, the resources we have are very limited.

For example, I have many personal responsibilities to maintain with respect to myself and my family. I tried my best in this regard but failed to provide large-scale effective results because this mission should be a full-time job. Unfortunately, due to the critical nature of this subject, there are many restrictions imposed by agencies and institutions that provide the suitable resources and funding. The only thing I can do at the moment is to continue my humble efforts to make some change.

Therefore, I personally believe that there are many things we can do in this regard but we need to cooperate together to achieve this.

Regards,

Athesit Mohammed

(P.S. you can have a look at my tumbled blog http://atheistmohammed.blogspot.com )

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