The Morals of Difference

Submitted by ashraf (United States), Oct 16, 2008 at 21:08

I am so happy I received comments on my comment, though all comments were hyper critical. The description of Muslims as Muhammadans is quite odd to me. But it seems that those who utter the word are not quite informed about what Islam is. Islam is composed of two scriptual sources: the Sharia or God's law as revealed by the Quran and the Hadith or the prophetic traditionsI.

So, the term - if it deserves the label term - is quite mistaken. I was trying to go beyond the superficial point of providing an apology for Islam because I believe it is there whether you or me accepted this fact or not. Moreover, I strongly believe as a researcher that no religion that appeared since the dawn of history can be criticized as immoral even if its followers are caught in despicable acts. To be able to cast aspersions over any belief you have to understand its core and delve beyond silly nationalist sentiments that inflicted its curse on humanity all along. Remember what were the world wars about, but also remember the casualties and blood shed in the name of difference, in the name of good versus evil, modern versus backward and faith versus disbelief. Was the mass killing of the Holocaust the evil doing of Muslims? Was the atmomic bomb on Japan thrown by Bin Laden?

Evil can be any man's act and in any man's blood - or do you believe it is genetic? Generalizations often lead to misconceptions and this is the main fault of the proponents of the East-West divide. If you have time guys to read about modernization theory and see for yourself the effortless attempt to dignify one's self and civilization by lowering the stature of the other you maybe able to know how evil is created and entrenched in the very name of civilization. Or do you ardently believe in what is termed as'the end of history'and the glorious triumphalism of the West? This theory then I can easily refute by directing your attention to what can we describe as the cycle of civilizations - Pharohs, Greek, Chinese, Muslim, Ottoman and finally Western!Then try to give me a real definition of the word civilization - but please not a self-styled definition that invents the Other to enhance one's self esteem. This would be quite egoistic. You may be surprised that my thesis is focused on Jewish historians'approach towards Islam and Arabs but my points are in favor of many of them. Do you think this is fanatic? I guess your reaction to my comment was, but sadly expected.

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