Curmally: My take on your angst

Submitted by Plato (India), Aug 9, 2009 at 04:00

Curmally, you wrote:

>>What has this short sighted act got to do with the Shariah? It is the individual who acted on his belief. Had he really wanted to enforce his belief, he could have issued a circular to the residents of the home of his proposed action and given them a choice to stay on and eat halal meat or leave at their earliest convenience. I really think a mountain is being made from a mole hill here.<<

Have you considered that maybe you are trying to make a mole hill out of a mountain? Remember the story of the Arab and his camel which took over his tent after being allowed to poke his nose in to keep it warm. The Arab ended up out in the cold.

>>Again, why can't a Muslim live his life in accordance with his faith? is he breaking the law of the land? If he is breaking the law of the land, then prosecute him with due process of law. Otherwise let him continue to practice his belief.<<

You are doing a fine job of allowing people who are non-Muslims practice their faith in Pakistan (and elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, or Iran) . If you read Dawn you must have come across this piece:

"I am often sent emails by readers claiming to be 'proud Pakistanis'. How can one be proud to be a Pakistani when incidents like the one at Gojra occur with such sickening regularity? Recently, several houses belonging to Christians were torched in Kasur. I have little doubt that soon another tragedy involving one minority community or another will play itself out on the national stage. Politicians will wring their hands, some official will be made the scapegoat, and so on till the next tragedy.

Ever since the blasphemy laws were imposed on Pakistan by Gen Zia nearly three decades ago, our country has become an increasingly dangerous place for non-Muslims. Hundreds of cases have been registered against hapless Christians and Hindus. Ahmadis have not only been declared non-Muslims, they have been actively persecuted for their beliefs.

If Muslims in the West were treated as we treat non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan, there would be loud accusations of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim discrimination. And despite this widespread and rampant discrimination against our minorities, we have the gall to lecture the world about our peaceful values.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/irfan-husain-proud-of-being-pakistani-889

The piece I have quoted from your post brings out succinctly the angst that Muslims have against non-Muslims i.e. being the victims of the unbelievers. At the same time it encapsulates how Muslims have become adept at accusing the unbeliever of being the victimizer.

Take your statement "Again, why can't a Muslim live his life in accordance with his faith?" You forget that the Koran teaches Muslims to do exactly what you unjustly accuse the non-Muslims of doing and as what is happening in Pakistan prove. Read:

009.033 YUSUFALI: It is He Who hath sent His Messenger with guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over all religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it).

003.083 YUSUFALI: Do they seek for other than the Religion of Allah?-while all creatures in the heavens and on earth have, willing or unwilling, bowed to His Will (Accepted Islam), and to Him shall they all be brought back.

9:33 tells Muslims that Muhammad has been sent by Allah to proclaim His particular brand of monotheism over all other religions even if the non-Muslims detest this Islamic monotheism.

3:83 tells Muslims that non-Muslims must bow to Allah willingly or UNWILLINGLY as His other creatures have done.

After reading these verses will any true Muslim allow non-Muslims to 'live his life in accordance with his faith?' Pakistan is a living example of Muslim intolerance of the Other. Let us have your take on these intolerant verses in your holy scripture which take away the freedom to practice one's faith.

>> I think the problem here is there is fear of the Muslims and Islam.<<

If you are up against a faith that orders its adherents to fight people of other faiths and be hard on them until they believe would you not fear them and their faith? Muslims take encouragement from this verse in which Allah tells them that He cast terror into the hearts of the Meccans at Badr to give them victory:

008.012 YUSUFALI: Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): "I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them."

Allah encourages Muslims to fight in:

009.029 YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

And He reinforces this encouragement with another verse making fighting compulsory telling Muslims that war is good for them:

002.216 YUSUFALI: Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not

Curmally, we non-believers are most certainly in terror of Muslims and their religion which wants to decimate all other beliefs.

>> You should have nothing to fear because they prefer their company to the company of others.<<

Following the Koran's injunctions (98:6, 3:28 etc) you keep yourself to yourself. You build ghettoes from which you emerge to riot and destroy when something happens in a far away land that you consider is an insult to your religion, remember the Danish cartoons, or the Satanic Verses, or the Pope pontificating about Islam?

>> Now if that irks you, then the problem is yours and not the Muslims.<<

What irks us is that you create a problem by cutting yourself off from the modern world. You live in your mental and physical ghettos with your clerics stoking your anger at everything they consider is an insult to Islam, including scantily clad women, music, TV, freedom of expression, idol worship….and then you burst out regularly to spread mayhem against your innocent neighbours who have no clue why they are being targeted.

>>The Muslims have not asked for additonal land to accomodate "natural growth" at the cost of anyone else as Benjamin Nathanyahu has. I have not heard one person say that this demand smacks of the Nazi concept of Lebensraum ...<<

Why should Muslims ask for additional land? The whole earth belongs to Allah and his Messenger. All you have to do is call unbelieving nations to Islam and if they refuse attack and conquer them. Your prophet set the example and his companions and caliphs did the needful to accommodate the UNNATURAL growth of Muslims in lands far, far away from the home of Islam. And you want to complain about a few square kilometers that Netanyahu is seeking?

Here is fine example that your prophet and Allah set for Muslims:

059.007 YUSUFALI: What Allah has bestowed on His Messenger (and taken away) from the people of the townships,- belongs to Allah,- to His Messenger and to kindred and orphans, the needy and the wayfarer; In order that it may not (merely) make a circuit between the wealthy among you. So take what the Messenger assigns to you, and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you. And fear Allah; for Allah is strict in Punishment.

Isn't that just cool? Allah (aka Muhammad) takes away the land and the wealth of the townships of non-Muslims and enriches the Muslims. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, only Paul is always a Muslim.

>>Be careful of the day the Muslim's anger comes to the forefront.<<

Muslim anger has been at the forefront since the day Muhammad high tailed it to Medina after Mecca became too hot for him for continuously insulting the Meccan beliefs for thirteen years. Muhammad then perfected the art of playing the victim. All the insults he heaped on the holy idols and beliefs of his own forefathers was swept aside and instead the Meccans made into aggressors for finally driving him out for sowing dissension and disturbing the peace of their city by his inflammatory preaching.

Non-Muslims have been conscious and careful of this baseless Muslim anger since Islam began.

>>I guarantee there won't be much left of this world to talk about.<<

A la all the towns and generations Allah destroyed because of His anger at non-Muslims? Is this guarantee from you or are you standing in for Allah? And you are typical of Muslims who cannot but spice their posts with a broad hint of the violence they are capable of committing. You have gone over the top by threatening Armageddon if Muslims are angered. At whose hands will the world end the Muslims' or Allah's?

>>We are human like you and if that is hard for you to accept then we will reduce you to the status you accord us. Of that be sure <<

What is certainly sure is that Allah considers non-Muslims to be sub-humans and again, typically, you turn around and accuse us of not giving Muslims the status of humans. Allah (aka Muhammad) has already reduced non-Muslims to sub-humans or even animals. Read in the Koran:

008.022 YUSUFALI: For the worst of beasts in the sight of Allah are the deaf and the dumb,- those who understand not.

025.044 YUSUFALI: Or thinkest thou that most of them listen or understand? They are only like cattle;- nay, they are worse astray in Path.

007.176 YUSUFALI: If it had been Our will, We should have elevated him with Our signs; but he inclined to the earth, and followed his own vain desires. His similitude is that of a dog: if you attack him, he lolls out his tongue, or if you leave him alone, he (still) lolls out his tongue. That is the similitude of those who reject Our signs; So relate the story; perchance they may reflect.

In 7:176 after refusing to elevate non-Muslims to the status of Muslims Allah unjustly compares them to panting dogs.

>>But we will not take any more guff from the West.<<

Sitting in Pakistan, your bombast is hilarious. The hated West has taken control of your air space (and what else?), to protect you from the Islamic predators who roam your land, as anyone who reads a newspaper or watches TV knows.

Regards

Plato

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".