Is fear of Islam irrational?

Submitted by Jerry (United States), Oct 29, 2005 at 15:44

First, I would like to ask any experts on Islam if all oppression, tyranny or other wise violation of basic human rights is committed only by "radical muslims", "Islamists" or practitioners of any form or political Islam?

A phobia is a psychological state of an irrational fear. If one has a fear of all snakes including the harmless garden variety, then this is irrational and a phobia. If one fears the distinct sound of a rattler while taking a sunday stroll in the desert, then this is not deemed irrational, because the wrong step can cost one their life.

The same analogy can be applied to Islam. If I were traveling in a muslim country and was told by locals that certain individuals or tribal areas were hot beds of radical Islam, then I would bypass them, hide or other wise maintain avoidance. Likewise, when dealing with so called moderates both within and without the dar al Islam, I would be careful, not to violate the sharia, for many people such as the over 200 former Persian muslims who, have been murdered for converting to Christianity, were done so, not by Islamists per se but by either moderate individuals in their own family, or local moderates who were angered by the conversion. (Amnesty International) And likewise, many individual testimonies from the book Why I Am Not A Muslim, point out that killings occur through out the world in violation of Koranic tenets, not by agents of Islamist governments but by ordinary muslims who became angry and hateful.

Thus, I ask is this kind of fear irrational toward Islam?

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