Reply to Abdul Rahman

Submitted by Fazal Habib Curmally (Pakistan), Sep 25, 2006 at 22:21

Abdul Rahman,

I do not claim to represent to be Islam. I am or rather was, a member of the silent majority. I would have remained one . My turning point came when all that people do is equate Islam with Osama Bin Laden and what the Holy father the Pope had to say when he chose to quote a Byzantine emperor and his views on Islam. The Holy Father had many other options open to him and when he chose that specific quotation, he attacked Islam, was really more than I could take. The Holy Father was discussing the value or reson and revelation. But the example he chose was extremely offensive.

The concept of Holy War as it is called or jehad which is the more common term in use today is a wrong equation. Jehad means to struggle. Now there are 2 types of jehad. The first and the greatest one is against oneself. The lesser jehad is when you have to take up arms against an aggressor. The lesser jehad is a defensive war which is fought until the enemy submits and accepts he was wrong. Once he does that, then he left in peace with a provisio that he will not attack again. The concept of jehad as an offensive war is new and can be attributed to Sayed Qutb, and more about this gentleman is given below.

Bin Laden represents a radical aspect of Islam. He is a believer from a very orthodox Fiqah or school of Islam law taken from Imam Hambal and a much later reformer of that school school of law, Ibn Taimmiya. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a scholar called Sayed Qutb who was an Egyptian and he propogated a line of thought pertaining to an Islamic revival as an alternative to Abdel Gamal Nasser's version of Arab Socilaism. Sayed Qutb's book Milestones especially Chapter 4 casts a lot of light about how Qutb thought out the subject of jehad and as a means of using it for an Offensive war.

Personally, I don't care too much about Bin Laden and would not vote for him or his brand of Islam. Try and remember that most Muslims are anti-American Government Policy rather than being pro Bin Laden. Don't mistake this as a hatred for the American people. We who are not Americans cannot stand what Bush and his gang of idiots are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and tried in Somalia.

If you have found peace by renouncing Islam or are a nominal Muslim, means nothing or very little to me. You are responsible for your beliefs as I am for mine. You have a right to act as you choose and believe as you choose.

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".