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Crack cocaine of the massesReader comment on item: Bolstering Moderate Muslims Submitted by Ianus (Poland), May 3, 2007 at 15:52 Farid H., wrote : > Ianus, thanks for pointing to Marx's famous "religion is the opiate of the masses" quote. Of course I knew this, but the focus of Marx is different here. It's about rulers using religion to steer people, and to deflect their anger, funneling it into the spiritual. This indeed happens all the time in Muslim countries. If so, then the focus of Marx is not so different after all. > It's a disgrace, but that's how politics work here. It has always worked this way and as long as Islam exists it will always do. It would be surprising if it didn't . > Not very different from what happened in Europe no so long ago; while Church and State were still strongly intertwined. You mean before the Enlightenment ? But no Enlightenment is possible under Islam , therefore no hope for Moslems to become "moderate" as happened to Christians who became so mainly thanks to the Enlightenment. > However, this collective use was not what I'm talking about. It's about the (mis-?)use of religion by individuals as a way to cope with life, a.k.a. as personal psych-drug. This is much more pernicious than what Marx is hinting at. Don't deflect the focus of the discussion from Islam to some "individuals". Islam is a herd religion. Individualism is haram and a bida. > Putting this aside, I get your message. Is Islam really the crack cocaine of the masses? Yes, it is. > I don't know, Venture a guess ! > but it's definitely not crack cocaine for most individuals. Again some misguided , misinformed , stray 'individuals' are to blame ... I am too old to believe in such cheap fairy tales. If Islam isn't crack cocaine of the Molsemized masses , then it is very few who avoid its lethal effect . They do it by renouncing it for good. You can avoid the effects of the drug only by not taking it. > For there are a lot of moderate muslims who are not practicing; You mean : "There are a lot of moderate Muslims who are not practicing Muhammad-ordered terror ." ? > or who take all this with a big dose of humor. Tell me a practical joke about Allah circulating among 'moderate Moslems' in Morroco and I'll believe you. > I personally know many muslims who are not at all addicted to Islam - You certainly don't mean Moslems but candidates to apostasy . I know they do exist in large quantities and I pin on my hopes on them. The solution to radical Islam (all Islam is for internal reasons radical ) is not engineering some nebulous "moderate Islam" , as Dr. Pipes keeps reiterating . It is apostatsy from Islam. > they just happen to have been born into it. And just happen to be confronted with death if they dare think or say : "Thanks ! But Islam is not for me . I am fed up with that... > If Islam was as addictive as crack cocaine, they wouldn't be able to view it from a distance. Moslems can't do that. Ex-Moslems can. > They'd seek more and more of it; Isn't it happening with that mad Moslem revival movements world-wide ? > and this simply doesn't happen on a large scale. I have a different impression. > It does happen with fanatics though, but not with the mainstream. Aha ... the old wives' story of "bad fanatics" versus "good mainstream Moslems". It sounds so good that I almost forgot to ask how it is borne out by reality ? > I know it's hard to believe though; Are you a skeptical Moslem ? ( A better term than the glib and vague 'moderate' Moslem). > especially considering the current wave of radical islamism even in muslim countries How does this admission can be reconciled with what you have just stated above " this ( addiction to Islam ) simply doesn't happen on a large scale(...)not with the mainstream" ? > that used to be very liberal w.r.t. religious freedoms - including my own country just south of Spain. Morroco a liberal democratic country ? A Moslem monoculture (99%) suddenly evolves into a home of religious freedoms ? ... The country that kicked out its few Jews in 1948 without giving them a penny for what they had, now emerges proudly as "very liberal" ... You'll quote the late dhimmi pope soon to prove your point , won't you ? On this forum some Moslems or gullible kafirs have tried to find at least one moderate Moslem country to see if Dr. Pipes doctrine is at least borne out by one single real life example .. .The candidates included : Malaysia (turned out to a Soudi Arabia of South East Asia , alas ) ; Turkey ( it turned out to be much more Islamic than before its 'secularisation') ... Now we have Morroco as an ideal moderate Moslem country ? ... Who's next ? ... The United Arab Emirates ? ... > Yes, it's hard to believe, seeing how those islamists, most of them moderately dangerous, "Moderately dangerous" ? ...An intriguing phrase ... How do you define a "moderately dangerous Moslem" ? Isn't it essentially a franker definition of the 'moderate Muslim' ? > but some of them (salafists) extremely dangerous (they bred terrorists among them) are gaining traction. It's a shame, BUT this is temporary phenomenon, just like communism has been. No, Moslem! This is a permanent phenomenon as 14 centuries of Islam's infamous and criminal history prove. Communism arose due to a particular historical constellation (World war 1), and as these abnormal historical circumstances with their most serious consequences disappeared , it died out. It lasted just 70 years. Islam hasn't been changed by any revolution of historical circumstances. It has lasted for 1400 years in its uncouth barbarian form. > Once it calms down (and it WILL eventually die out like every other political (!) fad - because that's what it is, despite all appearances from the outside), things will go back to normal. Things have already gone to normal. The hopeful myth spread about 'moderate Islam' since around the end of world war two has been long debunked. If some scholars and venal media still spread it still , fewer and fewer people are hoodwinked by it. Thanks to the Enlightenment, people find it natural to believe what they see and think and not what they are told to see and think by powers that be. > And normal is what I've grown up with in a country open to many cultural currents: Your country is a Moslem monoculture. What culture can you have with 99% Moslem population ? > most people there don't really care about all this. Passivity is too willingly taken for moderacy which it isn't. > They take some pride in the time when Islam was ahead of the pack in Andalusia, while Europe was stuck in the deepest obscurantism; Moslem narcissists cannot even imagine what that Europe might have looked like if no Moslem barbarity had destroyed, it imposing its intolerable yoke on it . Moslem obsurantism was and is much deeper and worse than what Catholicism has ever degenrated into. > and they feel ashamed about their current miserable situation. "Ashamed" ? They are enraged and blame the kaffirs for all their problems. > That's normal: a down to earth realism; reluctantly expressed to outsiders, but widely acknowledged within. If you hint at their readiness to abandon...Islam , which is to blame for all -or most - problems Moslem countries face , I agree totally. You can't have high civilization and freedoms and Islam at the same time. > I know nothing of your background Ianus, so I wouldn't like to hastily jump to conclusions (as you did in your reply, based solely on my name, assuming that I was moslem), Wrong! It was the spirit and wording of your post that told me you were a Moslem. Sorry ! But your Islam deprived you of almost all individuality. > but I'd assume that you're writing from outside a muslim country; I call it a free country . Now only countries which have no or few Moslems are free countries in my definition. All the others are on the way to lose their freedom. We don't have here almost any Moslems and by Allah we don't want any. The example of the West is terrifying and depressing enough. Such a high civilization sinking to the status of despicable dhimmitude at a staggering pace ! How revolting ! > or that you've lived in one of those who are very repressive (Iran? Saudi Arabia?...). Any Moslem country which is not an oppressive police state...? ... I can't imagine such a country ... > If that's true, your views seem very natural and are a logical way to see things. Thanks a lot ! I worship the goddess of logic above all other things and gods. > But the world isn't black and white; It's either dar-al Islam or dar-al-harb , if you are a Moslem. > it's full of shades of grey. I admit in sooth that I have never seen any fatwa as to how to see Antarcic ... as part of dar-al-Islam or dar-al-harb...? I'd be curious to learn that. > Still assuming that you're not very familiar with the muslim world (please correct me if I'm wrong), See from what I write if I am an ignoramus or not . Don't believe anything I can't support with some argument. (Become a skeptical Moslem ! If you do I hope that one day you'll leave for ever that vicious and self-destructive monster called Islam. ) > may I suggest that you just look more closely to it? I try to do my best . > You'll discover things that are far worse than what you may have expected; but also things that are not as evil or black and white as you might think. Sorry , but in the history of mankind so far a worse and more destructive and sickening religion than Islam has not emerged and gained such a sway on men's minds . I don't exclude the bloody religion of the Aztecs from this observation. 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". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (579) on this item
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