Secularism gone overboard: You've turned the tables yourselves.

Submitted by Khurram Siddiqi (United States), Jun 26, 2003 at 01:34

Well, its great to know that amidst all this wish-wash of religious MISinterpretation on the part of all the Anti-Islam, Anti-Judaism and Anti-Christian people I have come to realise there are out there, there is still hope. Some people here still argue that not all Muslims are bad, and that not all monotheistic religions (espescially the Abrahamic faiths being brought to task) are bad. Islam was never in danger, and never will be. Religions are not fraternities. They dont die out if they dont have membership. Religion is faith; a lifestyle only appreciable by those who take the time to explore it, but at the same time put faith in it.

I was on this one anti-Islam website, faithfreedom.org, and its founder, Ali Sinai, seems to have taken things very far in his direction. To argue with him, to vehemently curse him or denounce his very 'different' (to say the least) interpretations of Islam, Muhammad and the Qur'an would just fuel his little bonfire. All throughout the discussions and 'postulates' of wisdom lots of these 'ex-Muslims', they continuously mention how angry, violent and fanatic Muslims can be.

Here's my piece: I am sitting here, writing this little letter to you via the internet. I am not burning an American flag in the background, nor am I posting fatwas for the banishment and removal of 'ex-Muslims' from the world. I am trying to approach this as peacefully as possible, and here's the chilly part: I'm not the first. Everyone else that has replied, and tried to support the fact that Judaeo-Chrisitian-Islam is not really that bad of an entity (if it can be called an entity; for me its a way of life, apparently not comprehendable by our 'ex-Muslim' friends) has done so with facts, and in a peaceful manner. No one seemed to have flames erupting from their mouths or burning torches in their hands.

However, the most angry people on these forums seem to be the anti-religionists themselves. These people constantly mock religion, and its followers (espescially the monotheistic ones) and have nothing but negative connotations in their words. It seems now, that the fundamentalist attitudes we have grown used to seeing in Muslim countries, have mutated and migrated into these 'ex-Muslims'. These are the only people violently trying to refute every bloody thing Islam says or stands for. You can take stories from 1,400 years ago (the Prophet's time) and misinterpret them horrendously, as they have, because as Dylan once said: The times, they are a changin'!

You CANNOT expect to interpret things properly without contexting time and the state of society. The only wrong way to read the Torah, Bible and Quran is as the ex-Muslims do: literally. They continue to do so because it fuels their fire. Fine...but the fanaticism seems now to lie on their side: they are the ones full of anger and rebuttal. If you dont like it: drop out. Plain and simple. To become a neo-Crusader hoping to alert the world of all the evils Islam and Muslims are upto is nothing an intellectual should strive towards.

Yes, DO tell it like it is. There is MUCH evil in the Muslim world: the Mullahs were never any good. Bin Laden and his posse can all go to hell for all I care. But you keep forgetting a fundamental thing: with extreme poverty comes extreme ignorance. With ignorance comes misinterpretation, and then you see the fanaticism that is so rapidly spreading all over Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc in full force.

I am not FOR this kind of fanaticism. The issues to tackle are first literacy. We had ignorant people running off from Peshawar Pakistan with machettes and swords into Afghanistan for 'Jihad' against American smart bombs that were to fall in October 2001 north of the border. I agree much needs to be done. But to label the whole doctrine as being flawed, and disrespect Muhammad in the stupidest, most childish of ways is riduculous. It seems everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon theories of Muhammad's 'Jewish massacres' and 'pedophile stature' in the ex-Muslim community; good God, were these some kind of writs you memorised to pledge your newfound fraternity? The truth is, the peace you cannot and will not find, dear ex-Muslims is not because your previous doctrine was flawed, but because you could not, with all your heart submit to the will of God. To submit is not to follow blindly; that is your mistake and chief misinterpretation; it is to believe that there is a higher deity than you that controls your fate. It is submission to the fact that we are alas, mortals. Stop walking the earth with so much haughtiness; your views are based on angered misinterpretations to begin with. Salam.

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