Check out
this article in the N.Y. Times. This article basically questions the claim that the majority of Muslims are moderates and that the stories we hear so often are about a small group of fundamentalist extremists who does not represent the majority of Islam. The article cites a quote from the Koran
"The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2)" and asks how can anyone follow this verse and also show moderation when the verse and many others like it require the reader to "Let no compassion move you in thier case.... if you believe in Allah and the Last Day". Lately I am inclined to wonder the same thing. In water cooler discussions at work I have frequently heard this claim of the small group of extremists making a bad name for the majority of Islam that is apparently good. In those discussions all I can say is this..... If the majority is compassionate, understanding and moderate then why in the last few weeks have there been so many "majority sanctioned" events bringing a bad light to the Islamic religion and it's followers?
First, you have a 20 year old woman in Saudi Arabia who is kidnapped and brutally raped by several men and yet when it all comes to light in the end the woman is sentenced to 6 months in jail and 200 lashes with a bamboo cane for "mingling" with a male who was not related to her by marriage or blood. When the woman gets out of jail she will likely be killed shortly after as her own brother has already attempted to murder her because of the shame she has brought to the family.
Second, you have a 54 year old female teacher from England was sentenced to jail because as she began a reading lesson in her classroom of small children she gave them the option of naming the teddy bear involved in the lesson and the children chose the name of a much loved prophet as well as many much loved men in their country "Muhammad". What did honoring someone and something they loved with the name of a much loved prophet and man get the children? It got them the lesson of seeing how they had the power to put their teacher in jail for what was twisted into blasphemy against Islam. What a lesson to teach your second grader - immediately your child learns that if you don't do as those who preach your religion to you regardless of how much sense it makes you will be thrown in jail - and the next most immediate thing learned by these little tikes is that they have the power to take something good or that has good intent and twist it to thier will in order to punish those whom they don't like if that is what they choose to do.
Third, you have Taslima Nasreen the Bangladeshi writer who bravely defends the rights of Muslim women worldwide. And what does she get as her reward for wanting equality or at the very least non-violent, logical, and compassionate treatment of women? She gets forced out from her home counry of Bangladesh and ends up having to move to India where there is placed a price for her head of $500,000 rupees. In August she was assulted by Muslim militants in Hyderabad and in recent weeks she has been forced to leave Calcutta, and then Rajasthan. All of this shunning and ostricism for protecting a minority from blatant abuses. This shows the lengths that people will go to in order to be able to continue abuse in the name of Allah without punishment for this violence in any form because they are taught to do these things and believe these things without the consideration of compassion.
It is odd to me that a group of people of any sort whose 'religious texts' require them to obey a God only and not to consider their own thoughts and compassion would obey a book and some men reading it to them instead. This is exactly opposite of what most religious texts require. Most require that you have a personal relationship with the God and that you follow only God's instruction. I find it odd that there is anyone who has the twisted belief that to have a personal relationship with your God you have to go through a middle man interpreter. Why would they not tell you to come to church and read the word of our great prophet who received the ultimate word from God and then go home and pray and meditate and chant your brains out until you yourself receive a message and then you commit whatever acts that message told you to do. The problem with this is that those in charge of various religions can't accept this because it would remove from them two very important things 1- power; 2- money. If we all had the freedom to speak with God directly then we could come back from our private conversations with him and do the same thing as our "clerics" do and twist it to our own benefit without enduring a lot of questions because we claimed that it came from God. Clerics of any religion would pee their pants if this became widely accepted to speak with God yourself instead of with an interpreting cleric. As a matter of fact that is exactly what these clerics of all religions are metaphorically doing is peeing in thier robes. That is why in America gay people, transgendered people and those of color still don't have rights because the religious clerics are the metaphorical dogs pissing on the metaphorical tree of lawmaking in order to show their strength, power and territory. As it is said in Habakkuk 2 in the Christian bible I believe all these people who lift up their own egos while leaving their shrunken souls inside them, becoming victim to their own pride and desire to collect the control of people and countries through bloodshed and violence will eventually get their payback in such a way that makes all of the earth silent in amazement.
New York Times Muslims fornication compassion moderation Allah extremists sanctioned Saudi Arabia Sudan Taslima Nasreen God HabakkukLabels: Allah, compassion, extremists, fornication, God, Habakkuk, moderation, Muslims, New York Times, sanctioned, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Taslima Nasreen
