A Memo To American Muslims (This Man Says It All..Bravo)

Glocal Eye ^ | 16 Oct 2001 | Dr. Muqtedar Khan

[Southern Federalist]

I went to the online A HREF="http://www.stg.brown.edu/webs/quran_browser/pqeasy.shtml">Quran Browser to test Born in a Rage's claim that there is no mention of peace or love in the Quran. Turns out not to be true. For example:

[al-Baqarah 2:177.41] It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces to the East and the West; but righteous is he who believeth in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Scripture and the prophets; and giveth wealth, for love of Him, to kinsfolk and to orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and to those who ask, and to set slaves free; and observeth proper worship and payeth the poor-due. And those who keep their treaty when they make one, and the patient in tribulation and adversity and time of stress. Such are they who are sincere. Such are the God-fearing.

The point is that for every selection of hateful quotes from the Quran, somebody else can make a selection of highly ethical and spiritual ones. Any book that could nurture a religion for 1300 years is bound to be complicated. The question is where the people who follow it locate its center of gravity. This man obviously sees the center of gravity of the Quran somewhere else than bin Laden does.

That's related to Barak's question about whether this man is an "Islamic Spong." Because I am a Christian, I believe that God will see to it that the Christian message as He intends it will always be around. But apart from divine intervention, a religion is basically what its followers say it is. If worldwide Islam could be persuaded to take passages like the one I cited as the central ones, then that is what Islam would be. Sufi Muslims read the Quran very differently from Wahhabis, but it has nothing to do with being "liberal." They just locate the center in a different place.

[ChemistCat]

I'm going to make enough copies of this article to pass out to everyone in the Rebirth of Israel class my husband and I are taking together on Wednesday nights ("date night" haha.) There are several Muslims and Jews in the class, and it will be interesting to see their responses to this. I am very glad this article was written and posted. I don't have time any longer to search and see if someone posted a link to the author's email or website. I would really like to write and thank him, so I'll be doing that search tomorrow. Good night, citizens; keep your powder dry. Umm, your gunpowder. Keep the other kind in the sealed envelope and call 911....j/k.

[Illbay]

With all respect, "not seeing it the first time" isn't really the point. There are reasons for the rules.

Who among you was around FR last summer, when the servers bogged down under the strain of a surge in membership, and we were forced to "do without" for an entire week?

The improvements that John Robinson has made to the software and functionality, including the search engine--not to mention the "bump lists," have really opened the site up as a research tool.

[Old Student]

From his website, quite a lot. This is a serious Scholar, and a Muslim of the old, OLD school. Dr. Khan would have been at home at the University of Cordova, no sweat! (This is one of the places European scholars went to get access to the Greek texts that are the basis of Western Civilization after the end of our Dark Age, for those of you who aren't historian wannabes.)

[vigilo]

"As far as I have learned in recent weeks, the prophet Mohammed was a murdering military conquerer and a rapist. Correct me if I am wrong about that."

You are not wrong.

[beckett]

Very gutsy of this guy to go public with these remarks. I commend him highly.

[ChemistCat]

Glenn Beck (www.glennbeck.com) has this "Crayon Coalition" going in which the drawings of American children, urging peace, love, friendship, et cetera, will be forwarded through the United Nations to children in Afghanistan. (I started to type Free Republic. Too many vicinal diols in my head.) Good grief, if we could get crayon drawings to the children, why couldn't we get copies of an intelligent essay written BY a Muslim to the adults???? I know few read but it ain't hardly no propaganda to make them think about what they're doing, and I imagine there are enough who can read.... I am thinking about writing to Dr. Khan again and suggesting this. If Glenn Beck can get it done, couldn't FReepers? And you know, it oughta go to Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia.... MEIN KAMPF...KAPITAL...changed the history of the world for the worse, why couldn't this essay change it for the better? I bet most of the people who are ready to shoot at us are barely aware that we have Muslims here! let alone Muslims who are honored members of society....

You can bump your friends, and you can bump your nose, but you can't bump your friend's nose.

[ChemistCat]

Italics off, you sleepposter you.

[gcruse]

Thanks for the ping. I thought it was pick..not bump :)

[Restorer]

Good question. I usually just go to google.com and type in appropriate keywords. Works amazingly well most of the time.

[Les_Miserables]

This reference is for the love of Allah. Perhaps you can find and cite a reference in the Quran to loving your enemy as yourself? If not I miss your point and we learn something about the true nature of this cult of the moon god.

[ArGee]

Islam is not about defeating Jews or conquering Jerusalem. It is about mercy, about virtue, about sacrifice and about duty. Above all it is the pursuit of moral perfection. Nothing can be further away from moral perfection than the wanton slaughter of thousands of unsuspecting innocent people.

Ping.

Shalom

[ArGee]

Unfortunately, the Church in violation of his example and principles did just what you describe, for the better part of 1,600 years.

I admit to not being an historian. I know a smattering of world history, but there are many who know much more than I. If you are one of them, then please provide a little support for the above comment.

I am aware of the Crusades. I condemn them outright as being much of what you have clamed. But I do not believe they went on for the better part of 1600 years. I am aware of the Inquisition, but that also was not for the better part of 1600 years.

I know the Church lent its support to black slavery. That wasn't about converting people, but even if I grant you that issue I don't think it was for the better part of 1600 years.

I fear that this is much like the "More people have died in the name of G-d than for any other reason," myth. It is true that the Church is not above reproach. But I submit that, for most of her history, she has attempted to win converts by discussion and persuasion as Jesus did. If you have some actual details I am more than willing to be corrected.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Well, if you read, he says he did do a search. Sometimes things don't show up apparently, because I see this happen alot.

It happened to me a lot before I found the "Archives" menu item. Should have been obvious, but it wasn't.

Shalom.

[Southern Federalist]

I was responding to a claim that the Quran says nothing about peace and love. The passage I cited links love of Allah with generosity and fair-dealing towards other people. Many people have been posting claims that for all Muslims everywhere at all times and by utter necessity love for Allah means brutality and hatefulness towards others.

I'm not claiming that Islam has no problems - only that it's complicated. I don't really think that the mass execution of app. a billion Muslims is an option, so we'd better hope that it has the resources to develop peacefully.

Learn about the Sufi. The western press believes that too much religion is always dangerous so they present the Sufi Muslims in places like Uzbekistan as "less fervent." But that's baloney - they just interpret Islam in a very different way. Here is an interesting article: Sufism in Russia Today - shows how Sufi forms of Islam have been a barrier to Wahhabi radicalism.

One of the most outspoken anti-Islamist Muslim leaders in the US is Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani of the Islamic Supreme Council, head of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order in the United States. He made enemies by publically exposing the Wahhabist penetration of American Islam several years ago.

My bottom line is this: Muslims aren't going to disappear. And if you tell people they are vicious no-goods long enough, it'll become a badge of identity and they'll embrace it. So I want to put the best construction I can on Islam, because I think that the more humanely Muslims can interpret their religion, the better for me and my country and everybody.

[AmishDude]

I have watched the movie "Gandhi" [oh geez] that shows the kind of tension and concern on Gandhi's Ben Kingsley's face when he learns that the Muslims want a seperate state/country.

Should'a stuck with the bolded paragraph.

[JMJ333]

Islam is not about defeating Jews or conquering Jerusalem. It is about mercy, about virtue, about sacrifice and about duty. Above all it is the pursuit of moral perfection. Nothing can be further away from moral perfection than the wanton slaughter of thousands of unsuspecting innocent people.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry over that statement. The author is either unaware of the Qu'ran Surah 5 verse 51, or he is lying. Regardless the statement is untrue. This guy must be blind to the wanton slaughtering of Christians worldwide [Iraq and East Timor just to name 2] by his moslem brothers who are seeking perfection and mercy.--Give me a break.