Shariah is not the issue - the extremist interpretation of Shariah is the issue
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For God's sake, what the heck is wrong with you - is there non extreme interpretation?? - Again, show me.
These extremists claim they are 'Muslims' and 'follow Islam', so should we now condemn anyone who claims to be a Muslim or follows Islam or proselytizes
Again, what the hck is wrong with you, you should know better than this flimsy argument - what if we change, in the above astatement, the word "Muslim" with the word "communist"
Will you then argue that Communists are bad but communism is OK??
I realize what you are trying to say - unless you first cede that the basis of Shariah is entirely human, your position cannot go further.
See, the problem with it, is the CLAIM, and recall it's just a claim, that it is divine -- a competitor of The Quran Karim, a blasphemy. Unless we first position this CLAIM in it's correct historical, social and political context, we will be unable to get a handle on this problem.
With Khalifat, just as the concept of "Zilallah" justifed and demanded acceptance of the khalifah, similarly, this CLAIM is related to that, after all, if the Khalifa has the kind of connection, recall he is Khalifah and now also , ZilAllah, must not the laws reflect the same connection?
Laws are made by and for men, not for gods -- Laws are made by and for men - unless we understand that Shariah by defintion, requires extra-religious knowledge - why? because it is, and laws are, about more than religious science. If you cede that extra religious knowledge is also required for Shariah, you are already breaking free of the ridiculous claim - now I grant that it was not ridiculous then in it's hoistorical context, but it is certainly ridiculous now.
Now if we understand that shariah is based on past knowledge and the knowledge of the day, we are left to ask, what is gthe nature of knowledge - do ordinary and even learned men, have or can have any knowledge other than emtirely human?????
If it is entirely human, is it stuck in time?? in space ?? in geography?? If it's human, then it evolves, it grows and it contracts, and after all, if it were divine, why would it need to evolve??
What really burn me is that you already know better - and I am, well, I'm trying to understand - we must have some commitment to arriving at a semblance of truth, must we not?
You say, there is no political party in Pakistan that does not use violence - but here you are being clever by half, the argument was not over all political parties, by your own defintion - it was political parties that USE religion and are non-violent - now you admit there is no such thing -- and you ask what must we then do?
Very good, that's a start - by your own defintion and by your own admission there is no political party in Pakistan that USES (ABUSES) religion that does so without using violence - We are back to the value judgment are we not?? And we have to make it!! If we did not it would be as if we know what the right thing to do is but do not have the courage to do it -- a long term pakistani problem, for sure but we can take the step and end it now, here.
See AM, those of us who are Muslims, cannot acede, that in our name, in the name of our religious faith,in the name of our nationality, that we accept corruption and corrupters - we just can't, because it's not the right thing to do. We have made a value judgement and have reject these corruptions. In however you will choose to examine the issue, I will request that you keep this in mind.
Let me see if I can try and explain in another way -- as we are a Muslim folk, by our relgious teaching we have every conviction that there is a "Shaiytan", do we not?? In your zeal to appear to be fair, will you give a voice to "Shaiytan"??
Look at this in the terms of Value judgement -- we, the Muslim folk, love Allah and fear the loss of this love, we take a giant leap of faith, we trust Allah -- Do we have faith in Shaiytan? Do we trust Shaiytan? DO we love Shaiytan? Astaghfarullah! Shall we not censor Shaiytan??? Who then are these radical murders but the minions of Shaiytan??
The role of leadership (your role) -- How did we as a Muslim Folk arrive at this VALUE judgement ? Who made it clear to us? What made it clear to us? Was it the benevolence of leaders to distinguish between right and wrong and good and bad? Leadership points the way, and in these horrible times, your responsibilty to do just that is even more so, don't let us down.