Are we to hold the American Civil war responsible for the prevalence of institutionalised racism across the United States until the Civil Rights Movements? Are we to hold the Declaration of Independence responsible for the prevalence of institutionalised slavery until the Civil war? Are we to hold Christianity responsible for intra-Christian wars, Church tyrannies and failures to deny Colonialism, State sponsored racism, two world wars, and the rise of Communism from within Christendom? Are we going to hold Hinduism to account for centuries of servitude, facilitated by the prevalence of internal racism that held men of lighter shades of skin to higher esteem?
Thank you for your elaborate reply. While I appreciate your attempt at arriving at a solution and your admission of Muslims sins of the past, I am afraid you have fallen into the same trap of other reformers of Islam, exonerating Islam itself while heaping blame on Muslims regardless of the fact that much of the inspiration for Muslim behavior is derived from their adherence to Sunnah.
No you cannot hold American Civil War responsible for the prevalence of institutionalized racism across US because it was never fought on that premise. No you cannot hold Declaration of Independence responsible for prevalence of institutionalized slavery for it was founded on the principle of individual freedom.
Yes, you can hold Christianity responsible for intra-Christian wars, Chruch tyrannies and failures to deny colonialism, state sponsored racism, two world wars, and the rise of communism from within Christendom. The absoluteness of the Christian belief in the moral superiority of Christians versus the heathens and one true god and the sense of entitlement this bred set the ball rolling for the intolerance and the oppression of anyone who did not adhere to its precepts and the following church tyrannies, colonialism, racism, wars, and finally communism in opposition to the church.
No you cannot hold Hinduism responsible for centuries of servitude. It did not willing of its own volition get its adherents into servitude. This was externally imposed. This was also resisted against throughout those centuries.
Color of skin never mattered before the advent of Islam in India. All our heroes and gods are of dark shade and our standard of beauty indifferent to the skin tones as evident by the enormous corpus of ancient fresco's throughout the landscape where Hinduism prevailed. There is no racism in India based on skin tones.
But the lack of any formal schools of thought among Muslims that understand and embrace the Enlightenment is because it is premised on submission and fear.
Because mankind on the whole are fallible, illogical, and devoid of consistency in the employment of sound reasoning. It would be stupid to claim otherwise, when the United States itself is not a Democracy, but a Constitutional Republic. Had this not been the case and Democratic polls and the tyranny of Majority rule were the order of the day, then there wouldn’t be anything in place to control the favourite idiot of the day being voted into office, as had happened in Ancient Greece, Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany.
If this is your starting premise and belief of mankind, then any attempted correction of their behavior is bound to fail based on its own logic. Whose reasoning and logic are you appealing to assist you in your fight against traditional Islam when you have already declared mankind as this abject failure?
US became a Constitutional Republic of its own volition based on the view of its own people (the majority). Make no mistake, it was not forced on it by its minorities. Any concession given was due to the sense of fair play on part of its majority.
Any reasonable student of history would inform you that nations, ideas, and religious beliefs are never the same from one generation to another, as they’re all subject to evolutionary reviews and reinterpretation, mostly necessitated by collective NEEDS. Right now, the state of national failures across the Muslim world has fostered the realization for the NEED to review our dilemmas and reflect upon our scriptures to understand where we’ve went wrong. Your disingenuous mockery of Muslims for our inability to “decipher the correct Islam…over the last 1400 years”, is an anti-intellectual rebuttal that neglects any honest intent at arriving to a solution. We know that “power corrupts and absolute power, absolutely corrupts”, so given that the fall of Muslim power from any international relevance has only been two centuries in the making, the NEED for a review and change has simply not availed itself as it has in recent years. It’s a sad reflection of humanity – rather than Islam - that when the going’s good and others have to suffer our own sins, then the motivation isn’t really there to cleanse ourselves from those sins. This is why most Pakistanis herein are far less inclined to criticise their state policies towards Afghanistan, while most of them still remain sheltered from the same savagery that inflicted my nation. Afghans on the other hand are far more exposed to ideas towards our salvation, for we’ve been to hell and back.
This is again a self-serving argument. While nations, ideas, and religious belief do evolve from generation to generation, any change from its basic underlying principle makes it an entirely new entity. You cannot reinterpret an orange to mean a pomegranate. All attempts to reinterpret Islam and its scriptures in keeping with spirit of its founding principles resulted in so many sects and variations, yet every single one of them is in trouble. That should tell you something.
Your belief that power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts is not an universal truth. Your argument premises that no magnanimity, no generosity of spirit, no fair mindedness, no self-reflection is possible at all for humanity when at the height of power. Yet as shown in this past century by America and Europe by their selfless sharing of the fruits of their labor in science and technology, by the Marshall plan they implemented in defeated Germany, by protection of Japan, and numerous other acts your premise does not hold. This has been the experience of all nations not ruled by Abrahamic religions too. Desperately poor overwhelmingly Hindu majority India gave equal rights and universal franchise to all adults irrespective of their religious or caste affiliation the moment it gained freedom. It did not require a revolt on the part of the lower castes, women, or the other minorities to be accorded equal rights.
How is it possible that time and again variables after variables that come together to form the narrative of Islam (and Christianity) always set it in opposition with the rest of humanity while other people and religions have been working in consonance with the law of nature barring occasional hiccups? Pakistanis' silence on the attempt of their state to keep Afghanistan in a perpetual state of war speaks of their moral bankruptcy. It is no reflection on humanity as a whole.
Any logical student of the Quran would tell you that our predicament has been earned and that calling oneself a “Muslim” does not protect us from the wrath of God’s natural order. I recall reading a devout Hindu once lamenting years ago that we Afghans have earned what’s coming to us, correctly predicting that our state of affairs would get much worse. The “Karma” he was alluding to however, is very much a shared scriptural warning inherent in both our religions. All mankind who spread wars and mischief across the world will earn what’s coming to them. Given this, we’re all best advised to help rather than to hinder other people’s intentions to fight the good fight. It’s up to you and the American I’ve addressed here to make the right choice. I’ve already made up my mind and know in my heart that come tomorrow or a hundred years from now, what I propose will absolutely succeed. When it does so, we’ll liberate ourselves completely from anyone else’s perceived interests. When we do, our children will look back and remember those who helped and those who hindered….guaranteed. Islam will not go away, but it will transform, either with you or without you.
I want good for you and your country. I wish for there to be peace, prosperity, freedom, and joy in Afghanistan. But given the faulty and uncharitable view of humanity itself that your thoughts are premised on, I do not know how much reformation and reinterpretation you can bring to Islam. Your own premises militates against your liberty.
Islam on the other hand eliminates the class difference as ALL are equal. As long as someone follows the true religion that doesn't have hate for others.
So Islam eliminates class differences by dividing people into believers and nonbelievers? This is its definition of ALL? Islamic logic at work.
.Oh how badly they are treated.
bachmann/Wikipedia and nationalism/Hindutva and pseudoscience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
