Posted on 08/07/2005 4:00:09 AM PDT by Senator Goldwater
When Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, admitted that "our own children" had perpetrated the July 7 London bombings, it was the first time in my memory that a British Muslim had accepted his community's responsibility for outrages committed by its members. Instead of blaming U.S. foreign policy or "Islamophobia," Sacranie described the bombings as a "profound challenge" for the Muslim community. However, this is the same Sacranie who, in 1989, said that "Death is perhaps too easy" for the author of "The Satanic Verses." Tony Blair's decision to knight him and treat him as the acceptable face of "moderate," "traditional" Islam is either a sign of his government's penchant for religious appeasement or a demonstration of how limited Blair's options really are. Sacranie is a strong advocate of Blair's much-criticized new religious-hatred bill, which will make it harder to criticize religion, and he actually expects the new law to outlaw references to Islamic terrorism. He said as recently as Jan. 13, "There is no such thing as an Islamic terrorist. This is deeply offensive. Saying Muslims are terrorists would be covered [i.e., banned] by this provision." Two weeks later his organization boycotted a Holocaust remembrance ceremony in London commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago. If Sir Iqbal Sacranie is the best Blair can offer in the way of a good Muslim, we have a problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
No kidding...it's gonna be a tough nut to crack when you consider how much time and effort goes into maintaining the status quo. And in this case, the status quo means absolute power to control their follows.
That kind of power won't be given up easily and it may have to be compelled by Western influence, and I don't mean diplomatic influence.
-Crolis
Never happen, 14 centuries of mass murder is their history.
Do you think our Christian believers who are certain that our Bible is the Word of God would allow such a 'reform' as Rushdie is recommending for Islam?
Embracing a nonliteralist, historic, socioeconomic view of one's religious Scripture is essentially the same as saying it isn't the Word of God, and the demise of your religion is the next inevitable consequence.
I am reminded of the contest between the God of the Israelites and the followers of Ba'al, where the altar of Adonai was kindled in fire while the altar of Ba'al remained cold.
Socioeconomically and historically speaking, religions and political and cultural systems rise or fall on whether they are suited to the times they traverse. One doesn't need to call for a reformation. If it is needed, it either happens or the religion splinters into sects which then compete in Darwinian or Providential fashion for survival of the fittest or holiest.
good luck
Yeah, too bad Salman Rushdie isn't embraced as a beloved leader. I just don't see this happening, wish I had reason to be more optimistic about the direction of these people. On this track however, I see their religion eventually dying out or dwindling down to nothing
Agree with both you and Mr Rushdie, although I am not optimistic.
While Islam would do well to demonstrate some type of maturation, as did the Christian faith in the middle ages, it still celebrates military conquest and subjugation in the service of deity. Not sure what can be done with that type of "scripture", as there doesn't appear to be any such counterpart in Christian doctrine.
And some people might go along with that, and Islam would continue to exist as a philosophy, but not a belief, much like the Church of England or French Catholicism.
However, there would always exist people who read the text for themselves, see what it says, and decide that to be good Muslims they must follow it literally. And in ignorant backwaters, there would always be jihadists.
There is no solution other than stamping out Islam the way that Communism was stamped out, by exposing it as stupid and ineffective, country by country. To do that, we have to create wealth and greatness in places like Iraq, Iran and Tunisia, and work behind the scenes to change the culture, and kill all the jihadists we can find, until 3 generations or so later, when we are travelling to Mars and using our hover cars, the 7th century fascists no longer have anyone who will answer the call from their dusty spires.
The way it works is that you single out a line of my statement that you don't understand what I mean exactly and state your view, and then I respond here on the thread.
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