When Dr. Wafa Sultan demanded respect from a Muslim cleric after being called a heretic, I cheered her on. When she criticized the Muslims who react violently in typical knee-jerk fashion, I was smiling with glee. And she nailed it when she said Muslims should learn from the example of the Jewish community who command world respect with their accomplishments despite decades of anti-Semitism and the decimation of the Holocaust. How could anyone disagree with that?
But when Dr. Sultan is quoted in a recent interview as saying Islam is beyond repair, riddled with teachings that exhort Muslims to kill non-Muslims, subjugate women, and disregard human rights; when she says "I don't believe you can reform Islam," and that the only reason the vast majority of the world's Muslim population is peaceful is because they can't read Arabic and don't know what the Quran teaches, that's when I stop cheering.
Good. First Al Jazeera unexpectedly displays this bit of furiously free exchange, and now we get a peek at progressive angst.
Some interesting stuff on the MU website. From a 3 March article by Imam Abu Laith Luqman Ahmad:
Anyone who hasn’t capitalized on the recent malicious caricature portrayal of the Prophet (SAWS) to express their outrage, promote their organization, get their name in the paper, pontificate the loftiness of Islamic ideals, start a membership drive, do a little political posturing, or to open dialogue, or defend the Prophet (SAWS) has missed their opportunity. The issue has now officially become a non-issue. There was no fatwa or official sounding consensus of scholars declaring cessation of protest. On the contrary, the media puppeteers, knowing what motivates Muslims to action, simply turned off the cameras and directed them to another venue. Muslims are well trained to tailor their activity on the basis of subliminal media directives, and it looks like we were duped again. In other words ladies and gentlemen, we’ve been had. Or as al-Hajj Malik Shabaaz (Malcolm X) used to say, bamboozled, hoodwinked, flimflammed.
Of course there are those in denial and that’s to be expected. After all, Islam is our universal adapter. All we need to do is preface an action with; “this is for the sake of Allah” or, “this is for Islam”, or, “this is in defense of Islam” and it assumes immediate legitimacy irregardless of whether it’s fair, Islamic, prudent, or in agreement with the shariah. Since as Muslims, everything we do is ostensibly in the name of Islam, for Islam, for the Muslims, for Allah, in defense of Islam etc., we are never wrong about anything, ever. Perhaps this is how we justify suicide bombings where the innocent (including women and children) are casualties. If the world was unaware how sensitive Muslims are about our Prophet (SAWS), then our recent response not only erased any ambiguity, it showed how malleable the global Muslim community has become.
By even the most conservative accounts, we’ve shown that we are unpredictable, volatile, rage driven, and that a little name calling and scribbling on a piece of paper can stir us into frenzy. . . .
Interesting post and links! Thx!