Posted on 05/16/2002 9:14:35 AM PDT by xvb
Why Islam Can’t Join the Modern World
THAT ISLAM poses a vital danger to human freedom is a given. But what often remains unspoken is why it poses this danger.
Is it just a coincidence that wherever Islam rules, democracy, individual liberty, free speech, and women’s rights all go out the window?
No, it isn’t.
The problem is that Islam is intrinsically opposed to the very notion of free will itself. Under Islam’s rigid moral code, human beings do not possess the slightest area in their lives where their behavior is not subject to a rigid rule. Islam takes control of every ingredient of its believer’s life - to the point where the believer becomes little more than an automaton who does not, and must not, nurture any kind of independent or critical thinking of his own.
The key here is that for Muslims, the boundaries between their spiritual and temporal lives do not exist – as they would, for example, in Christian life. A faithful Christian has the Divine on his mind throughout the day, and through this meditation he understands that God allows, and encourages, the exercise of free will, as well as the giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
The Christian is aware that he will be accountable for his thoughts and actions in the Final Judgment, but this awareness exists alongside the understanding that the Lord allows compartments of privacy where humans can cherish God’s creation by nurturing their own spontaneity and innovation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the fathers of American poetry, illuminates this Christian tradition in his notion that the soul and the Divine are most active in spontaneity and in the freedom that is found in the present undetermined existence. And this is the concept on which Western civilization is based.
For Muslims, meanwhile, every single ingredient of life must represent a total submission to Allah.
Question: what kind of progress, technological advances, economic growth and open dialogue can be possible in a society where every facet of the entire culture is Islamicised?
Is this why not one Arab country is yet to produce anything even close to something resembling prosperity, social functionality or liberal democracy?
The bottom line is that Islam cannot deal with modernity. Having never experienced a "reformation" in centuries, it is intrinsically despotic and totalitarian.
I encourage my readers to sit down and actually take the time to read the Qur’an and Hadiths (the sayings and doings of Muhammad as recorded by his companions). You will find that there is not one area of a Muslim’s life that is left open for individuality, originality and creativity.
From the moment a Muslim wakes up, he has to start going through a process of rigid procedures. First and foremost, he has to wash a certain way. He even has to clean his nose in a specific manner, and he has to do repeat this procedure three times. This is essential because Islam teaches that the devil spends the night in the cavity of the nose.
A Muslim is not to touch any utensil unless he has washed his hands three times. He is also not allowed to urinate in stagnant water.
When Muslims do "number two," they are forbidden to sit and are instructed to adopt a squatting position while leaning heavy on the left foot.
I can’t help but wonder: is there an instructional Islamic video for this? What happens if a Muslim leans on the right foot?
Islam also instructs that, when you go "number one" or "number two," you have to say a certain prayer each time. This is in line with the fact that whenever a Muslim arrives, sits, or sleeps anywhere, he has to say a certain prayer as well.
When taking a bath, Muslims are instructed to wash the lower part of the body and the armpits first. Then they are allowed to wash the rest of their bodies. But it always has to be the right side first and then the left. After this, they have to immediately empty all the water and clean the bath and refill it. Then they can clean off. (I can’t help from observing that this sounds like obsessive compulsive disorder).
Muslims are instructed that they have to use their right side for all things first. For instance, if you are putting on your sneakers, you have to put your right foot into the right sneaker first. The same with taking them off. The same goes with putting on a shirt and which arm goes where etc. When entering a house, you have to enter with the right foot first.
When entering the bathroom, however, a Muslim has to enter with the left foot first, and when coming out, with the right foot first.
The times of Prayer in Islam are rigidly enforced. Islam also mandates that a Muslim has to disengage himself from all worldly occupations and resort to his prayers, even when he is most busy.
Before prayers, the body has to be washed in a precise and orderly way (right hand up to the wrist, then left hand, then right arm up to elbow, then left arm, etc). The Muslim has to wipe his head with wet hands, and it is absolutely necessary that this is done with the three fingers between the little finger and the thumb of both hands being joined together.
When a husband and a wife make love, they have to go wash every time afterwards. (Just imagine the life of a sexually active couple).
Every way in which Muslims interact with each other is also all cut out for them. For instance, Muslims are instructed to greet each other in certain ways. They have to say, "As-salamu alaikum" (peace be upon you). And in return one says, "Wa alaikum us-salam" (upon you be peace).
In one sense, this is, of course, very beautiful. But the question remains: what if someone wants to say something different for a change? Or what if someone doesn’t want to say anything at all?
When replying to a greeting, it is a big-time no-no to say, "God's peace be upon you". This can only be said when saying goodbye. Also, if a couple of people bump into each other, and one guy performs the greeting, no one else is supposed to repeat the greeting. And when another guy replies to a greeting, that is enough and no one else is supposed to reply. (Question: what if two guys reply at the same time by mistake?).
Muslims are also not allowed to say hi to a Jew or a to a Christian first. If they do, they are not supposed to take the greeting back. What’s done is done. They will be held to account for this later. If a Jew or a Christian says "Salamun alaikum" to a Muslim, the Muslim must not respond the way he must to a fellow Muslim ("Wa alaikum us-salam") and only say "alaika" in return. (But what if a Muslim confuses a Jew for a fellow Muslim?)
Muslims are also not allowed to enter other people’s house unless they ask for permission up to three times. Permission has to be given for each time before they enter, and, of course, they have to come in with the right foot first. (Imagine what a Muslim party would be like).
A Muslim is never allowed to sleep in -- even if he is really tired. That’s because he is commanded to get up early to say his morning prayers.
Muslims do not even have the luxury of spontaneity or free will in their sleep. They are even instructed to sleep in certain positions. They are not allowed to sleep on their backs or on their stomachs or on their left sides. They have to sleep on their right sides. It is mandatory, meanwhile, that their heads point to the north. (I don’t want to get into the details of my personal sleeping habits, but let me just admit that, in terms of the way I sleep, I would definitely go to hell in this religion - or at least get publicly flogged every day).
In any case, this phenomenon of how Islam robs the potential for free will in every ingredient of its believers’ lives explains why, as Raphael Patai has demonstrated in The Arab Mind, no motivation exists for Arabs to take action for change or to evaluate critically their own circumstances. The result is that Arabs do not end up feeling a sense of responsibility for their own lives and, therefore, for their own failures. When a problem is confronted in the Arab world, a hidden enemy is always imagined.
Consequently, the inability of Arab countries to create democracies, let alone functional economic societies, is read by Arabs as a personal humiliation that is caused by enemies – and not by the backwardness of Islamic culture itself.
We begin to get an understanding, therefore, why the idea that problems can be solved by individuals themselves, and that citizens must actually participate in solving their own society’s problems, is an idea that is incomprehensible in the Islamic Arab world.
Arabs grow up believing that success in their societies is simply just supposed to materialize, even if no one is actually taking any individual initiative to bring it about. If problems develop (i.e. economic backwardness, dictatorship etc.), they are believed to be caused by infidels (i.e. the evil Americans).
Thus, it becomes obvious why Islam cannot join the modern world. In crushing the potential for any free will in human beings, it must annihilate the very essence of human liberty. In so doing, Islam spawns a backward and self-destructive culture that forces an excruciating humiliation on its people. These people, in turn, end up confusing their impotence and misery with their hatred of the infidels who have succeeded in every aspect in which Islamic civilization has pathetically failed.
Liberals and the UN have done far more damage to America and the west than Isam.
If you can't see that, I can't help you.
That ol' devil is one mean bugger.
LOL
It's not clear whether Musims ever actually had a high civilization. They overran and conquered the most civilized parts of the ancient world, and enslaved a number of highly intelligent and civilized people. It seems likely that most of their accomplishments were the work of these slaves and other second-class citizens, who lived in dhimmitude within the Muslim empire.
In other words, they lived off the capital of the past and of people whom they conquered. But they accomplished very little on their own.
Even in areas of art and architecture, their main accomplishments--such as Persian and Indian Mogul art--are not really Islamic, but are borrowings from more civilized people. And when Islam in its purity came to the fore, these innovative movements in art disappeared, because they were not in the spirit of the Koran.
Islam now counts more than one billion followers. This culture of death possesses power...but not necessarily good.
Wrong very wrong. Muslims Arabs conquered and learned from their conquered peoples mainly Byzantine Christians who were in possession of the great clasical works. NO original creative thinking has ever come out of the islamic environment.
LOL; good one.
Then the same can be said for Europeans, whose strides in mathematics and astrononomy came from earlier civilizations.
Wow, you're another McVeigh! A white racist so angry at US non-whites that you'll side with non-white Islamics who would exterminate the US if they could. Oh well, that just means that you're another enemy of freedom and the US. Please stay in Jakarta. I'm sure a pogrom will come along to keep you entertained.
?
"A white racist."
please define racist.
"so angry at US non-whites"
I never mentioned "US non-whites once". Americans, as far as I am aware, are Americans irrelevant of skin colour.
"that you'll side with non-white Islamics who would exterminate the US if they could."
I would side with neither white NOR non-white people who wished to exterminate the US.
"Oh well, that just means that you're another enemy of freedom and the US"
LOL!
"Please stay in Jakarta."
So you are capable of being polite.
" I'm sure a pogrom will come along to keep you entertained."
Please define pogrom.
BTW, If you really believe I am a racist, I advise you to do the following
1) Push the abuse button. (last one to the right)
2) Ask me for the name of my International School's e-mail here in Jakarta. I'm sure the principal and students will be very interested in this information, and I'm sure you will be able to get me fired.
3) You better tell my wife that she has married a RACIST.
She's "not white", ( I dare not use the word caucasian as it might not be to your liking) and neither is my daughter for that matter. (i'll also include include my home number, and yes you can call collect.)
Please don't bother hiding behind Freepmail. I won't look at it. Just air your thoughts here on the forum.
You put your right foot in,
You pull your left foot out
Shake it all about
Islam's decline is coincident with it running out of conquerable civilized regions. During its "Golden Age", it had a steady influx of captive people from established civilizations who had experience in running a working civilization.
In 1455, Gutenburg invented the printing press. While many early texts were religious in nature, the Church was concerned about what else might be printed, and before the end of the century some regions censored books. However, printed copies of Luther's theses were widely distributed (because of the printing press), thus the Reformation. In the centuries since, many other works shaped European history.
Islam, on the other hand, banned the printing press until the 18th century....
From Europe: a History by Davies.
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