By David Gibson Religion News Service (RNS) Does European Christendom need Christianity to survive? It may seen an odd question for a religious culture that...
The propensity in the U.S. to conflate Islam with violence precludes the possibility of nonviolent Muslim protest motivated by an internal incentive, be it secular or religious. However, the concept of nonviolence is not foreign or new to Muslims.
A new initiative to try to save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has just been launched in France. What does it consist of? In substance, it amounts to a daily letter to Sakineh.
Many Muslim Americans feel a sense of urgency to take control of their narrative. My personal attempt at translating this urgency into action is reflected through my work to explore the inherent complexity of gender-and-Islam.
The "culture wars" touted by O'Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, and others on the right seem eerily similar to what Ayaan Hirsi Ali describes as the clan culture of her native Somalia.
The Amsterdam trial has resumed for Dutch politician Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims. "I just want a debate," Wilders says.
Correction: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (my former fellow countrywoman) mentioned Baha'is as a kind of Muslims (47.24). That is not correct. Though Baha'is revere the Prophet Muhammad as a "Manifestation of God" (like Moses, Buddha, or Christ) Baha'is have their own holy texts, holy places, and organisation. And this is the main reason why the Baha'is of Iran are being persecuted. -- For those who want to learn a little more about the Baha'i Faith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5-WR2AKF0Y
Jelle_NL: Correction: Ayaan Hirsi Ali (my former fellow countrywoman) mentioned Baha'is
Remember the names of the Muslim reformers mentioned in this interview.
In the future they will be known as some of the founding voices of Reform Islam.
Remember the Islamist individuals and organizations named here. They are the enemies of all Muslims who want to assimilate into Western culture. They are the supporters of Islamic colonization in the West.
Jan_Allen_McDaniel: Thank to Huffpo for this. Remember the names of the
As an American, I am not the least concerned about "Islamic colonization in the West". Sharia is not the ideology driving the deliberate collapse of Western economies, and the endless US military adventures abroad benefit neither the US, nor any Muslim/Arab majority State in the Middle Ease. Muslims do not dominate Western Media or foreign policy, and it wasn't 19 Arabs with box cutters who brought down 3 skyscrapers with 2 airplanes, or destroyed the accounting department at the Pentagon which was tasked with locating the 2.5 trillion missing US taxpayer dollars. It is not Muslims who openly demonstrate their utter incompatibility with Christianity, quite the contrary, and it is not Muslims who seek to drive a wedge between Christianity and Islam with literally hundreds of covert Church and Mosque bombings spanning decades and continents. It isn't Muslims whose holy holidays celebrate war and deception, and it isn't Muslims who view all non-Muslims as non-human beasts whose purpose is to serve Muslims. It isn't Muslims who've been expelled from their host countries a hundred times throughout history upon accurate translations of their 'holy' texts or in weighing the effect of their misdeeds.
Anyone who spreads anti-Muslim propaganda as prolifically as you do is either receiving a handsome sum of shekels for their efforts, or is terribly, terribly misguided.
Hamburger_Time: As an American, I am not the least concerned about
I agree with many of your observations Humburger Time . The conduct of adherents of every religion varies from country to country, from sect to sect, from age to age and from person to person.
How very different is the conduct of Jesus’s disciples from those Christian leaders in Pinochet’s Chile, or the Church going White Christians in South Africa, who claim to uphold Christian values. Which is to represent Christianity?
Are we to describe the First and Second World wars, in which millions of people lost their lives as Christian wars against humanity?
Any act of war in Iraq or Afghanistan is perceived in the West as the extension of ‘Islamic terrorism’ but in any other country such an act is seen as a political dispute( Hindus fighting for a separate Tamil Elam in Sri Lanka against the Buddhists until recently and they are regrouping in Europe and South India, HIndu fanatics fighting against a communist backed Govt in Nepal and the Naxalite issue in india)
Why must such dual standard of justice prevail?
One really begins to wonder if there is an undercurrent of hatred for Islam beneath the apparently calm surface of Christian civilization.
Is it perhaps a hangover from centuries of Crusades against Muslim powers, or is the old wine of the venom of cultural nationalism served in new goblets?
kodimirpal: I agree with many of your observations Humburger Time .
Islam recognises all religions; in fact the source of all true religions is the same. According to Islam there is not a single community, linguistic group, nation to which a prophet was not sent by God Almighty. Every tribe, clan, linguistic group, nationality had a messenger sent by one and the same one true Almighty God.
A God who is not the same for every body, give or take inevitable cultural coloration, could not provide a satisfactory solution to the fundamental religious question: WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF LIFE?"
In fact Islam recognises that the entire humanity one and the same community of equals. I quote the Quran
“God has created you into nations, clans and tribes so that you recognise each other, and in the sight of God the one closest to God is one who is righteous"
The same Quran sets only three preconditions for salvation/redemption
1. Belief in one True Almighty God (Tawhid in Arabic)
2. Belief in accountability after death
3. Good and righteous deeds.
Those who fulfil these conditions whatever their brand of religion will have no grief, no sorrow and they will have their rewards with God.
That much is the tolerance of Islamic teachings. We have to stop stereotyping and generalising an entire community. A hard core ignorant extremist is an outcaste in all religions
kodimirpal: @Jan Usual twist to my post else where. Islam recognises
Thank you so much for this. I thoroughly enjoyed watching and have learned much. It has inspired more questions, though.........I will check your Facebook page!
Laura_Hay: Thank you so much for this. I thoroughly enjoyed watching
Wonderful interview. It is refreshing to hear honest accounts from those who have first-hand knowledge of what sharia law actually entails. We ignore her at our peril.
altoplano: Wonderful interview. It is refreshing to hear honest accounts from
A nations treasure is its scholars, but unfortunately we have a perverted scholar in Hirsi Ali.
According to reporters and her own words : “She renounced Islam and became an atheist in 2002 … An atheist trying to reform Islam is a joke.
She claims that her personal views are for the most part inspired by her change from Islam to atheism”;
“I am a Muslim woman saying these things, and it has provoked a lot of hatred”
"I came to the conclusion [that] I do not believe in the existence of a god or in the hereafter"
“All I say is that being a Muslim…”
“the fact that I'm an atheist” “[Do you regard yourself as a Muslim?]
A Muslim atheist … I’m no longer a Muslim but I was a Muslim woman”;
“Hirsi Ali, an atheist”;
"’I'm not a Muslim!’ Hirsi Ali responds. ‘I have become an infidel!’”
A member of an association, who rebelled and left the association has no right to talk about the by-laws of the association. She is unnecessarily trespassing into carefully tended territory of others.
Go through once again all the contradictions and judge her ability to reform islam within and without, in her case without. These interviews are exercises in shame and have little value from the faith of 1600 million Muslims.
Perhaps ‘a feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie’ or a new Wafa Sultan is more suiting.[9]
kodimirpal: A nations treasure is its scholars, but unfortunately we have
Remember the names of the Muslim reformers mentioned in this interview.
In the future they will be known as some of the founding voices of Reform Islam.
Remember the Islamist individuals and organizations named here. They are the enemies of all Muslims who want to assimilate into Western culture. They are the supporters of Islamic colonization in the West.
Anyone who spreads anti-Muslim propaganda as prolifically as you do is either receiving a handsome sum of shekels for their efforts, or is terribly, terribly misguided.
How very different is the conduct of Jesus’s disciples from those Christian leaders in Pinochet’s Chile, or the Church going White Christians in South Africa, who claim to uphold Christian values. Which is to represent Christianity?
Are we to describe the First and Second World wars, in which millions of people lost their lives as Christian wars against humanity?
Any act of war in Iraq or Afghanistan is perceived in the West as the extension of ‘Islamic terrorism’ but in any other country such an act is seen as a political dispute( Hindus fighting for a separate Tamil Elam in Sri Lanka against the Buddhists until recently and they are regrouping in Europe and South India, HIndu fanatics fighting against a communist backed Govt in Nepal and the Naxalite issue in india)
Why must such dual standard of justice prevail?
One really begins to wonder if there is an undercurrent of hatred for Islam beneath the apparently calm surface of Christian civilization.
Is it perhaps a hangover from centuries of Crusades against Muslim powers, or is the old wine of the venom of cultural nationalism served in new goblets?
Usual twist to my post else where.
Islam recognises all religions; in fact the source of all true religions is the same. According to Islam there is not a single community, linguistic group, nation to which a prophet was not sent by God Almighty. Every tribe, clan, linguistic group, nationality had a messenger sent by one and the same one true Almighty God.
A God who is not the same for every body, give or take inevitable cultural coloration, could not provide a satisfactory solution to the fundamental religious question: WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE MEANING OF LIFE?"
In fact Islam recognises that the entire humanity one and the same community of equals. I quote the Quran
“God has created you into nations, clans and tribes so that you recognise each other, and in the sight of God the one closest to God is one who is righteous"
The same Quran sets only three preconditions for salvation/redemption
1. Belief in one True Almighty God (Tawhid in Arabic)
2. Belief in accountability after death
3. Good and righteous deeds.
Those who fulfil these conditions whatever their brand of religion will have no grief, no sorrow and they will have their rewards with God.
That much is the tolerance of Islamic teachings. We have to stop stereotyping and generalising an entire community. A hard core ignorant extremist is an outcaste in all religions
How many Christians deny the Christian dogmas and the Christian laws ( called Christian Shariah)
In her book Ayaan Hirsi Ali explains that Christians no longer believe in hell
There may be some Christians that hold this view, but it is surely in the minority.
This is not the case in the Catholic and Protestant belief, and these two sects account for almost 1.4 billion Christians.
Below are some Christian sources which disprove her claims:
“Hell, in Christian beliefs, is a place in which the souls of the unsaved will suffer the consequences of sin.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell.”
In the Protestant view, Hell is “where they will be punished for their sins. People will be consigned to hell after the last judgment.”
What denomination of Christianity does this grand lady follow?
Ali is an atheist, btw.
It sounds like you would benefit greatly by listening to this interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0zhZfhDGjE
It is hilarious in how he embarasses himself with his bigotry.
According to reporters and her own words : “She renounced Islam and became an atheist in 2002 … An atheist trying to reform Islam is a joke.
She claims that her personal views are for the most part inspired by her change from Islam to atheism”;
“I am a Muslim woman saying these things, and it has provoked a lot of hatred”
"I came to the conclusion [that] I do not believe in the existence of a god or in the hereafter"
“All I say is that being a Muslim…”
“the fact that I'm an atheist” “[Do you regard yourself as a Muslim?]
A Muslim atheist … I’m no longer a Muslim but I was a Muslim woman”;
“Hirsi Ali, an atheist”;
"’I'm not a Muslim!’ Hirsi Ali responds. ‘I have become an infidel!’”
A member of an association, who rebelled and left the association has no right to talk about the by-laws of the association. She is unnecessarily trespassing into carefully tended territory of others.
Go through once again all the contradictions and judge her ability to reform islam within and without, in her case without. These interviews are exercises in shame and have little value from the faith of 1600 million Muslims.
Perhaps ‘a feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie’ or a new Wafa Sultan is more suiting.[9]