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Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:45 am
by Ozdundee

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'Islamophobia' by another name covers all religions

You know, there are Aussies who feel uneasy about Muslims for exactly the same reason we feel disquiet around Christians - the sheer irrationality of their religion.

Anybody who needs to say "I'm a Christian" falls into a semi-weirdo category of devotion that unsettles me because of the implausibility of their beliefs and need to advertise their superstition.

The same goes for people who kneel five times a day in the direction of a Saudi city where non-violent criminals are regularly beheaded because of the medieval jurisprudence known as Sharia law.

Knock yourself out praying, folks, it's your human right, but I'll also exercise my right to have as much fun at your expense as I do people who think rubbing ash on their forehead at Easter and drinking the "blood" of a 2000-year-old Jew named Jesus somehow brings them closer to the truth of the universe.

If you also feel the need to veil your face to signify your piety - away you go as well - but don't tell me it looks any less preposterous than a "Jesus Saves" T-shirt, promise bracelet or yarmulke.

We can all play "pick a verse" from said holy book to prove whatever argument we're prosecuting, but let's at least be honest about the connective tissue between religion and repression.
Christians block stem-cell research, prevent women accessing abortion, encourage the spread of HIV by denying third world couples condoms, demonise homosexuals and picket funerals of soldiers holding "God hates fags" placards.

Likewise, Muslims throw acid in the face of girls trying to go to school, see rape as a punishment, not a crime, and believe the just reward for renouncing their faith is death.

This is not to suggest all or even most religious adherents believe in these practices or that we should hate them for it. However, legitimate criticism of the many bad ideas pervading Islam should not be conflated with bigotry towards Muslims.

As atheist Sam Harris told the sulking actor Ben Affleck on Real Time with Bill Maher last week, the charge of Islamophobia hurled at people who denounce the poor "treatment of women, homosexuals, free thinkers and public intellectuals in the Muslim world" has seen liberals fail the very principles they espouse.

As Maher himself continuously points out, "freedom of speech, to practice any religion you want without fear of violence, to leave a religion, equality for women, for minorities including homosexuals, these are liberal principles liberals applaud but, then when you say, in the Muslim world, this is what's lacking, then they get upset".

I've written many pieces lambasting the religious nonsense that passes for morality among high-profile Christian legislators such as NSW's Fred Nile and Victoria's Geoff Shaw, yet to suggest Islam is equally thick with fantastic propositions and horrendous interpretations that have devastating real-world effects, you're assured of being derided as a "bigot" or, weirdly, "racist".

Much of the dialogue in this country about Muslims suggests they live in a cheery vacuum separate from the rest of the Islamic world and denies the very real link between belief and behaviour.

The simple fact is a significant proportion of Muslims here and abroad believe the Quran was written by the supernatural creator of the universe and to follow "his" words makes them a better person than those of us who do not.

That makes me uncomfortable.


Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 1:13 pm
by Muslim First
Please read this article
BILL MAHER ISN’T A ‘POLITICALLY INCORRECT’ LIBERAL, HE’S JUST A BIGOT
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014 ... l-bigotry/

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:17 pm
by ghulam muhammed
Ben Affleck: Sam Harris and Bill Maher 'racist' and 'gross' in views of Islam

The actor has won praise for accusing both men of religious stereotyping while discussing Islam with them on Maher’s HBO talk show

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oc ... lam-racist

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:19 pm
by ghulam muhammed
Atheism, Islam and liberalism: This is what we are really fighting about

The debate raging in American culture boils down to an even simpler divide than you think

http://www.salon.com/2014/10/11/atheism ... ing_about/

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 4:18 pm
by ghulam muhammed
Why is Ben Affleck defending Islam?

Ben Affleck's contribution to the debate proves you don't need to be a specialist to recognise racism and speak out.

The latest media "debate" about Islam stems from American chat show host Bill Maher's criticism of Islam, and the surprisingly passionate response of Ben Affleck, Oscar-winning actor and director, who, unlike many in mainstream media, recognises bigotry and racism when it's staring everyone in the face.

Affleck came back solidly: "Hold on - are you the person who officially understands the codified doctrine of Islam?"

More seriously, what is the overriding agenda? Trashing Islam is about disseminating simplistic ideas that lend support to precise political goals, and it allows supporters of certain aspects of US foreign policy to justify past, present, and future mistakes. If American voters can be given the impression that most Muslims are sexist, homophobic, intolerant fanatics who murder and behead at the drop of a hat, then they may just believe that it is necessary to invade countries in which Muslims are the majority - it hardly matters which country, as long as wrecking its political, economic, and social fabric serves the primary goals of controlling oil resources, profiting from the arms trade, and allowing Israel to feel safe (irrespective of whether its feelings of insecurity correspond to reality).

Full Article :

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinio ... 71662.html

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 11:49 am
by anajmi
From Bro Muslim First.

Read CNN.com article
Imam: It's 'code red' for American Muslims
By Daniel Burke, CNN
updated 5:41 PM EDT, Thu October 16, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/16/living/mu ... ?hpt=hp_c2

Imama Suhaib Webb's full Khutba can be viewed here.

Imam Suhaib Webb- Real Islam: response to Bill Maher
http://youtu.be/Qn0NgLRcVOM

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:05 pm
by ghulam muhammed
Islam for peace, or violence?

Until recently, often in private and sometimes publicly, the complaint was voiced that moderate Muslims do not speak out or not loudly enough against Muslim extremism, militant Islam. Now, curiously, the ongoing savagery of the Islamic State has prompted the high priests of “New Atheism” (for whom “moderate Muslim” is an oxymoron) to turn their guns against liberals in general.

The bitter war of words was triggered by the comedian, satirist and HBO talk-show host, Bill Maher, who in his October 3 programme charged liberals with shying away from defending liberal principles when it came to Islam, “the only religion that behaves like the mafia”. Nodding vigorous consent, the American author, philosopher, co-founder and chief executive of Project Reason, Sam Harris, chimed in with “Islam is the mother lode of all bad ideas”. An outraged fellow-panelist, actor Ben Affleck, damned Maher and Harris’s views as “bigoted”, “racist” and “disgusting”.

Three days later, CNN invited the well-known Iranian-American scholar of religion, Reza Aslan, to answer the question: “Does Islam promote violence?” The same day, Ali A. Rizvi, the Pakistani-Canadian writer, physician and musician currently working on The Atheist Muslim, wrote “An Open Letter to Moderate Muslims”, which was posted on Huffington Post. “You condemn all kinds of terrible things being done in the name of your religion,” he said, “but when the same things appear as verses in your book [the Quran], you use all your faculties to defend them. This comes across as either denial or disingenuousness, both of which make an honest conversation impossible. This isn’t working anymore”. Rizvi’s parting words: “Islam needs reformers, not moderates”.

Here’s a hot-button issue; hot enough for political commentators such as Peter Beinart, Nicholas Kristof and Fareed Zakaria, among many others, to jump into the fray. From the way different views are now floating all over social media in India, it’s clear that this is by no means a debate relevant only “out there”.

So, does Islam promote peace or violence? That’s a “stupid” question. “Islam does not promote peace or violence,” Aslan told CNN, adding, “like every other religion in the world, it depends on what you bring to it. If you are a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is going to be violent. There are Buddhist marauding monks in Myanmar slaughtering women and children. Does Buddhism promote violence? Of course not!”

Aslan argued that the framing of the questions smacked of bigotry. If you take two or three examples, say of Saudi Arabia (“the most extremist country in the world”) or Iran, to “justify generalisations” about a community of 1.4 billion across the world, “that fits into the definition of bigotry,” he said.

Enter Beinart, to remind Maher and Harris of the two lessons liberals should and have learnt from their mistaken “anti-totalitarianism” during the Cold War era. “The first is to be precise about what you’re opposing. The second, to not get so carried away with your own virtue that you end up justifying terrible crimes.”

He recalled that because of their inability to “distinguish between the communism of Joseph Stalin and that of Ho Chi Minh… the pro-war liberals ignored the reality that in Indochina, America’s allies were no more democratic than its communist foes”. He quoted what historian Arthur Meier Schlesinger wrote in 1967: “The tragedy of Vietnam is the tragedy of catastrophic overextension and misapplication of valid principles”.

As for the second lesson, Beinart points to how, in their eagerness to establish their anti-communist credentials, American liberals assisted the McCarthy era assaults on basic human freedoms. And here is a more recent example: “When Affleck told Maher that America has ‘killed more Muslims than they’ve killed us by an awful lot… and somehow we’re exempt from these things because they’re not really a reflection of what we believe in’, he was making a crucial point”. Author and journalist Eric Margolis puts it best: “We Westerners have a charming and quaint belief that killing people from the air… is somehow not really as bad as… slashing his throat the way sheep are killed”.

What, then, is to be done? Here are a few suggestions: One, do not “essentialise” religion. Remember that Gandhi’s Gita and Azad’s Quran do not say the same thing as the Gita of Nathuram Godse and the Quran of Osama bin Laden or “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Like other religions, there is no one Islam; there are many Islams.

Two, look at the history of a religion. Islam is over 1,400 years old. Remember that the Yazidis and Christians being butchered by the barbaric IS used to be free, relatively at least, to practise their faith in that very region for centuries under Muslim rulers. Jews hounded out of Christian Europe found refuge in the Ottoman empire.

Three, beware of “catastrophic” over-generalisations. Yes, al-Baghdadi and Ayman al-Zawahiri are Muslims, but so are Nobel Peace Laureates Shirin Ebadi and Malala Yousafzai, and our very own Aamir Khan.

Four, remember that religions do not need reform, their followers do. Liberals must consistently oppose infringements of universal human rights and freedoms anywhere and everywhere.

Five, militant atheism is not the answer to militant Islam. It only helps legitimise the extremists and the Islamophobes.

- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinio ... US1Pd.dpuf

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:09 am
by DisillusionedDB
A few beautifully worded sentences (from the above post) that struck a chord;
"Islam needs reformers, not moderates."
"If you are a violent person, your Islam, your Judaism, your Christianity, your Hinduism is going to be violent."
"Westerners have a charming and quaint belief that killing people from the air… is somehow not really as bad as… slashing his throat the way sheep are killed."
"Gandhi’s Gita and Azad’s Quran do not say the same thing as the Gita of Nathuram Godse and the Quran of Osama bin Laden or “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."
"Remember that religions do not need reform, their followers do."

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:26 am
by qutub_mamajiwala
bro gm
u have summed it up very precisely.
the second last sentence is the crux and conclusion of all things.
quote "Four, remember that religions do not need reform, their followers do. Liberals must consistently oppose infringements of universal human rights and freedoms anywhere and everywhere. "
this is where everybody fails.

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 8:09 am
by qutub_mamajiwala
The little noise seems loud in front of the big silence. A few speak and many hear them, and many keep silent and no one feels their presence as if they do not exist. This is the truth with regret and more regret is that those who cause the noise are mostly rogues or holders of a certain purpose, and their noise does not represent the public’s interest.

It is very clear that there is a lack and inability of understanding those who cause the noise, who get angry and shout over something they did not understand in its reality. This is what is known as the policy of the herd, which makes the sound, and goes right or left, while at the same time no one takes a different direction from this herd. During one of the voting seasons, I asked a young university graduate, who I thought had enough understanding and awareness, and I thought that he was going to vote for a candidate who has open thinking – I asked him for whom are you going to vote? He surprised me with a name of a candidate from a faction that is opposite to free ideology!

I told him why do not you vote for so or so who has an open ideology and knows parliamentary work with its correct methods? His answer was a shock for me when he said: I will not elect him because he is a liberal! I asked him: Is him being a liberal keeping you from voting for him? He looked at me with wonderment and said: Do you want to elect an infidel? The lack of awareness and understanding has become a general trait, especially among the youth group, which with regret, did not work on building itself or its brains – rather it gave its reins to the society to carry out this superficial and distorted upbringing and this fragile building.

Many times we find angry people claiming that they are defending their beliefs, which they think was insulted because of what so and so said, although there is nothing offensive towards what they believe in, but the superficiality of understanding and absence of awareness are what made them believe this. We are living a case of instinctive spontaneous reaction condition, like the physical reactions the human being cannot control, but the brain reactions must happen as a result of understanding and awareness, not as a result of emotion, absence of awareness and unavailable understanding

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 5:01 pm
by ghulam muhammed
An excellent post in the Present scenario...

If you criticize me,
it's your freedom of speech
If I criticize you,
it's my Intolerance
.
If you judge me,
you are Enlightened
If I judge you,
I am Prejudiced
.
If you question my faith,
then you are Secular
If I question your faith,
then I am Communal
.
If you defend yourself,
it's because you are a Victim
If I defend myself,
it's because I am Ignorant
.
If you pen your thoughts,
it's Revolutionary
If I pen my thoughts,
it's Provocation
.
If you march,
it's a Protest
If I march,
it's a Mob
.
If you lodge a complaint,
you r following the Course of Law
If I lodge a complaint,
I am Misusing the Law

Re: Islampohopia

Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2016 6:26 pm
by ghulam muhammed
2 Muslim women, babies attacked in alleged hate crime in New York

New York (CNN)A woman yelling anti-Muslim sentiment allegedly attacked two Muslim women as they pushed their children in strollers in New York, authorities said.

Emirjeta Xhelili, 32, allegedly tried to rip the hijab from the women's heads during the attack in Brooklyn on Thursday.
She struck the women in the face and body, and repeatedly shouted, "this is the United States of America, you're not supposed to be different from us," court documents allege.

Xhelili allegedly told the women, "get the (expletive) out of America (expletive), you don't belong here."

She also attacked their children, pushing one stroller to the ground and rattling the other while two infants sat inside, according to court documents. The 11-month-old and the 15-month-old, along with their mothers, were not seriously injured.

Call for justice

The Council on American Islamic Relations of New York called for justice.

"We urge the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to prosecute this horrific attack vigorously, sending the message that hate attacks targeting any minority group will not be tolerated," said Afaf Nasher, executive director of CAIR-NY.

"We urge mosques and Islamic institutions to increase security measures, particularly this weekend as the nation marks the solemn occasion of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which some may use as an excuse to attack American-Muslims."

The alleged attack comes in the wake of recent murder charges against the alleged killer of a Queens imam and his associate in August.

"CAIR has noted a spike in anti-Muslim discrimination and hate crimes in recent months, which the civil rights groups attributes at least in part to Islamophobic rhetoric used by various public figures," CAIR-NY said in a statement.

Xhelili is scheduled to appear again in court Wednesday. Bail is set at $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/10/us/br ... index.html