From the heart of a Muslim
Sunday, October 17, 2010
This post was taken from islamreview.com.
Written by Tawfik Hamid
I was born a Muslim and lived all my life as a follower of Islam.
After the barbaric terrorist attacks done by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible as a Muslim and as a human being, to speak out and tell the truth to protect the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations.
I have to admit that our current Islamic teaching creates violence and hatred toward Non-Muslims. We Muslims are the ones who need to change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the beating of women by men, and killing those who convert from Islam to other religions.
We have never had a clear and strong stand against the concept of slavery or wars, to spread our religion and to subjugate others to Islam and force them to pay a humiliating tax called Jizia. We ask others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly (in Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques.
What message do we convey to our children when we call the Jews "Descendants of the pigs and monkeys"... Is this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate?
I have been into churches and synagogues where they were praying for Muslims. While all the time we curse them, and teach our generations to call them infidels, and to hate them.
We immediately jump in a 'knee jerk reflex' to defend Prophet Mohammed when someone accuses him of being a pedophile while, at the same time, we are proud with the story in our Islamic books, that he married a young girl seven years old (Aisha) when he was above 50 years old.
I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks.
Muslims denounce these attacks to look good in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathize with their cause. Till now our 'reputable' top religious authorities have never issued a Fatwa or religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an apostate, while an author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be killed according to Islamic Shania law just for writing a book criticizing Islam.
Muslims demonstrated to get more religious rights as we did in France to stop the ban on the Hijab (Head Scarf), while we did not demonstrate with such passion and in such numbers against the terrorist murders.
It is our absolute silence against the terrorists that gives the energy to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts. We Muslims need to stop blaming our problems on others or on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only light of democracy, civilization, and human rights in the whole Middle East.
We kicked out the Jews with no compensation or mercy from most of the Arab countries to make them "Jews-Free countries" while Israel accepted more than a million Arabs to live there, have its nationality, and enjoy their rights as human beings. In Israel , women cannot be beaten legally by men, and any person can change his/her belief system with no fear of being killed by the Islamic law of 'Apostasy,' while in our Islamic world people do not enjoy any of these rights. I agree that the 'Palestinians' suffer, but they suffer because of their corrupt leaders and not because of Israel.
It is not common to see Arabs who live in Israel leaving to live in the Arab world. On the other hand, we used to see thousands of Palestinians going to work with happiness in Israel, its 'enemy'. If Israel treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would have seen the opposite happening.
We Muslims need to admit our problems and face them. Only then we can treat them and start a new era to live in harmony with human mankind. Our religious leaders have to show a clear and very strong stand against polygamy, pedophilia, slavery, killing those who convert from Islam to other religions, beating of women by men, and declaring wars on non-Muslims to spread Islam.
Then, and only then, do we have the right to ask others to respect our religion. The time has come to stop our hypocrisy and say it openly: 'We Muslims have to Change'.
posted by Matthew Schauki at 10/17/2010 05:23:00 AM
23 Comments:
Wow. It was a very good essay.
Wow - A sane voice at last!
Brave and very necessary entry. I would share most of ideas expressed above. On the other hand, self-criticism about the way we manage our personal beliefs are really needed in these days.
I am 100% sure that you r not a Muslim.. You are just trying to make Muslims look bad because most of what you said is not true. Shame on you!
Moslems call Jews 'descendants of pigs'? Maybe from where you come from, they do; maybe the people whom you associate with and who have no notion of the basic tenants of islam do. The real moslems, however, call them 'the people of the book' and respect them as the first to gave entered the monotheistic faith. Any who transgress against the rights of another cannot be labelled a Moslem. The Prophet went so far as to refer to atheism/polytheism as a faith which we have no right to denigrate (lahoum deenahoum wa Lena dinana).
Islam preaches hatred and violence? The handful of lunatics who interpreted islam in a manner intended to legitimize their indefensible acts of unadulterated criminality do - but they are not speaking on behalf of islam and are the religion's worst enemy. A person forfeits all rights to call him/herself a moslem once they engage in violence and spread hatred. We are only allowed to defend ourselves within our one national boundaries and even the, only against soldiers. Suicide bombers are psychopathic mass murderers who do not act in the name of Islam.
Please educate yourself on Islam prior to posting anything about it.
As a Moslem, I stringy believe that those associated with 9/11 should have been summarily executed or left to rot in Gitmo. Fair trials and human tights should only be accorded to humans, irrespective of religion, and never to murderous, criminally insane, horrifyingly wicked and violent psycho/sociopaths.
I urge you to get your facts straight.
Timothy McVeigh is no more a Christian than are the murderous thugs who claim to be moslem..
I admire your article .. You are a hero.
Happy to hear this from you.you expressed important things.Thanks
either u're not a moslim,or know nothing about this religion... shame on ppl who try to build a bad image of any religion or belief...
I am an American and a Christian. I am disgusted with the self righteousness of Christian Americans who seek to condemn the Islamic religion because of the actions of extremists. When will we finally be enlightened enough to understand and acknowledge that it is our own failure to follow our faiths that creates the hatred and turmoil which permeates the world in which we live? Christians!
What have you become? What ever happened to "Love thy neighbor", "Turn the other cheek" and "Remove the plank from you own eye"? I'll tell you what happened. Fear happened! That fear you felt on September 11, 2001 was not thrust upon you by Islam. The fear which causes you to spew words of judgment, intolerance and even hatred toward Islam is not the result of the actions of the terrorists who hurt us that day. That fear comes from only one place and that is your own lack of Christian faith! That's right, I said it. For if your faith in Christ was present, then you would understand that you have nothing to fear! If your understanding of the teachings of Christ were clear, your prayers would be for those who struck us. Your desire would be for peace to be upon them. Your heart would mourn, not just our loss, but also for the Muslims who have seen these things done in the name of that which they hold so faithfully dear. We are all children of the one living god. The god of Abraham. The god of Issac. The god of Ishmael. Do you even understand that we all worship the same merciful and loving father? Do you call him Allah or Jehovah? Do you call him at all? Whichever name you choose, do you believe he created everything. If you believe he created everything, then you must believe that he created everyone. If he created everyone, then he created every Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, yes even every Atheist. I have only one more question. Who are you to hate that which he has created?
it's people like you that gives peace a chance, thanks!
I thank you for your courage to write this article!
"If there is no God, there is no Peace! But if you know God, you know peace!"
Let God's love, peace and blessing be upon you, and your family!
Brave, intellectual, wise, interesting... all around cool. A good read. My view is that is the biggest problem is that there is no protestant or reform movement of Islam.
This is the most contradictory sentence I have ever read.
"I am sad to say that many, if not most of us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror attacks."
First you're "sad" to admit you "rejoiced"??? How can you be sad you rejoiced in something?
I agree, you must not be a real Muslim. You are speaking out against terrorists and terrorism, but you're condoning it too?
Make up your mind.
If you rejoiced in Terror, then you yourself are a terrorist. Even if you don't commit the act yourself.
For the people praising this guy, I understand why you would, but really go back and read it. After a second read you may agree with me.
A very Good essay writtten by an Israeli!!!
conservatives in the USA write the way this article is written purposedly by a Muslim. When I mingle with my muslim friends, especially from Lebanon, Palestine, North Africa, I find very nice, hard working and focused human beings. But when I interact with my brethren from Pakistan, I get different culture oriented people. So, what is what? We cannot paint all muslims with one brush and one color. Instead of getting into criticizing Islam, I feel Muslims shall come out openly and start speaking about their religion, their values, their commitment to fellow citizens, neighbors, country of origin and adopted ones, the clouds created by selfish pseudo preachers/fundamentalists will clear up slowly but surely. Also, some of the imposed brutalities by some cultures (unfortunately they are muslim dominated countries, while others like Turkey, Tunisia has more respects for their ladies and non-muslims than even some of the western countries for their women folk.). solution is for masses to speak and share their values, explain their culture and show openness to change with time.
I am a Christian in the US and have been all of my life. Please don't be offended...yet!
I was very impressed with your post. It was very thought out and very well expressed.
I pray that the Egyptian people will be able to have the type of democracy THEY hope for. I hope and pray that no more lives will be lost to this great cause. God Bless you all and I hope for a more peaceful world for us all.
To all participants and especially to Hala Khalek. It is true that most Moslem are peace looking people. But extremists are those who give the tune. After the masacre in Beslan, a famous Kuwaiti journalist said that it is true that not all the Moslems are assasins, but also true that all the suiciders are Moslems. Most of the suicide bombers are Moslems killing Moslems. The problem is that extremest preachers that twist the religion to their needs educate the youngsters to hate and look at those killers as martiers. They send others not themselves. pity.
i read your post but i do disagree with your opinion not only because i am Muslim as you are Muslim too
but there is no religion will ask the people to hate other as nobody will follow the religion at all or we cant call it religion but the problem coming from the people themselves you live in Egypt and you know how easy most of the people to be controlled as illiteracy %40 we can accused the imams & leaders about that but not islam At all this situation we live now like christian in the middle ages when the pops asked them to go to the east to kill the Muslims who live in Jerusalem ( the crusaders war )can we accuse Christianity for the same of course not followers & religions mens who should be accused all the time
Egypt cheap holidays
What a brave post. There would be people who disagree when we attempt radical introspection. But every civilization needs some voices like this.
Know religion, no peace...
No religion, know peace!
I can't but applaud any of the comments that believe in Love and Peace of all nations, no matter what their path or religion may be. I say if you can truly love yourself and accept yourself for who you are then you will be able to give the same out to everyone that you touch in Life. All paths/religions have "truth" within, it is how different people "see" it and "act" on what they read see or hear that can be detrimental as well as good for all. Therefore I feel that as long as you have LOVE in your heart, that is what will shine through no matter what. Then again, what do I know :) Nothing :) Love and Light to all :)
i am a muslim woman and very proud of islam because it taught to respect other religions and always be friendly with people with different believes.
i live in region that includes christians and jues although this region is in the arab world meaning not israel.muslims here never hated christians or jues but welcomed them and helped each other, they didnt look at the religious side but at the human side because we are all humans at the end.
Every where we find good and bad people either muslims or others,we stick on the bad side and never mention the good side, this what makes peole just see the bad side of everything.
i am sure who tried to write this article is trying to ruin the picture of islam, and i am sure its a new game to build hatred between muslims and non muslims. why didnt you mention what the west thinks about muslims that they are all terorists?
At the end i respect your point of you because my religion taught me to always listen to others and before claiming anything to see if what iam going to say will hurt others feelings which you didint put in mind at all!
if anyone tries to show what his real religion is about they call him a terrorist then i luodly say( iam proud i am terrorist)!!
Hala Khalek: What's interesting about McVeigh is that he never claimed to be a Christian - he was raised in the religion, but he never cited it as a motivation for what he did. He just hated the US government.
Now, Eric Robert Rudolph is an example of a Christian terrorist.
Post a Comment
<< Home