An Invitation to Muslim Readers

Welcome!

I am happy and excited that you are here.

At this blog I write some things that will likely offend you. If so, too bad!

There are a great many statements coming out of the Islamic World that are offensive to non-Muslims, comments that go so far as to call for the violent extermination of non-Muslims, and I hear little (there is some) criticism of such comments from the Islamic community. And don't think I'm not listening for it!

I do not wish for all offensive statements necessarily to cease.

As an American, I know my country is not perfect. We have a great deal of room for improvement, a great many problems that need solving. But, we can't solve problems if we don't know they exist; we can't improve things if we don't know improvement is possible. Sometimes it takes the voices of those who hate us to point out what is wrong. Indeed, improvement seems nearly impossible in the absence of criticism; homogenized, pasteurized praise paves the road to Hell.

To hear those voices, we have to get past our sensitivities. To make progress, we have to get over our offensiphobia. This is why the United States has a First Amendment: so even people who seek the destruction of our Republic can help us improve it! Perhaps once they unwittingly help improve it by calling attention to its deficiencies, they will find it far more tolerable; instead of hating it, they might even grow to like it!

As a result of that, I am in favor of Freedom of Speech and of the Press, and of Religion. These fundamental liberties should be given a wide berth; they are the treasures of civilized society, and we should suspect anyone who draws near to them.

In this same light, I feel Islam should not be immune to criticism.

There are many, many different traditions and communities in the Islamic World. Some of them are very old and historic.

A trend that I see in the Islamic World, however, is one of increasing radicalization. This is a violent trend, a totalitarian trend, aimed at the elimination of Free Speech, Free Press, Free Religion, and even Free Thought. This trend involves the destruction of peaceful, historic cultures and beautiful places inside the Islamic World -- and, of course, outside it -- to make room for a takeover by radicalized, violent, totalitarian Islamic elites. This trend is nothing less than the establishment of Hell-on-Earth, a gateway to a more eternal place of torment.

If this trend continues, not only will we infidels be in danger, but so will you: whoever you are, whatever you believe, sooner or later someone will label you takfir or apostate, and that label is no less dangerous than the tattoo on the arm of a prisoner in a Nazi death camp from decades ago.

With this in mind, I invite you to join the conversation here.

If you have a comment, make it. If you have a question, pose it.

If you think I'm wrong, say so!

Don't be overly concerned about being polite and civil. Yes, we all appreciate politeness and civility, but if you don't know how to phrase it, just blurt it out! I will try to look past my offensiphobia and take it positively. In the very same light, if you see something that someone has blurted out, look past your offensiphobia and try to take it the way you would want others to take your comments. Remember, no one here is without sin.

All readers here should please keep in mind that English may not be the native language of the blog's guests. If someone is having difficulty communicating a thought, for any reason, try a little harder to understand that person; perhaps you can even help that person communicate the thought.


Having said all that, I, as the blog administrator, do, as a matter of principle, reserve the right to delete comments (or even entire posts) for any reason, or for no reason at all.


Think! That is why your Creator gave you a mind -- and your Creator didn't make junk!

And speak out -- before it is too late!

I will keep you all in my prayers, that our Creator does as He sees best for all of us, because He is merciful, loving and wise.

Thank you for visiting, and God bless you all!

Overview of Islamic Phobias

From MEMRI Special Report No. 10 (numbers in brackets are notes to links, many of which no longer work, so are not reproduced here; emphasis is in original); I have categorized the quotes according to the phobia evidenced:


Christophobia:

Al-Salaam mosque in 'Al-Unayzah, Sheikh Abd Al-Muhsin Al-Qadhi said: "Today we will talk about one of the distorted religions, about a faith that deviates from the path of righteousness… about Christianity, this false faith, and about the people whom Allah described in his book as deviating from the path of righteousness. We will examine their faith, and we will review their history, full of hate, abomination, and wars against Islam and the Muslims."

"In this distorted and deformed religion, to which many of the inhabitants of the earth belong, we can see how the Christians deviate greatly from the path of righteousness by talking about the concept of the Trinity. As far as they are concerned, God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three who are one…"

"They see Jesus, peace be upon him, as the son of Allah… It is the Christians who believe that Jesus was crucified.[3] According to them, he was hanged on the cross with nails pounded through his hands, and he cried, 'My God, why have you forsaken me?' According to them, this was so that he would atone for the sins of mankind…"

"Regardless of all these deviations from the path of righteousness, it is possible to see many Muslims… who know about Christianity only what the Christians claim about love, tolerance, devoting life to serving the needy, and other distorted slogans… After all this, we still find people who promote the idea of bringing our religion and their's closer, as if the differences were miniscule and could be eliminated by arranging all those [interreligous] conferences, whose goal is political…" [4]

Christophobia and Judeophobia:

While Islam considers both Jews and Christians "People of the Book" - i.e. non-Muslims with special status under Islamic rule - Sheikh Abd Al-'Aziz Qari discussed the differences between the religions in a sermon delivered at the Qabaa mosque in Al-Madina: "Two groups - the Jews and the Christians - are the main elements constituting the 'Camp of Kufur' and will continue to be its two foundations until Allah allows their downfall and annihilation at the end of days..."

"When the Prophet Muhammad was sent out, the 'Camp of Kufur' declared war on his message. At the center of this war were these groups, particularly the Jews. These two groups will continue to serve as the grindstones of the conflict and the war between belief and Kufur until eternity comes… The conflict will end when Jesus the son of Mary, peace be upon him, arrives to break the cross and wipes it off the face of the earth, and kills the blind [false] Messiah, the leader of the Jews and the tyrant whom they await. Until that day, the conflict between us, the Muslims, and the Jews and Christians will continue, and it will ebb and flow, one day ours, another day theirs…"

"The Jews are the objects of Allah's [promised] wrath, while the Christians deviate from the path of righteousness… The Koran described the Jews as a nation cursed by Allah, a nation at which he was angry - some of whom he turned into apes and pigs…"[5]

...

Sheikh Muhammad Saleh Al-Munajjid also discussed education to Jihad, stating: "Muslims must… educate their children to Jihad. This is the greatest benefit of the situation: educating the children to Jihad and to hatred of the Jews, the Christians, and the infidels; educating the children to Jihad and to revival of the embers of Jihad in their souls. This is what is needed now…"[31]

Judeophobia:

Sheikh Abd Al-Hamid Al-Daghastani explained at the Bin Hassan mosque in Mecca that "to disseminate moral or ideological corruption ... the Jews hand these traits down from father to son."[22] As the Imam of the Al-Harram mosque in Mecca, Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudais explained in one of his sermons: "Brothers in faith, what do our Koran and our Sunna say? What does our belief say? What does our history prove…? They show clearly that the conflict between us and the Jews is one of belief, identity, and existence…"

"Read history and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil forefathers of the even more evil Jews of today: infidels, falsifiers of words, calf worshippers, prophet murderers, deniers of prophecies… the scum of the human race, accursed by Allah, who turned them into apes and pigs… These are the Jews - an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption…"

"Oh nation of Islam, today our nation is at the height of conflict with the enemies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow - the offspring of [the three Jewish tribes of Al-Madina] Banu Qurayza, Banu Nadhir, and Banu Qaynuqa, upon whom Allah's curse rests until Judgment Day. Do the sons of our people realize the truth about the nation of wrath and deceit…? The insult to and contempt of Arabs, Muslims, and their holy places reaches its height at the hands of the rats of the world, the violators of agreements, in whose minds abide treachery, destruction, and deceit and in whose veins flow occupation and tyranny… They are indeed worthy of the curse of Allah, of the angels, and of all people…" [23]

In a sermon delivered at the Al-Nour mosque in Al-Khobar, Sheikh Nasser Muhammad Al-Ahmad said: "In the Jews, an astonishing quantity of moral abomination and corrupt behavior has accumulated. These cannot exist in any other nation. What is amazing is that this corruption in all things concerning morality, and this impudent behavior, are not limited to a specific generation of Jews, or to a specific group of Jews, but are manifest in the distorted Jew everywhere. Every Jew, except for the prophets and the believers among the [ancient] Children of Israel, is a human model of the same moral traits, from which the contemptible Jew who lived in the time of Pharoah or the liberated Jew who lives today on the land of Palestine, is not spared."

"Moral corruption is a general trait of the Jews, all the Jews. [These are] stable hereditary genes [found] in the Jew in every time and in every place. If you want to know the Jew through and through, imagine a group of perverse moral traits…"

"The Jews are liars …in their religious life, in their ritual, in the way they see Allah. The Jews lie to their enemies and friends alike… What is strange is that they have turned the lie into a religion, a faith, and a ritual through which they draw closer to their god… If we say that they speak the truth this time [regarding the peace process], it would mean that we are denying the Koranic text - a very serious matter…"

"Similarly, the Jews are treacherous… If they smile, their smile is perverted… The Jews are miserly, and enslaved by money… The Jews disseminate corruption in the land; this is one of their salient moral traits, even in the time of their prophet Moses… Most of the world's wars, particularly the great modern wars, were planned and started by the Jews so as to disseminate corruption in the land, and to achieve their goals on the ruins of the human race… I will conclude the matter of these moral traits with something else connected to the Jews: The Jews are an accursed nation. This is part of our belief. We believe that the Jews are accursed…"[24]

...

Sheikh 'Adel Bin Ahmad Bana'ma said in a sermon at the Muhammad Al-Fatih mosque in Jiddah: "For the thousandth time, the [Islamic] nation is losing its memory and sits with its enemy to discuss peace, agreements, and treaties… The Jews themselves do not forget their hatreds. Today, they disseminate everywhere the lie of the Holocaust and claim that Hitler killed six million Jews in gas chambers. Although this is pure falsehood, they have made it part of their history of trials and tribulations, disseminated it with their mighty propaganda machine, and extorted the countries of the world with it. They obtained huge reparations from Germany with it, and still accuse everyone who denies it of antisemitism, and incite the world against him. [The French Holocaust denier] Garaudy's story happened not long ago!"

"…How many times have the Jews bitten the hand stretched out to them for peace? How many times have the Jews violated the agreements they have signed? Didn't they betray the Prophet…? Didn't they betray the Ottoman state and cause its downfall…? Haven't they violated all the modern agreements, from Oslo through Sharm Al-Sheikh? Isn't this enough for those misled by illusions of peace to awaken?"[28]

Gynophobia:

In a sermon at the Al-Huweish mosque in Al-Taif, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Nimr explained, "The enemies of Islam… know that the woman is a double-edged sword, and that she can be transformed into the most dangerous weapon of destruction [of Islamic nations]. Thus, the woman has suffered from most of the conspiracies to shatter the Islamic nation - because the woman has a group of traits allowing her to either build or destroy the nation…"

"The enemies of Islam have decided to distance the Muslims from their religion. Therefore, they have made the woman the most important weapon in this destruction. Ostensibly, they are showing her mercy and defending her rights. Many among the Muslim women have been misled by this, because of their ignorance about their religion, which sees the woman as the man's partner and as possessing rights and obligations appropriate to her nature and character..."

"Permitting women to leave the home, so that they rub up against men in the marketplaces and talk with people other than their chaperones - with some even exposing parts of their bodies prohibited from exposure - are forbidden acts, a disgrace, and lead to destruction. The first crime perpetrated by the Israelites was letting their women loose when they were adorned, so that they would stir up Fitna [inner strife]. For this, Allah punished them with the plague."[39]

Freedophobia and Gynophobia:

At the same time, many sermons instruct women how to behave so as not to slide down the slippery slope of the "moral degradation" pervasive in the West. The sermon of Sheikh Hamad Ibrahim Al-Hariqi at Al-Basateen mosque in Al-Riyadh is one example of many: "One of the mistakes made by women with regard to their husbands is to avoid [joining] the husband when he calls her to bed claiming that she is fatigued, or simply because she wants to anger him, or because she is ignorant and does not know that by doing so she denies her husband the greatest of his rights and places herself under serious threat… As it was said: 'If a man calls his wife to his bed and she refuses to come, the angels curse her until she wakes up'…"

"Another mistake is deficient service to her husband. If she does not fulfill his needs, such as cooking, laundering, keeping the house clean, and the like, it is because she is lazy and for no other reason. There is no doubt that this is a grave thing. [These tasks] are the woman's right and obligation towards her husband… The wise Muslim woman must take care of and serve her husband, in a way that will gladden him and cast happiness between them."

"Another mistake is to allow entrance to anyone whom the husband does not permit to enter the home. The husband has the right to bring only the people he likes into his home, and the woman must obey him. She has no right to bring in anyone he hates, even if it is her relatives … When the husband takes other wives, some women behave with exaggerated jealousy, ignorance, and stupidity."[46]

Study of Islam Improves Vocabulary

The study of Islam is improving my vocabulary.

I thought I had invented two new words yesterday, but, alas, I hadn't.


Freedophobia: An irrational fear of freedom or liberty. Related words: freedophobic, freedophobe

(I googled it and found ONE return: See link.)


Gynophobia: An irrational fear of women. Related words: gynophobic, gynophobe


(Google that and see what you come up with.)

Here are some more I found:


Judeophobia: An irrational fear of Judaism or Jews. Related words: judeophobic, judeophobe


Christophobia: An irrational fear of Christianity or Christians. Related words: christophobic, christophobe