Islam Doesn't Suck -- An Open Response
Hello.
I believe that Denny Crane wrote a small bit of text, which in essence, was an attack on the (lack of) Arab culture and its poisoning by the rigourist school of Islam known as wahabbism in the west, but is also known as salafism, as "wahabbism" has mostly been regarded as an incorrect and offensive.
In this post, I will not actively try to refute his points, but rather expand on it (with my own opinions), find the root of the problem and seek a solution for the problems he mentioned. If I'd notice any (perceived) inconsistencies, I will try to seek out those inconsistencies and respond to those, as well.
The text mentioned can be found here.
At first, he starts off on a fairly reasonable tone. He understands that the fraction of Muslims that commit terrorist acts are a slight percentage of the total amount of Muslims currently living in the world and that most of the places from where terrorists have struck, are places that have suffered a lot from proxy wars and imperialist behaviour.
The flawed nature of man is not as inherent in Islam as it would be in other (Abrahamic) religions, as the concept of eternal or original sin is not at all present in Islamic philosophy. It is not mentioned in the Qur'an or in the Hadiths, and the concept of original sin was not accepted.That we are all flawed and in order to please some abstract entities wishes (lit. Patriarchal Moralising Sadistic power bases who interpret the word of God for you) we must conform by covering ourselves with clothing and in males case with hair.
The "patriarchal moralising sadistic power bases" mentioned refer most likely to two institutions; the Shi'ite Ayatollahs (who range from the ultra-conservative Iranian Khamenei to his Iranian counterpart, Yousef Saan'ei and the relatively relaxed Ayatollah ali al-Sistani). It is important to note that Shi'i Muslims are not regarded as Muslims by hardliner Salafists, nor as ahl ul-kitab (people of the book), but as polytheists.
The other institution are the muftis and grand muftis, high-ranking imams of Sunni Islam. And between the Muftis in Arabia, those in France and Australia, there is disrepancy as well. These institutions largely do not agree with themselves, let alone bring out a consistent message to the world. I, for one, can hardly believe that Ali Gomaa and Yusuf al-Qaradawi believe the same things.
And even though Islam is sometimes regarded as being less fractured than Christianity, one might wonder whether that's true, or even based on truth. While it is true that all Muslims pray five times a day, pay the zakat, go on the hajj, believe that Muhammad is God's messenger and do the fast, in Sunni Islam alone, there are four distinct schools of fiqh (jurisprudence), each of them having a different idea of how a Muslim should live. Regardless, those four schools do regard everyone of them as legitimate.
In a western state, in which both Denny and myself live, the forced covering of women is deplorable and should be condemned or outright banned, in my opinion, but if possible, should be discussed beforehand.
Apart from my personal doubts on whether this is correct or no, it is too vague to reply to properly. Alcohol is haram due to the fact that it clouds judgment. I don't think it has too much to do with (in)natural behaviour. Why isn't hashish banned? For a religion that is generally watertight when it comes to behaviour of people, I wonder why they'd forgotten about that.We must repress our desires, as though they weren't natural and refrain from imbibing those things that would make us express them. Why else is alcohol banned?
There are many problems that I perceive in Muslim philosophy as well, but self-expression and individuality are hardly cursed, and if they were, not under Islam. If such a thing were true, the massive amount of cultural pursuits, including literature, music, art and poetry would never have advanced, but rather have stagnated and slowly died out. One might argue that did indeed happen after a while, but not in the seventh century (there might be a case to argue that culture in Iran took a heavy beating after the Islamic revolution, though). If Islam were solely to blame for the cultural stagnation of the Middle East, there is no explanation why there were ups and downs in culture throughout the Islamic world in these 1,500 years.Sexuality, self expression and individuality are cursed under Islam. It is the most judgemental religion and fits right into Arabic Wahabbist culture with its ultra repressive misogynistic misanthropic hatred.
I have fairly little to add to this as I basically agree with his position here.From the beginnings of monotheism there was a manipulation of people through shame in order to bring obedience and maintain the power of the aged males and the dominance of younger weaker minds. If you have ever wondered why such things as honour killings can be possible, it is through this honour/shame culture that is rooted in Arabia but present through much of the Middle East and Asia.
The honour killing is an interesting subject. It is not Islamic, per se. Comparable to genital mutilation with women, as it is not practiced throughout the Muslim world. Genital mutilation is less prevalent than honour killings though, and one might ask why. It's interesting to see how Islam contradicts itself here; the Qur'an absolutely forbids the killing of a believer under any circumstance, the exception naturally being apostasy. I wouldn't want to defend myself from murder under the guise of the killing of an apostate in a Shari'a court, however.Can there be a greater distortion of our natural instincts, the bond between parents and child, than the honour killing. The indoctrination into the honour and shame culture is so great that it can lead people to voluntarily mask themselves from head to foot and claim it is free will, for a parent to kill their children or for a crowd to stone to death a woman for adultery.
Still, this is something that ought to be studied closely. It's particularly intriguing and it reeks of hypocrisy (honour killings, that is).
Yes, although I suppose that Muslims are very much capable of absorbing Islam in their western lifestyles, or the other way around. What would be preferable? A Muslim first, or a westerner first?I certainly don't want to confine my criticism of these attitudes to Islam alone. I am less critical of Christianity merely because it has been absorbed and ameliorated by the individualism, freedom and values of western society and progression.
My final point in my brief rant on the subject of this is perhaps the most important. Where does your morality come from? Do you kill your child because of shame or dishonour? Do you refrain from slaying another or stealing because your god tells you to? I would like to think that morality is innate. I would not kill a baby because I have no desire to, I would not kill steal or rob from my family or a pensioner because the idea fills me with revulsion. When you ask anyone in the street would they like to rape a child, you get met with revulsion as it is instinctual. Science and experience seem to back up the fact that aberrant behaviour in humans can be traced through a series of necessary, sufficient and other causal factors whether environmental, biological or genetic. There is no good and evil and our behaviour is largely regulated by the influences at that time and the things that have occurred in the past. The idea that you need a God to tell you it is wrong to want to rape a child is ludicrous and idiotic. The revulsion at these ideas are innate, morality is natural and based on societies evolution, not God.
I'll drink to that.
The last thing I need to say is that we should not blame Islam as a whole. That way, we are walking, eyes wide-open, into the very thing that the wife-beating, murderous Wahhabi-preachers want us to do. That way, the al-Qaeda corporation can draw another ten Arab students to their pack by saying "look? they're trying to fight Islam, we need to fight back!".
Instead, let us blame those wahhabi preachers, with their sickening views of human life, respect and religion. They try to bend and twist the religion of Islam to fit their political needs and send another ten, hundred, thousand Arabs to their deaths. The greatest weapon that we can use to fight ignorance is knowledge, and that is something we should use. Not by invading I-(something) but by openly engaging in dialogue with Muslim clerics, by supporting the liberals and moderates and by detracting the extremists.
In the end, though, this is a battle they should fight, I think.
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Originally Posted by Mythos
ing true, we need more 
