I admit that I have crazy people in my religion. I'm disgusted every time I see a headline like the one I saw on Sep. 5: "Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician." How could I not be revolted at such an irreligious, un-Islamic, self-aggrandizing, self-promoting statement like that? How could any thinking individual not wholeheartedly condemn such a vile statement? The vast majority of us Muslims around the world see news headings like this one and groan.
The Dutch politician to which this horrible Muslim "cleric" refers is, of course, Geert Wilders, who is currently being prosecuted by the Dutch authorities for hate speech. He compares the Quran to Mein Kampf, and he has wanted to impose fines on Muslim women wearing headscarves (but not on women of other religions who wear headscarves). He sees no irony in both insisting on banning the Quran and yet insisting on his own freedom of speech. He fabricates statistics, asserting that most terrorists are Muslim (while FBI data indicates that only 6 percent of terrorist acts on U.S. soil have been committed by Muslim extremists). He's made a lucrative career from painting Islam and all Muslims as extremists.
Yet that's no reason to call for his beheading.
Unfortunately, this Muslim cleric is not alone in the panoply of clerics of many religions who preach hatred or death.
For example, last week, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual head of the Shas Party, a member of the governing coalition, repeated his 2001 call for the annihilation of Arabs, saying, "It is forbidden to be merciful to them." Pastor Steve Anderson of a church in Arizona says he prays for the death of Obama and calls for death to homosexuals.
The problem with the Muslim clerics is that they get so much press. How can non-Muslims be faulted for thinking that Islam is a violent religion when vicious and un-Islamic statements like this cleric's are the ones that make the news?
In Islam, it is forbidden to take a life. You cannot murder people. You cannot call for their beheading. This violates shariah, which I defined in a previous blog post. This cleric is arrogantly assuming that he can say whatever he wants by dint of being a cleric. (And what are his qualifications, anyway? I'm afraid many of our Muslim clerics are under-educated in their own traditions.)
Ayatollah Khomeini started this idea that you can put a death sentence on someone you don't like. But this is not Islamic! Khomeini violated specific rules of Islamic law when he issued that fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Numerous Muslim scholars around the world condemned it.
Even in medieval Islamic law, you may only take the life of a person who has been convicted of a crime, or in warfare under very stringent rules. In the first case, as punishment for a crime, very often, the burden of proof for proving such crimes is so phenomenally steep that the death penalty need never be applied.
In the second case, lives may be taken in warfare, but there are stringent rules about this: only in legitimate warfare (not terrorism or guerrilla warfare) may lives be taken. Moreover, Muslims may not take the lives of women, children, noncombatants, people taking sanctuary in religious buildings, and men of the cloth. Muslims may not poison the water supply, uproot trees, or destroy property. The clandestine use of force is absolutely prohibited. Suicide is prohibited.
So how possibly can a call for a beheading of someone without a criminal trial ever be legitimate? It cannot. When Muslim clerics who make the press urge death and destruction, I sit around with my Muslim friends and grieve.
The first thing to do to marginalize Muslim clerics like this one is to stop publicizing their views. It gives them power. The rabbi who called for elimination of all Arabs and the preacher who calls for death to homosexuals did not make the front pages because we marginalize them. In so doing, we reduce their power.
And second, we must start solving the problems in the Muslim world, real problems that are the cause of the unrest and discontent: hunger, poverty, low literacy levels, oppressive and authoritarian governments, and socioeconomics. The Muslim world has all the problems of the developing world -- in fact, many of the same problems as Latin America. They're not Islamic problems any more than Latin America's problems are Christian problems.
Third, in a developing Muslim world where education is not accessible for many and Muslim seminaries were dismantled by Western colonial powers, many clerics lack sufficient education. We need to find a way to provide it.
And finally, Muslims must continue to push back against these clerics who are less interested in religion than they are in self-aggrandizement. We're doing it in different ways: Hissa Hilal writes poetry to denounce extremist clerics; high-level imams like Mustafa Ceric of Bosnia advocate democracy and religious pluralism; and Muslim women's movements worldwide are continually challenging any fatwas that deprive women of their place in society.
It's these voices, the many modern and moderate voices, that need to be publicized and given power. It's the clerics calling for beheading, as well as those calling for Obama's death or the annihilation of Arabs, who should be marginalized.
Muslim Cleric Calls For Beheading Of Geert Wilders
Muslim cleric calls for beheading of Dutch politician - Yahoo! News
Where are the congregants, who heard that cleric's speech?
How many of them (all?) rejected his call for beheading Wilders?
It isn't just one man here.
Included in the "hate crime", or worse, are all those in attendance
who heard his words and said nothing.
Peace/Salaams/Shalom
Bravo. Finally. A clear and understandable declaration of opposition to the craziness in Islam. You have done well. I was pretty nearly afraid I was going never hear it.
Too much of what I have seen in Islam's defense is "This is what Islam is (to me). This is what Sharia is (to me). I ignore the reality of the crazies."
The trouble with ignoring the crazies is that it is the crazies who gain power, who enforce the unthinkable, who do all the horrible things we Americans read about, who claim by their words and works to represent Islam. And too often Muslims ignore them on the basis that it is forbidden to criticize other Muslims.
Reasonable people like you, Sumbal Ali-Karamali, should be a lot more visible. But your message gets lost because we see time and again the crazies get the attention, stir up the masses, take insults with determination of deadly retaliation, and hurt the innocent. Recently Taliban fighters have been using children as human shields in their attacks. I know that is anti-Islamic, but they seem to think they have Allah's approval for such butchery.
Mind you, I know we Christians have our crazies, too. They just seem to be less violent than Islamic crazies on the whole -- more mouth and less action.
Still, I prefer the company of reasonable people. We could talk.
Here is a list of Muslims voices against terrorism:
http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/tam/categories/C167/
Peace/Salaams/Shalom
not "mad"...
peace Out...
Peace Out...
I'm pretty sure the real problem is that most of the terrorism and related murders happening these days are being done by Muslims. (Your statistic about US terrorism is irrelevant. I'm talking about global news, and Muslims carry out car-bombings and other terrorist attacks almost daily.)
When that Christian pastor calls for the death of homosexuals, rarely does anyone actually attempt to carry it out. And to be fair, if any one particular Muslim cleric made that same call, it's also unlikely anyone would carry it out. But when you look at the total number of deaths related to religious decrees, Islam is the religion that seems to be "getting it done."
Yes, these people are radicals. But as long as they're actually managing to kill people, they're going to taint Islam. Unfortunately, the only thing Muslims can do about this is to keep publishing responses like yours that disown the radicals.
(Well, actually, you could do something else: change your religion. Not your beliefs, just the name. Call it "Allahism". The radicals will, of course, refuse to change. So then all you reasonable Allahists won't be tainted by the violence of radical Islamics anymore. I began writing this as a joke, but now I'm not so sure it doesn't make sense.)
Should we consult the holy texts? We know that doesn't work for Christianity; people selectively pick and choose which passages to take seriously and which to ignore. Why should it work for Islam? Why should it work for any religion?
Religions are created by men. They are a fabrication, passed off as the word of God. They should not be taken seriously, because doing so results in the behavior we see highlighted in this article.
It won't and it never will of its own accord.
Most of muslim religious leaders are like this. One Imam in Australia says uncovered women are like uncovered meet; only cats will come and eat. Another Imam in Austria supports this, saying uncovered women invite rape. Your saying that it has no theological sanction carry no conviction.
R/ PRONESE
For example:
- stoning of men and women because of adultary.
- female circumcission.
- executing christian converts
If you want to prevent the vilification of the Muslim community the moderate Muslim community needs to make a coordinated and unified condemnation of such actions. The present individual condemnation is just not enough as it seems to highlight the communities inablity to agree on whether of not these actons are actually wrong.