Badawi
The Muse, the student publication of Newfoundland's Memorial University, reports on a talk by Islamic apologist Jamal Badawi. (Thanks to Nicolei.) The talk was part of Islamic Awareness Week at the University, and was designed to counter media misstatements:
The group hopes to give interested students the opportunity to learn about the prominent and ancient religion of Islam. “[The purpose of Islam Awareness Week] is to give an idea of the true Islam, not the Islam of the media,” said Mahmoud Abu-Kharma, president of the Muslim Students’ Association.The group held a series of lectures and information sessions to break down media stereotypes and inform the general public about the different aspects and roots of Islamic culture.
In the course of his talk, Badawi made this curious statement:
To most Muslim people, Islamic culture does not have to conform to human standards; if it did, it would change the word of the prophet Mohammed, and that in turn would be the ultimate ignorance, said Badawi.
What does that mean? In what way does Islamic culture not have to conform to human standards? Human standards of human rights or equality of dignity and rights of all people?
Badawi also assailed "the media" for its treatment of jihad:
The misuse of the word jihad by the media since Sept. 11, 2001 was one of Badawi’s concerns. He explained that jihad is actually derived from the word jahada, meaning to struggle. Therefore, jihad means the act of struggling.This contrasts the media’s misconceptions. Jihad does not mean holy war, for war is never holy. And the term holy war is never mentioned throughout the Qur’an. Holy war stands to remain only as a contradiction in terms.
In Onward Muslim Soldiers, I discuss how another Islamic scholar, Khaled Abou El Fadl, argues that Islam has no concept of holy war on the basis of the fact that "jihad" doesn't mean "holy war."
From both El Fadl and Badawi, this is outrageously disingenuous: Islam has a highly developed system of theology and law regarding religious war — a system without parallel in any other religion. It is inconceivable that they do not know this, and so it's hard to see their denials of its existence as anything but attempts to bamboozle non-Muslims.
What's more, Badawi's attribution of the mischaracterization of jihad to "the media" is ridiculous: evidently he breezed right by the fact that armed terrorists are waging jihad everywhere, and they don't mean by the word anything but warfare to spread the hegemony of Islam.
I have asked Dr. Badawi a series of questions about his presentation of Islam in this article. I never have received any answer, but Dr. Badawi, please feel free to contact me anytime.
If we look at the big picture, we see that jihadists are on the move throughout the world. They are not engaged in an "internal struggle." Theirs is an armed struggle.
Are we to ignore the words of their mouths and the messages penned for intimidation? The fact is that they quote passages from the Koran, Hadith, and each other, as justification for their struggle.
I invite Dr. Badawi to get out his map and track the movement of these Jihadists and explain to me their violent actions and their references to the Koran. He won't be able to explain them away.
It is outrageous that he uses his position to pertuate the big lie about Islam. Scholarship and degrees can't hide the truth this time.
Great, more dissembling and disingenuous rubbish from an Islamist apologist.
However, some good news from Canada. Toronto Globe and Mail writer, Margaret Wente, published a most remarkable piece in today's paper. It is MANDATORY reading for anyone who despairs at the Jew-hating, anti-West media ever coming to grips with the existential threat which radicalized Islam represents to the West. I commend it to all:
http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040318/COWENT18/TPColumnists/
In "Main Kampf", "kampf" is translated as "struggle", but in the word "kampfgruppe" it's translated as "combat". It's the same word; it just falls on the border between two (or more) English words, so the translator has to depend on the context to determine the appropriate word.
Similarly, jihad may have its roots in "struggle", but when people declare they're "fighting for Allah" and call it "jihad", the meaning's clearly "holy war".
Can't recall where I read it, but there is another Arabic world that means "war", thus the argument is that jihad is not war because if the Koran meant war it would have used this other word.
Whether Hitler had used Kampf or Krieg, I still know what he means, and Muslim apologists insult me if they think I'm going to buy their lame excuse.
Rosh, the Arabic word for war is "harb," and it's true: the Qur'an never uses this word in connection with "holy" (qudoos); nor does it use it in connection with "jihad." However, as I explained above and in my book "Onward Muslim Soldiers," these facts do not establish what apologists like Badawi and El Fadl want them to establish, because they simply ignore the elaborate legal and theological superstructure Islam has constructed for jihad as warfare.
another Apologist for the useful idiots of the West to quote - and to give peace to those Leftists who have united with the Islamic Fascists!
Remember - these muslims can lie and be blessed by Allah - and this is exactly what this "gentleman" is doing as a muslim apologist.
jihan
Bawadi is waging jihad by his presentation, cultural jihad, using taqiyyah to misrepresent a basic islamic doctrine. He and his clones, who are in every major US city, want to confuse us, obfuscate and muddle the reality we find through out the world today. They live for death and seek dark places to hide from the light of reason. They are ignorance=evil.
Does Dr. Badawi present this same lecture to muslims who misinterpret by practicing the 'other' jihad? If he can help correct their interpretation, that would be helpful.
if you want to know what jihad means ask about this word in the streets of any middle eastern country It means killing non beleivers by sword of islam for expansion purposes