The courageous Irshad Manji, a Muslim herself, speaks out against the threats and intimidation that come to those who challenge any aspect of Islam. From UPI via FrontPage:
Tuesday's slaying of Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who criticized Islamic practices, reminds all of a nagging truth: More than 15 years after the government of Iran issued a death warrant against novelist Salman Rushdie, challenging Muslims remains a risky business.As a Muslim dissident, I speak from experience. My book, "The Trouble with Islam," has put me on the receiving end of anger, hatred and vitriol. That's because I'm asking questions that we Muslims can no longer hide from. Why, for example, are we squandering the talents of half of God's creation, women? What's with the stubborn streak of anti-Semitism in Islam today? Above all, how can even moderate Muslims view the Koran literally when it, like every holy text, abounds in contradictions and ambiguity? The trouble with Islam today is that literalism is going mainstream.
Muslims who take offense at these points often wind up reinforcing them in their responses to me. I regularly get death threats through my Web site. Some of my would-be assassins emphasize the virtues of martyrdom, wanting to hurl me into the "flames of hell" in exchange for 72 virgins. Others simply want to know what plane I'm next boarding, so they can hijack it. Somehow, I don't feel the urge to share my schedule.
A few threats have been up-close and personal. At an airport in North America, a Muslim man approached my traveling companion to say, "You're luckier than your friend." When she asked him to explain, he turned his hand into the shape of a gun and pulled the trigger. "She will find out later what that means," he intoned.
But, for all of the threats, there's good news: I'm hearing more support, affection and even love from fellow Muslims than I thought possible. Two groups in particular -- young Muslims and Muslim women -- have flooded my Web site with letters of relief and thanks. They are relieved that somebody is saying out loud words they have only whispered, and grateful that they're being given the permission to think for themselves....
I'm not denying that some Muslims have been targeted for harassment, profiling and discrimination by Western governments. I faced the same during the 1991 Gulf War when I was marched out of a federal building in Ottawa, Canada for no apparent reason. However, none of this negates a basic fact: If Muslims in the West dare to ask questions about our holy book, and if we care to denounce human rights violations being committed under the banner of that book, we need not worry about being raped, flogged, stoned or executed by the state for doing so. What in God's name are Muslims in the West doing with our freedoms?...
...Even before 9/11, I spoke at universities about the virtues of diversity, including diversity of opinion. After many of these speeches, young Muslims emerged from the audiences, gathered at the side of stage, chatted excitedly among themselves, and then walked over to me.
"Irshad," I would hear, "we need voices such as yours to help us open up this religion of our because if it doesn't open up, we're leaving it."
Please visit this site:
StopPoliticalTerror.com
it claims that there is political terror in the west.
it is typical of the denial that the left goes into when faced with reality.
send them an e mail a polite one, there is no need to lower yourself to the level of the prophet mohammed.
The Dutch are already falling over themselves to behave like good dhimmis. They gave the Erasmus Award to three 'liberal muslim thinkers'. One of them in her acceptance speech blamed 'Dutch society' for creating Van Gogh's killer.
Verdachte moord 'product van Nederlandse samenleving'
To Peter Verkooijen
"One of them (a muslim)in her acceptance speech blamed 'Dutch society' for creating Van Gogh's killer"
You naughty dutch...it is all your fault...beg forgiveness for Theo's murder from his assasin and give him a ticker tape parade though the capital, build massive fundamentalist mosques over all your cathedrals, sell yourselves into slavery and implement sharia immediately or you will self-inflict even more violence against yourselves. (sarcasm off)
What do they do after the Erasmus awards are presented? Bow to Allah and blow the dhimmi audience up?
On one of the news channels it said that Theo's murder means that Dutch society has much soul searching.
Dutch society has much soul searching? Theo wasn't killed by Dutch society but by a muslim. But then muslims rarely do much soul searching.
It was Fatima Mernissi, who really should know better. How ****** dare she. How dare they do these things to us and then have the gall to tell us it's our own fault. Words fail me, I'm so furious.
Bingo Setana -- and that's why they never advance, technologically or socially.
They never take responsibility for their own actions -- even the "educated" ones like Fatima Mernissi. Somebody else always "makes" them do their murders and killings.
Here's an excellent question Irshad Manji poses on her website:
My question for non-Muslims is equally basic: Will you succumb to the intimidation of being called "racists," or will you finally challenge us Muslims to take responsibility for our role in what ails Islam?
Obviously the Dutch are struggling with this as we speak.
Some time ago, Irshad Manji met Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the Netherlands, to discuss together about Islam for the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad. Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes columns for this newspaper, though today I couldn't find her usual column. Things look grim here in the Netherlands.
A question for Irshad Manji from Pythagoras:
Why are good muslims such as yourself hiding from the fact that Islam is conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit genocide? (The Qur'anic verse "Slay the infidels " is the source?)
"' . . . we need voices such as yours to help us open up this religion of our because if it doesn't open up, we're leaving it.'"
Well, it doesn't appear to be "opening up," so what'cha gonna do, young Moslems? Is there anyone to call your bluff?
Question: How do you "open up" an ideology that is based on keeping its adherents shackled to it for life, under the threat of death if they leave it?
If you open Islam up, you find that it is rotten to the core. It reeks when the shell of piousness and spirituality with which it bedazzles the world is broken open and apart.
Irshad is on a radio show right now and got a call from a Muslim saying the nobody listens to her and Van Gogh deserved it because of his attack on Muslims.
It seems that Muslims are driven to murder and have no self-control to be peaceful,I guess abused spouses should ask themselves what they did to bring this upon them.
Ironically,Irshad is denounced as a real Muslim because she refused to stay at a medrossa
when teachings conflicted with human rights and questioning the quran risked death threats or
punishment.
So Muslim leaders that deny Islam is oppressive and controling reject a Female Muslim because she didn't want to be brainwashed with hate for people she liked and was expected to just follow the masses without questioning anything.
Yep, that's Islam allright
Believe ti or die!