The Turk is irked: those nasty white European racists keep misunderstanding Islam, thinking it has something to do with violence. ‘Europe misinformed about Islam,’ from the Turkish Daily News, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
Religious Affairs Director Ali Bardakoğlu said yesterday the West and Europe are erroneously informed in their understanding of Islam and Turkey should strive hard to present the real core of Islam, reported the Anatolia news agency.
Yes, get with it, Europeans. Stop misunderstanding Islam. For one thing, stop thinking you can learn anything about it by observing Muslims in Europe:
“The European Union partly became acquainted with Islam through some Turkish citizens living abroad. This is not the correct way to grasp Islam,” Bardakoğlu was quoted by Anatolia as saying.He said his office should have a permanent representative in Brussels. “We have to observe and participate in the discussions concerning the European understanding of Islam. We are tasked with explaining the true essence of Islam as a religion.”
The religious affairs director said Europe should not evaluate Islam with respect to and in comparison with Christianity. “Nowadays, the European Union is specifically sensitive on issues of human rights, women's rights, violence, terror and discrimination. Our staff and clergy should pay more attention to how they choose to express their thoughts on these issues.”
In other words, Bardakoğlu is telling Muslim clergy in Europe to stop contradicting Western ideas of human rights and women's rights, and stop advocating violence, terror, and discrimination. But note that he is not telling them to change their beliefs. Just to be quiet about them for now.
Concerning the relation of Islam and democracy, Bardakoğlu said Islam is wrongly depicted as a religion that does not promote democracy but tries to endure it. “This is totally erroneous, Islamic understanding seeks to enhance human rights and democracy. There is no contradiction between Islam and democratic principles.”
Of course there isn't. That's why there are so many thriving democracies in the Islamic world.
Turkey sees joining the EU as a way of Islamicising Europe. And Europeans are too naive to notice.
As in all other things: actions speak louder than words. Observation of the actions of Muslims tell us more than their flowery, soothing, deceitful words. End of story.
Voltaire wrote:
"Turkey sees joining the EU as a way of Islamicising Europe. And Europeans are too naive to notice."
Not anymore. Muslim immigrant or immigrant-stock violence, crime, gang rapes, sexual harassment, honor killings, and repression of the freedom of speech in the name of political correctness now affect many Europeans in many communities. It is a national, indeed, a continental problem.
Perhaps what the West needs most right now is courageous leaders. Since 9/11, most people have educated themselves about Islam, but the PC dhimmi leaders do not seem to reflect their constituents' new attitudes toward and knowledge about Islam and Muslims. Did you see Bush exchanging kisses with that disgusting Saudi prince on the cheek and holding hands? Yuck.
For the sake of the British people, I hope Howard wins the election.
" “Nowadays, the European Union is specifically sensitive on issues of human rights, women's rights, violence, terror and discrimination. Our staff and clergy should pay more attention to how they choose to express their thoughts on these issues.” "
Very telling. To the Turk, these are merely trifling issues of western sentimentality, so let's just play along and pretend we care about them too.
"And Europeans are too naive to notice."
I'm encouraged that the times are-a-changin' on this one. But let's keep the pressure up.
"For the sake of the British people, I hope Howard wins the election."
As Robert might say, from the Constant-struggle-to-see-what-is-in-front-of-our-noses Department, running on an anti-Islam platform would probably sweep the Conservatives into power. I mean, that one policy is essentially what has earnt the BNP its popularity -- very few, I imagine, actually share their sentiment on current immigrants (as opposed to immigration _policy_) or racial purity.
Yes, they are misinformed, some think it's decent.
Here is where you can get information:
http://www.apostatesofislam.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=661
Internet Toolbox for Islam-critics
The European Union partly became acquainted with Islam through some Turkish citizens living abroad. This is not the correct way to grasp Islam,” Bardakoğlu was quoted by Anatolia as saying.
Uh-huh. Like the hard-core Marxists who continue to insist to this day that the millions of people starved, imprisoned in gulags, tortured, and murdered by the regimes of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot reflect only a misapplication of true Marxist principles.
If we would only allow Islam to be disseminated and implemented in its pure form, we would all see that it truly is a religion of peace.
OVER MY DEAD BODY.
Europeans are immersed in Islam. The only way they can be considered to be misinformed is if they have received the wrong information about islam from the Muslims sent by the Arab that have infiltrated...
“The European Union partly became acquainted with Islam through some Turkish citizens living abroad. This is not the correct way to grasp Islam”
Yes, the 'correct' way seems to be either at the point of a sword or to be brainwashed in a madrassa or elsewhere during early life. Certain ideologies are best imprinted over early development; one wonders whether such imprinting causes permanent psychological shifts.
Geoff
"pay more attention to how they choose to express their thoughts on these issues.” "
Perhaps summer camps, run by Tariq Ramadan and Scott Appleby, on "How to Talk About Islam" are the answer. Muslims could come from all over, and learn how to discuss various "difficult" (i.e., bloodthirsty) suras, especially Sura 9. They would be given handouts on how to deny the relevance of the Hadith. They would be told how to handle the problem of little Aisha, of the murder of Asma bint Marwan, of the Khaybar Oasis Jews, of the massacre of the prisoners of the Banu Qurayzah, of the killing of a hundred others. They would get special instruction in such topics as:
1) How to discuss the treatment of women in Islam -- relevant quotes from Shirin Ebadi, Fatimia Mernissia, Leila Khaled, Azizah al-Hibri, and that Abu-Lughod scion at Columbia. Why, think of all those Wahhabi clerics learning to beguile Western audiences with solemn invocatons of "averting the male gaze" and the "portable seclusion" of the abaya, and apt quotations from Julia Kristeva and Andrea Dworkin. Special attention is given to the "problem of Aisha."
2) How to discuss the use of the term "Unbeliever" in the Qur'an, using sleight of word to make it appear to refer only to atheists (yes, how true -- there were so many atheists roaming around in the Middle East in the years during with the Qur'an was written). Particular attention will be paid to the European and American need to construct "the Other" and then to demonize that "Other" which has led those benighted Americans and Europeans, when they finally encounter the Qur'an, to read it through distorting lenses of their own manufacture -- seeing the "Other" and attributing to Muslims the kind of malevolence of which they themselves are guilty. Yes, by all means -- keep appealing to the Western sense of guilt. It works every time.
And so much more.
Official sponsors of the "Presenting Islam" schools include the Oyalan Investments (which contributed to the Edward Said Chair now amply filled by Rashid Khalidi), Dawanet.com, Saudi-Aramco, The Bin Laden Construction Group, MESA Nostra, the World Council of Churches, The Friends of Dr. A. Q. Khan, and the Q8 chain of 4,000 gas stations all over Western Europe.
Scholarship aid is available.
Don't you be the imam or "Muslim intellectual" left tongue-tied before an audience of hostile Infidels. Classes are filling up fast. Write now for a descriptive brochure, and an application form.
"Religious Affairs Director Ali Bardakoğlu said yesterday the West and Europe are erroneously informed in their understanding of Islam and Turkey should strive hard to present the real core of Islam, reported the Anatolia news agency."
And if that doesn't do the trick, just tell them to talk to the Armenians -- they'll give you the 411.
"The European Union partly became acquainted with Islam through some Turkish citizens living abroad. This is not the correct way to grasp Islam"
It's not some, it's most Turkish (European) Muslims. I guess they must all be misunderstanders, huh?
"We are tasked with explaining the true essence of Islam as a religion."
Essentialism. Wasn't Edward Said against that? Isn't that a particularly Western tendecy, to describe the "essence" of something? Weren't people who did that labelled as racists and imperialists? Why is it okay for a Muslim to describe the "true essence" of Islam while a Western scholar cannot? Infidels don't need Muslims to tell them about Islam. They can judge for themselves. They can study Arabic, read the texts, read the history and come to their own conclusions. They do not need a taqqiya-fest of "progressive" Muslims to tell them that their conclusions are wrong because they don't understand the "essence" of Islam because they are not Muslim. The informed infidel is not the optimistic University student, they don't have to believe that ultimately "we can all get along if we try", and they are not stupid.
Igor
[[Essentialism. Wasn't Edward Said against that? Isn't that a particularly Western tendecy, to describe the "essence" of something? Weren't people who did that labelled as racists and imperialists? Why is it okay for a Muslim to describe the "true essence" of Islam while a Western scholar cannot?]]
Well spotted and well said sir, its about time we took Saidian rhetoric and turned it against them, all the Orientalism-Essentialism nonsense. He has provided a tool for the critique of Imperialism, we must now set it upon the greatest Imperialism of them all, the Imperium of the Arabs, the Imperialism of Islam.
When he says he wants Europeans to "understand" Islam what he really means is that he wants them to be indoctinated in it.
Convert them:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GD19Aa01.html
“The European Union partly became acquainted with Islam through some Turkish citizens living abroad. This is not the correct way to grasp Islam” --- from the article above
No, European Infidels have also begun to acquaint themselves with Islam through some Moroccan citiznes living abroad, and some Algerian citizens living abroad, and some Libyan citizens living abroad, and some Egyptian citizens living abroad, and some Syrian citizens living abroad, and some Pakistani citizens living abroad, and some Bangladeshi citizens living abroad, and some Malaysian citizens living abroad, and some Indonesian citizens living abroad. And they have also observed what kind of Infidels seem drawn to Islam, and convert to it. And they have seen their local police forces raiding mosques and finding false papers and weapons. They have read of trials, to be conducted, or underway, or completed, of Muslims accused of plotting terrorist acts. They have read what is said in khutbas in Saudi Arabia, what is offered up on Muslim websites, especially those scenes of decapitations of Infidels, with the martial music playing and the call of Jihad.
They have even read about Turkey's retreat from Kemalism. They have taken note of what is now published in the Turkish press, what continues to be denied about the Armenian massacres, what books are on the Turkish best-seller list, and how Turkish political figures and journalists now speak of the country (the United States) that for a half-century has proteted, supported, financed, and coddled it in every possible way. Conclusions are being drawn. Policies are being formulated. Perhaps five years ago, or even two years ago, Turkey might have had a chance to be admitted to the E.U.
It will never happen -- not now. And the only people to blame are those Turks and Arabs and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and Indonesians with whom the Europeans have "become acquainted," and the Saudi and other financiers of mosques and madrasas, whose treatment of non-Muslims within their own countries is no longer to be passed over unremarked. And finally, there are all those Muslim websites, to which anyone can go, and which are helpfully in a variety of languages -- and that help enlighten Infidels as to the nature of Islam, but not in the way that Muslims would apparently wish.
I suggest as caption under every further image of those slaughtered at the hands of jihadists:
"Misunderstanding of Islam?"
Until it sinks in to people barely paying attention:
The victims are being blaming for dying.
If they had only "understood Islam", somehow they would not have ended up dead.
And a banner headline above it all:
"Misunderstanding Islam Can Be Fatal"
The most important link between Nazism and Islam is the hatred of Israel. The redemption of Aryan man from the epidemic of Judaism was held to depend on the "final solution" and so is the destruction of Israel put forth as a condition for the salvation of Islam and the unity of the Arab nation. While, in the West, the Holocaust is seen (for the time being) as the deepest moral crisis in the history of Western civilization, and the deniers of the Holocaust are (for the time being) marginal figures, in the Arab world the situation is totally different. The very expression "Holocaust" refers to the "Holocaust of the Arabs in Palestine and the Arab world" brought about by Israel. For Arabs, this Holocaust is the failure of the Arabs to destroy the Jews three years after the Holocaust. While this may sound macabre to Western ears, it goes to the heart of Arab morality and anti-Semitism.
http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/96JAN/jan7.htm
Human Rights Commission of Malaysia commissioner Ramon Navaratnam on why only one of the 10 principles of Islam Hadhari directly addressed the rights of non-Muslims;
V Harcharan Singh, chairman of the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism, whether the “justice” preached in Islam Hadhari is being applied to all religions, as public funds spent to give explanations about religion should not be limited to only one religion but should be available to all religions.
Malaysia and Singapore chief Buddhist prelate K Sri Dhammananda Nayake whether non-Muslims would be invited to talk to Muslims about their various religions in the Ikim seminars; and
Pure Life Society president Mother A Mangalam on the meaning of justice in Islam Hadhari.
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/35762
Non-Malays living in the vicinity of mosques in Kuala Lumpur hear this call to arms against the non-Muslims through high-pitches megaphones often enough to be dismissed as untrue. I suspect Dr Yusof is annoyed a Muslim has spilled the beans; if a non-Muslim had done so, he could be ignored. Perhaps Dr Yusof should also tell us if Christmas carols mentioning Jesus should be banned at a Christmas party organised by the government. Was there a ban? Of course there was.
AND
Dato' Seri Najib kicked the ball first to insist to insist none should openly debate if Muslims could slander the followers of other religions
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Najib is the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia