During the Cold War Russian dissidents would say to visiting foreigners:
"Yes, the Soviet Union is indeed vast. You can go 3,000 miles up and down, and 6,000 miles across. But what happens when you come to the end of those 3,000 miles down? Or those 6,000 miles across? You still can't get out. You still are stuck."
That is Islam. You can't get out. You are not allowed the mental freedom to leave. If Islam did not promote the habit of mental submission, severe limits on artistic expression, hatred of, and war-making upon Infidels, the deliberate infliction of a state of permanent humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity on Infidels, if it did none of those awful things, but only -- only -- prevented those born into Islam from leaving Islam, that alone would entitle us to see it as a totalitarian and cruel belief-system, and to regard it with permanent wariness and worry.
Some have claimed that this prohibition on leaving has been set aside. Muslim convert Stephen Schwartz, for example, once wrote: “The Ottoman caliphate abolished death sentences for apostasy from Islam more than two centuries ago, but Western media still widely report that all Muslims believe the penalty for apostasy must be death."
This is, however, flatly untrue. In fact, even the so-called Tanzimat Reforms of 1839, which were designed to alleviate the condition of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, were not put in to effect whenever and wherever local officials could get away with dragging their feet. After all, it was only the superior power of the Western world that made the Ottoman rulers even go through the charade of easing up on non-Muslims -- the same kind of charade that can be seen today all over.
Ultimately, there were some changes in the treatment of apostasy, but only limited ones, in a few places. And today it is not only in Saudi Arabia and Sudan and Iran where one can find such a punishment still on the books. Think of the outcry over Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan, and the Qambar case in the 1990s in (choose your adjectives: tiny, pro-Western, grateful-for-its-rescue-by-America) Kuwait.
Schwartz, being a "convert to Islam" (after a bout of Trotsky, and the Summer of Love, and so on), has decided to present himself to the world as an "expert on Islam." That’s a nice title if you can get it, and you can get it if you simply write the sign yourself, and then paste it on your forehead. He can now spout off about Islam and enjoy his self-assigned role as Slayer of Wahhabi Idols.
And don't overlook the money, radix malorum. For the role of "moderate Muslim" is now a virtual ticket to government and foundation grant money, the seed money, the feed money, the keeping-up-appearances money that no one would ever think of throwing the way of the true heroes, those ex-Muslims, the articulate defectors from Islam, such as Ibn Warraq and Ali Sina, who could make scholarly mincemeat of the high-profile converts any time they bothered to notice them. But they have more important things to do.
Ibrahim Hooper, Yvonne Ridley, Adam Gadahn, John Walker Lindh et al, the Western converts to Islam, represent various types of mental disarray. In contrast, the apostates from Islam (not to be confused with the Apostles of Cambridge) represent the sanest, most humorful, interesting people who were born into Islam and mentally fought their way -- or in the Western world, if their parents had exhibited less-than-fervent belief, possibly skirmished their way -- out of the Total Regulation of Life, the Complete Explanation of the Universe, the entire cramped existence. They had the courage to no longer accept the belief-system that was inflicted upon them and their ancestors, those Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Buddhists, who at some point in that distant past were forced, or in order to no longer have to endure the unendurable, decided to convert to Islam, which has proven itself to be possibly the most powerful retrograde force, as Churchill once described it, in the history of humanity -– one that has stifled so much human potential and brought so much unnecessary woe.
Perhaps they are like those Cambridge Apostles after all.
a few words to the wise...do not convert to Islam...
Kind of like the "Eagles" singing in "Hotel California":
"...You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!..."
The five times a day prayer and muezzin wailing (Pavlovian stimulus) are very smart schemes for forcing the rebellious to brainwash themselves
Islam is a "soul cage". Re Sting
Witch-king of Angmar-
...and something about "stabbing it with their steely knives."
Were there a truer Satanic cult...
-XRDC
And, speaking of the "the Western converts to Islam [who] represent various types of mental disarray..."
The person who comes to my mind is Ingrid Mattson, the Catholic convert to Islam (also Canadian). She spent ten years "studying" for a "PhD" in Islamic "studies" at the University of Chicago -- she "studied" for 10 years a single line from the Koran, translated as: "A believing slave is better than a non-believing free man."
I guess that about sums up (for me, anyway) the mark of an aberrant mentality...
(On a slightly different topic, Schwartz is now claiming that Islam in Canada is somehow "different" -- it's the "gentler, more pacifist variety, the one in which prime ministers are only threatened with beheadings, as opposed to those Muslims who advocate torture first, suggest conversion, if not, then beheading" -- oh please, such a fatuous notion as "moderate". Such illusions are grasped at by those who are so desperate to find something "nice" to say about Islam and assuage the fears of the Infidels.)
Some people find a straitjacket cozy.
Like a permanent hug.
Emphasis on permanent.
UMichigan Daily dhimmi think;
...We must learn to refer to a terrorist as a terrorist and nothing more. As President Bush repeatedly preaches, Islam is a religion of peace. We must cease equating terrorists with members of a peaceful religion, unless we truly want to cause a tenth crusade.
Comments solicited here.
"As President Bush repeatedly preaches, Islam is a religion of peace."
-- from a student newspaper at the University of Michigan
Yes, George Bush. The man who has been right about everything. Now quoted in defense of the proposition that "Islam is a religion of peace." Why? Because CAIR says so. Because Al-Qaradawi says so. Because Sheik Bin Baz used to say so. Because Tariq Ramadan says so. Because Karen Armstrong says so. Because John Esposito says so. Because two dozen former ambassadors to Arab countries, on the take both directly and indirectly, would have us say so. Because Jimmy Carter thinks so -- devoutly, piously, with good wishes for the whole wide world except, perhaps, for those "Zionists" and their supportrs.
Everyone thinks so. And President Bush thinks so. Doesn't that take care of it?
Retrograde Islam battles to keep the world in Pharasaic Prison Mode:
Colossians 2
16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
20Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21"Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
"Western convert to islam" is a diagnosis. Another word for, or altered state of a maniac criminal, getting an in-advance pardon for whatever they may desire to do to the "others" (in that case the infidels). Allowed to do anything by a society which is deadlocked on the illusion that all religions are equal.
The problem is not that we, as a society, are dangerously reckless. It is how much longer we will act as if the proclaimed illusions are the truth. A handfull of politicians and journalists fill good about themselves, maintaining the PC hydra, penetrating every aspect of our lives and bringing upon the destruction of our civilization. Will we ever get the balls to stop them?
Another illusion, is that we (whoever we might be) can use islam to fight them (whoever they might be). This is the other way to the end of both "us" and "them". islam is not a gun, nor bomb, not even nuke. It is the Ebola that we swallow hoping to infect the other, a wolf in the barn, a toxic gas with no antidote. There is no safe handling of islam. Isolation is the only defence.
There will be a dramatic, inevitable change in our society. Our only choice is between the end of political correct correctness and sharia.
Let the college senior (and college newspaper editorial board member)explain it all:
"We must learn to refer to a terrorist as a terrorist and nothing more. As President Bush repeatedly preaches, Islam is a religion of peace. We must cease equating terrorists with members of a peaceful religion, unless we truly want to cause a tenth crusade."
Heavens to mergatroid, no tenth crusade! Nine was enough!!!!!
Hmm. Such anti-Islamic remarks are typical of this site.
Which must be why I keep coming here for my daily fix of healthy, unbiased criticism of what most people still do not recognize for what it is: an evil cult akin to Nazism or even, in extreme Taliban form, to the Khmer Rouge.
When are the rest of us going to wake up and see the reality?
Just a little suggestion. For the education of those of us who wish to learn more from the direct experience of ex-Muslims, how about some book reviews, maybe some comparative analysis by anyone who cares to contribute, of the various works by Ibn Warraq, Nonie Darwish etc.
Personal recommendations should help others choose which to buy and the more sales the better.
Not to detract from the equally valuable and fine work of Mr Spencer (hastily added). In fact it was the politically incorrect guide to Islam that first answered those nagging questions and doubts I once had about Islam, like is it just me that's intolerant for not wanting yet more Muslim immigrants in our cities? (no) are they only mad at us because we hate them? (no) just how many intolerant verses are there versus benign verses, (plenty) and which ones really count; am I looking at the problem through the wrong end of the telescope or not? Having answered some of those questions for me, Mr Spencer has left me with a continuing need to know more about this alarming threat to our world.
On the human cost of Islam for anyone who still hasn't read it,I can recommend 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, as a very powerful and moving biography. It gripped harder than any fictional thriller and threw a lot of light on life and how it is lived in various parts of East Africa, Saudi Arabia, and then as a refugee in Holland. This book has been unjustly criticised by some Westerners who cannot know much about her experience, but they should be ignored. It is honest and indispensible.
Various claims are being made about the number of Muslims worldwide. Would these numbers drop if the there was no death sentence for conversion? Is it possible that large numbers of Muslims are muslims in name only? Is there any other religion that kills exmembers?
The continuing dialectic that is Western Civilization has long concluded that individuals have a "freedom of conscience" and that forcing someone to believe in something they do not is a violation of their human rights.
The primary differnce between a free society and a slave society is the insistence on personal rights of the individual versus the "right" of tyrants to suspend them. "Is peace so sweet or life so dear as to be traded for chains and slavery? I know not what course others may take, but as for me - Give me liberty or death!"
Godfather; "An offer you cannot refuse."
I was just thinking last night that, for many people, leaving Islam must be like leaving a cult.
There is the fear of punishment, both here and in the hereafter. Since Islam has rules for everything, it could be frightening to have to make your own decisions about everything and to stop following such rigid schedules and restrictions. There is also the likelihood of being shunned by friends, family and community.
I think that many people who leave Islam would rely heavily on support groups like the ones that were formed after Jonestown, etc.
As Hugh Fitzgerald wrote, it is a mental fight. I hope that more and more Muslims will fight to use their ability to reason so they can weigh the facts and analyze the difference between what Islam says and what Islam does.
That's the bottom line for me in regards to any religion, philosophy or political system: not their words but their actions.
I had a dream about 10 years ago, I found this cottage in the woods and three other men appeared. One was wearing a red cross on his ancient armor front, and another like a knight and the other had crusades army helmet, spear! I offered them Cappacino. They loved the whip cream! We stood and talk why we cross paths?
When I woke'-I never quite understood that dream. Now I have recurrences of it.
Wasn't it ottoman who showed us Sept 11- this is not true! Ottoman- you WILL CONFORM!
POEM TIME- I wrote this in 1991
DO YOU REMEMBER THE THEN AND NOW
The trees sing
the birds chirp
the sky rumbles the wind blows so
the river runs
I do have a song
that belongs in a world that has
changed so quickly
what changed you
to conform
to watch a battle
in which way,- should you conform
to watch natures beauty drifting away
replaced by human toxi waste
no more songs in the trees or sky
or birds communicating near by
you will be left wondering
WHY
Why me in this rotten world of stone
Nothing to to do to change it Now
The end is near and the End is Now... . . . . .
(inspired by God)
Why would those who despise Bush and say he's the terrorist NOW conveniently quote him as a source?
Hmmm, I wonder....
..Nonie Drawish..5/30 Seattle P.I.
U.S. women can help Arab feminists
By NONIE DARWISH
GUEST COLUMNIST
..excerpt..;
"...American women TV reporters have taken to wearing head covers in moderate Arab countries that do not enforce Islamic attire. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wore a scarf in secular, Baathist Syria. By complying with the practices that radical Muslims force on women even in secular Muslim countries, those American women unknowingly undermine the cause of Arab feminists and can even be seen as lending tacit support to radicals. They need to understand better the culture in which they are operating..."
\..WoW..maybe there is hope for Robert and Hugh in the MSM if a lib rag like the P.I. prints Nonie Darwish..
..more..
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/317680_arabfems30.html
Hugh, I couln not have said it better myself.
That dream I had of the three crusaders, I remember a piece more. They asked me to help them save the world!
Hugh mentioned the Qambar case (of apostasy) in Kuwait. Interestingly, Kuwait is not mentioned, in any of the articles I've read, as one of the countries that gives the death penalty for apostasy. Nevertheless, in reality, they do prosecute for the death penalty in specific cases of apostasy, as the Qambar case proved. Thus once again we must distinguish between Islamic policy as it is actually implemented, and what Muslims and the army of Islamic apologists who dominate the subject say about those policies.
Here's some background:
Qambar's apostasy
http://www.smi.uib.no/pao/longva.html
[excerpt]
Well, you must be insane if you want to leave Islam..........
Well, you must be insane if you want to leave Islam..........