Robert Spencer remarked here that “misunderstanders of Islam can even be imams..."
That is true. Even imams can get the idea, forbidden for non-Muslims to hold, that Islam counsels warfare. Even ayatollahs and sheiks al-azhar can be misunderstanders of Islam. Yes, so many Muslims all over the world, from southern Thailand to southern Sudan to southern France to southern Michigan, can be misunderstanders of Islam. And the madrasas and seminaries are apparently having great difficulty clearing those little misunderstandings up.
Deeply learned theologian of Shi'a Islam he may have been, but even the Ayatollah Khomeini, judging by the quotation below, was a Misunderstander of Islam:
"Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. . . . But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. . . . Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]…. Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for the Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Qur'anic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all this mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim."
But Khomeini was a misunderstander. “Former Islamist” Ed Husain, in a recent debate with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “argued that he escaped the hold militants had on him as a young man by exploring his Muslim faith more deeply and finding different interpretations. He argued the key to de-radicalizing people lay in the religion itself.”
Ed Husain's "different interpretations" business may work for him -- but work for him to believe in what? Apparently, that "terrorism" is a bad idea. But not that Islam is a bad idea, tout court, or that, more importantly, that the idea of Jihad, a Jihad perhaps conducted by non-violent means, to spread Islam until it everywhere dominates, and Muslims rule everywhere, still would give us the bleak result we wish to avoid. For Islam is against most forms of artistic expression -- statuary, paintings of living things, music. It is against the free and skeptical inquiry upon which the enterprise of science depends. It is a collectivist faith, and refuses to recognize the rights of individuals -- compare the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with its "Islamic" version, the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights. It justifies, and codifies, the mistreatment of Muslim women and of all non-Muslims under Muslim rule.
The Ed Husains of this world are not as great an advance as their sponsors and promoters appear to think. For they encourage non-Muslims to believe that they can continue to behave as if it is not core teachings of Islam that are the problem, but merely this or that "interpretation" of Islam, and that Ed Husain, who can hardly be expected to have much impact, or to prevail against the good doctors of Al-Azhar and Qom, hardly be expected to win over a billion people who know, and are constantly re-taught, what is in Qur'an, Hadith, and Sira.
A false hope, and the wrong hope, and therefore -- a dangerous hope.
Stick with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ibn Warraq, Wafa Sultan. Accept no substitutes, no matter how nice they are or may seem to be. Perhaps the Muslims who seek an answer in jettisoning the Sunnah (e.g., Mustafa Akyol) or finding a benign interpretation of the Islamic texts are not attempting to fool Infidels, but merely, out of desperate confusion and embarrassment over Islam, are fooling themselves. Perhaps they are unable to bring themselves, out of filial piety, to see Islam as it is and has been. That is their problem, and they will have to deal with it. It should not be ours.
One could even go so far as to say that throughout the whole of islamic history imams have -always- been the greatest misunderstanders of islam, and never more so than when they fulfilled their time-honoured role as callers to internal spiritual struggle from the mithrab (the place of war, no doubt an internal one, or a war on want or some such)in the mosque.
During the centuries of Muslim depredations in India, Hindus learnt to stay indoors on Fridays, because so many Muslims used to pour out of the mosques and internally struggle in the streets. Mind you, they still do.
It is also noteworthy that across the world and throughout history they all seem to misunderstand islam In The Same Way.
Yes, Silvester--perhaps Islam is too important to be left to the clerics.
You can show most sane Westerners the above Ayatollah Khomeini quote and they'll just think or exclaim that he was a loon and totally miss the truth before their eyes. I know I would have a year ago, but that was before I knew what was in the Quran. Education is the answer.
Great post Hugh.
How much taquyya bullcrap and misleader and apologetic nonsense do we have to wade through before the public gets it.
The seed of evil is in the koran, and until it is excised or destroyed or changed we are at great risk.
I think they already misunderstand it by the age of Five. Intentionally. By the time anyone else is old enough to write about it, it's way way to late to do anything to change it.
You know, I'm starting to think Mohammed wasn't as stupid as I once believed. True, he was illiterate, which isn't the same as being stupid. Never learned to read or write, which didn't make him too bright, on the other hand.
Mohammed set Islam up pretty well, when you think about it. Oh, as practiced by our enemies, it's lunacy. Yet, it's lunacy no one can fix.
A peaceful Muslim can't add or subtract anything from the Qur'an because Mohammed's scribes said Mohammed said Gabriel said Allah said so. So much for revision, and editing out the bloodthirst frome the Qur'an.
Mohammed's scribes said Mohammed said Gabriel said Allah said it's a perfect book. It's not the same for Christians.
I know that my Bible is an anthology of texts chosen by the Nicean Council, a gazillion years ago. Some texts "made the cut" while others didn't. Naturally, some of the truths of the New Testament, especially, may have been lost, because each man there had an agenda.
The Qur'an, as it comes down to everyone today, is the direct word of Allah, via Gabriel, via Mohammed, via Mohammed's scribes.
The whole of it makes me think of an old fashioned Thermos bottle, with a glass lining. It's like somebody super-glued the lid on, then dropped it from a second story window. The inside is shattered, but no one can get the lid off, to put in a new liner.
Well, I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Those same, self-appointed experts who say that westerners misunderstand Islam because they don't read Arabic, and specifically, the Arabic of the Koran, and therefore can't understand all the nuancy goodness that lies therein, those same apologists who say that the mujahedin, many of whom also happen speak flawless Arabic, who've internalized "ihr kampf" and take lots of pictures of themselves, all dandified up in green banners, waving their holy book, you know, those holy men who terrorize the infidels and Jews, who slaughter and behead and suchlike....why....they are also misunderstanders of Islam!
I hope that clears everything up for Glenn Beck, who's no expert on Islam....but he IS a thinker. Or so he says.
I think this is partly due to a liberal sense of enthocentrism. This behavior is more easily excused in non western civilization by the media because of some warped sense of guilt liberals have for being successful. It's almost like you aren't allowed to EXPECT civilized behavior from these people, like they are incapable of it due to centuries of western "oppression." I for one am sick of making excuses for these freaks.