According to this apparently "moderate" Muslim, the real problem with Islamic extremism is not that jihadis wage war against infidels, subjugating dhimmis, and, in general terrorizing people all around the world, but that Muslims are also sometimes killed. "Real issue is extremists killing fellow Muslims," by Mahmood Eladi, for Canada.com, July 24:
In this debate about crisis in Islam, it is forgotten that the real issue may be the slaughter of fellow Muslims by extremist Islamists and the unwillingness of most Muslims to speak out.To be sure: Muslims should speak out -- but not against the fact that "fellow Muslims" are being slaughtered, but that fellow human beings, irrespective of religion, are being slaughtered.
As Pervez Hoodbhoy, at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, recently wrote in Pakistani daily Dawn: "The recent killing of eleven Pakistani soldiers at Gora Prai (in tribal areas) by American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan unleashed an amazing storm. Prime Minister Gilani declared: 'We will take a stand for sovereignty, integrity and self-respect.' But had the killers been the Taliban, this would have been a non-event. ... Compare the response to Gora Prai with near silence about recent kidnapping and slaughter by Baitullah Mehsud's (Taliban leader) fighters of 28 men near Tank, some of whom were shot and others had their throats cut. These murders were largely ignored or, when noted, simply shrugged off."
Yes, this letter to the editor by Mahmood Elahi deplores only the fact that groups of Muslims attempting to seize power, and to put into strict practice the tenets of Islam, as codified in the Shari'a, "in the name of Islam" kill fellow Muslims. And that, Mahmood Elahi finds, is truly deplorable.
We Infidels are appalled to realize that one of two things explains Mr. Mahmood Elahi's moral myopia.
The first explanation is that he simply does not, as a Muslim, recognize that the chief feature of Islam is the hostility it inculcates toward Infidels, in its texts, its tenets, in the attitudes that naturally arise within those who grow up inside Islam, in societies suffused with Islam, that are part of the atmospherics of such societies and so, even he, Mr. Mahmood Elahi, living in Canada, views everything through the prism of Islam and criticizes the most bestial Muslim terrorists only for the fact that sometimes their victims are Muslims.
But what if Mr. Elahi does not really think that way? What if, in fact, Mr. Mahmood Elahi does in fact realize, in the depths of his soul, that there is something terribly wrong with Islam and the division it teaches between Believer and Infidel, and the state of permanent war (though not always of open warfare) that it insists must exist between those Believers and those Infidels? Even if Mr. Mahmood Elahi silently recognizes that fact, he apparently chose, in his letter to the editor of The Ottawa Citizen, to offer his own attack on Muslim terrorists in the only way, he must have calculated, would have any appeal, have any resonance, for his fellow Muslims who happen to live in Canada. And that, too, tells us a lot about Muslim attitudes.
Either of those two possible explanations says a great deal about Islam -- none of it, for Infidels, at all pleasant.
This doofus seems to not realize one thing-if people like him would straighten out these jiahdists there wouldn't be any chance for fellow Koranists to die accidently because they wouldn't be tormenting infidels. But of course such a realization is about as likely as the Brooklyn Bridge growing leaves. I suppose that's not all bad-the infidels can benefit from the collateral damage caused by inept and/or overzealous jihadists by the inadvertant thinning of their herd a little.
Au contraire, that's the one silver lining in the cloud of jihadi terror - the way an own goal can be in a soccer match
This recalls for me the time when Jordanians were outraged about the murders of Muslims by Muslims a few years ago, and who naturally, Naturally don't have a problem with the murder of non-Muslims by Muslims. This casual coldblooded attitude towards non-Muslims is shared by far more Muslims than we'd like to believe.
Reminds me of the saying that moderate muslims are muslims that won't kill you but will stand by and watch a radical muslim cut your throat. I suspect this is true of most.
Always remember that the Korans that all muslims read all tell them that unbelievers are the lowest of creatures and deservingly hell-bound anyway (98:6) and that the best that should happen to any of them is that they pay protection money under conquest and humiliation.
Some reasonable arguments, but I do accept his point - you can't deny that the people that have shed the most blood as a result of global Jihad are Muslims themselves. To me it just brings home all of the double standards and mendacity perpetrated by these people.
Let's look at just how the West is allegedly persecuting Muslims:
Iraq:
US and UK forces would have been out of there 5 years ago with smiles on their faces if it weren't for the "insurgents" that insist on blowing up market places and destroying reconstruction projects, and killing thousands of fellow Muslims in the process. Yet as far as the Jihadis are concerned we're the bad guys... how?
Afghanistan:
Again our clearly stated aim there was to set up a regional independent and legitimate government (with UN mandate) then get the hell out of dodge.
Albania:
Where was the Brotherhood of Islam when this was going on? Not a peep, whilst thousands of Muslims were systematically killed in full view of the world's media. Who stepped in to help them? That's right, the West.
Israel:
Muslims living in Israel enjoy a far higher standard of living and much more personal freedom than in any of the surrounding states (unless you happen to be a petrol-fed fat cat). The rest of them could too if they'd just act like grown ups.
History is being rewritten as we speak, and we (the West) are slowly and surely being demonized. Moderate Islam will be a thing of the past unless the powers that be recognise the problem and come up with some answers to it.
Sad, sad, sad.