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Sarwat Husain of the San Antonio chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) insists that "Islam is compatible with tolerance, democracy, personal rights and equality before the law." Characteristically for CAIR, she intolerantly tars courageous and decent men such as Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson as bigots — but she never acknowledges that numerous Muslim voices in Iraq and around the world are loudly saying that Islam is not compatible with tolerance and democracy. Nor, of course, does she have anything to say about the numerous ways that traditional Islamic law denies personal rights and equality before the law to non-Muslims and women.
It would be refreshing for a Muslim commentator to deal with genuine questions about Islam's compatibility with Western notions of human rights head-on instead of denying that they exist and charging those who raise them with bigotry. After all, it was a Muslim, the Iranian Sufi Sheikh Tabandeh, who wrote a book-length critique of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Islamic grounds. I suppose he was a bigot also? This from MySa, with thanks to Nicolei:
As the Hajj season draws millions of Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia, it is instructive to look in that direction and see what has come from there.Islam influenced the Enlightenment in Europe, just as the Protestant Reformation did. Science, math, international finance, even the English language itself have been shaped by the world of Islam.
The region also yielded Abraham, the patriarch of Islam and two other monotheistic faiths, Christianity and Judaism.
With all of this in common, there can be no clash of civilizations, but you couldn't tell that from listening to some in the American media, including those who claim to be scholars.
Nor could you tell it listening to innumerable radical imams around the world. It is they who are making this into an explicit clash of civilizations, between Islamic Sharia and Western secular republicanism.
As James I. Smith, author of "Islam in America" says, "The growth of Islam during the early centuries of its existence was a difficult phenomenon for Western Christianity to comprehend, and misunderstanding, prejudice, fear and in some cases hatred have characterized much of the history of encounters between the two faiths."One can understand this misunderstanding, prejudice, fear and hatred among uneducated groups of the West. But what about the educated?
Extremists such as Middle East commentator and author Daniel Pipes, terrorism expert Steve Emerson and preachers Pat Robinson and Jerry Vines should know better. As leaders and scholars in their own respective fields, instead of promoting hatred and misunderstanding, it is their obligation to teach their audiences the truth.
Shame on Ms. Husain for promoting hatred and misunderstanding instead of thoughtfully engaging what Pipes and Emerson (as well as Robertson and Vines) have really said.
The truth is that Islam is compatible with tolerance, democracy, personal rights and equality before the law.
When I look at the 1400-year history of the institutionalized oppression of the dhimmis under Islamic law, I have some trouble with this. I have even more trouble when I see that dhimmitude is a live concept that radical Muslims will happily institute wherever and whenever they can. What is Ms. Husain doing about that?
It is their responsibility to say that there is no clash among Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Until they do, it is up to their fellow citizens to stand against the prejudice, hatred and intolerance these extremists promote.
When moderate Americans remain silent, the extremists carry on.
Indeed. That's why I started Jihad Watch.
Moderate Americans must ask themselves: How can the second-largest religion, followed by one fifth of the population of the world, be terroristic, uncivilized, ignorant and a threat to the West and world peace?Islam's 1.3 billion people live in all corners of the world, so there must be something inherently profound for it to reach that far and last more than 1,400 years.
The very meaning of Islam is peace and submission to God.
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy understood this call to moderate America. In December 1999, he said, "I hope that in the next century we will come to terms with our abysmal ignorance of the Muslim world.
"Muslims aren't a bunch of wackos and nuts. They are decent, brilliant, talented people with a great civilization and traditions of their own, including legal traditions.
"America knows nothing about them. There are people in that part of the world with whom we are simply out of touch. That is a great challenge for the next century."
That next century is here. Let each one of us get actively engaged in learning about and cherishing the best in each other.
I'm ready when you are, Ms. Husain. But let us have an honest exchange, free of personal smears and distortions of Islamic theology, history, and present-day radicalism.
Posted by Robert at January 26, 2004 12:30 PM
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Mr. Spencer, please tell me you sent this wonderful dissection to mySa as an editorial. You nailed it perfectly.
Posted by: Doug at January 26, 2004 5:02 PMCAIR is a vile organization - a front for Islamic terrosists!
CAIR attacks ANYONE who dares tell the truth about Islam - the truth about Islam is then called 'hate speech', the truth sayers "extremists" and "islamaphobs" or better yet in the USA - play the race card!
I am so tired of hearing about "oh, but there is no compulsion in religion - we respect people of the book" - so why are the Copts in Egypt being percecuted, why are those of other faiths being slaughtered throughout the world by those of peace loving Islam! look at Thailand, the Sudan, Egypt, Malaysia, etc.
CAIR needs to be exposed to the US public for what it is - a hate-filled organization against the freedoms those in the USA enjoy - for NOW! If CAIR had its way, those freedoms would be gone ASAP and the USA would be an Islamic theocracy!
I have repeatedly told those around me - private and business life - that if they do not stand up that their grandchildren will all be called Mohammed and Latifa with her being in hijab!
jihan
Posted by: jihan at January 26, 2004 5:42 PMWhen Muslims stop killing non-Muslims because they are not Muslim; when imams stop parroting bilge like women driving open the doors to evil; when a church is erected in Saudi Arabia; when predominantly Muslim countries stop describing themselves as Islamic; when women have control over their lives; when honor killing is no longer an aspect of Muslim culture, and so on, then I might possibly possibly believe that Islam is tolerant, yadda yadda. Until then, Ms Husain ought to stick a sock in it and stop peddling old and discredited lies.
Posted by: hari at January 26, 2004 5:56 PMThis was a good article, but I need to clarify something. Islam contributed NOTHING to civilization; all the scientific advances, etc., were the product of Jews and Christians that lived in the Middle East, as they were the real intelligent force. I wish this myth that the Muslims contributed to science, philosophy and technology would be tossed into an ash-can where it belongs - the great cultural achievements of the Middle East are in the hands of Jews and Christians, and we owe the honor to them, not to a bunch of fanatical camel jockeys out of the Arabian desert devoted to an illiterate hillbilly named Mohammed.
Posted by: DAvid at January 26, 2004 8:29 PMSaudi intellectuals (an oxymoron, perhaps) absolutely hate Huntington's book _A Clash of Civilizations_. They are seemingly
blind to the fact that the Muslim cizilization - as Huntington defined it - IS in conflict with practically everyone.
That just cannot be because "Islam is a just and tolerant and peaceful religion."
jay
Posted by: Jay Stevens at January 27, 2004 12:45 AMThe tragic and sad thing about this article is that the young lady no doubt really means it.......I am sure she is deeply sincere about this whitewashed version of Islam and its history!
It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so huge..........at every turn in her article, she spouts propaganda that has more holes in it then a block of swiss cheese!
This woman is one of 2 things.......she is either incredibly ignorant......or she is a liar.....I'll give her the credit and assume the former!
Thanks
Posted by: D.Hill at January 27, 2004 4:46 AMIn regard to the posting that said the Jews and Christians in the middle east were responsible for advancement of Islamic Civilization in the middle ages, I acknowledge his note about the Jews, but for Christians I ask:
Could you please name a single Middle Eastern Christian during those centuries (700-1300) who contributed to the science or progress?
How about Scientist Avicena, Chemist Razi, Physicist Al-Hassan, Mathematicians Kashani, Khayyam, Kharazmi and Birooni, Sociologist Ibn Kheldun, Poets Rumi, Sadi, Hafiz, Firdowsi and countless others? Which one of them was Christian?
If Christians were so instrumental in the progress of the muslim world, how come the Christian Europe itself was in miserable dark age?
Facts do matter, you know.
Posted by: Iranian at January 27, 2004 11:23 AMIranian, the Christians of the East -- the ones who were conqured by Islam -- were different from the Christians of the West. They were part of the Byzantine Empire, itself descended from the Roman Empire, which had very sophisticated learning.
Byzantines built advanced hospitals (that included women doctors!); had illustrated medical textbooks; built the Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in Christendom; which many mosque builders later copied from BTW. All of this during the time that Islam was attacking their lands constantly.
Posted by: Susan at January 27, 2004 12:39 PM"mySA" or "mysanantonio.com" is the web site of the San Antonio Express-News, the major newspaper of San Antonio, Texas.
Posted by: Andrew Hagen at January 27, 2004 1:43 PMRopMA!
Posted by: Jeremy Dan Freedman at January 28, 2004 1:08 AMIslam is like egypt or greece, a really small backwards culture living in the ruins of a great ancient cvilization. Except for oil, rugs, figs: what does the Arab/Islamic civiization produce in the way of artifacts, technology or culture that we want or need?
Posted by: jakemeister at January 28, 2004 1:13 AM
Susan,
Iran was never Christian, and never part of the Bizantine empire. Check your history books again.
Before Arab invasion, Iranians were predominantly Zoroastrian for hundreds of years. The kingdom of Iran (Called Persia at the time) was a junior rival to Roman empire. Beside a short occupation by Alexander the great in 220 B.C., Persia was never under foreign rule until Arab invasion.
The success of Muslim Persians in science and culture cannot be attributed to Christianity, that never had a foot in Iran.
Posted by: Iranian at January 29, 2004 10:42 AM
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