I am no fan of Maajid Nawaz. He rejects jihad terror but arouses mistrust with his use of the propaganda smear term “Islamophobia” as if it were a serious and genuine phenomenon. In reality, Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a former member of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), explains that “this loathsome term is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.” Beating down critics of what? Of jihad terror and Islamic supremacism, so that the jihad can advance unopposed and unimpeded. Any sincere, thoughtful and informed opponent of jihad terror and Islamic supremacism can see how this term is used to demonize and rule out of acceptable bounds anyone and everyone who says the slightest negative word about jihad or Sharia, and thus Nawaz’s gratuitous and unprovoked attack on Pamela Geller and me as “Islamophobes” at his victory conference announcing the destruction of the English Defence League (which he crowed that he had “decapitated”) aroused suspicion about where he really stands, and whether he really opposes the jihad agenda that the charge of “Islamophobia” has done so much to advance.
Moreover, like so many Islamic jihadists and supremacists with whom I have engaged, he is arrogant, supercilious, abusive, insulting, and contemptuous on a personal level, while refusing to engage any of his opponent’s arguments on an intellectual level. And so destructive is his practice of denouncing and defaming people who would have been his allies in order to score points with those who would never have stood with him in the first place that I included him in a recent rogue’s gallery of people who are responsible for Britain’s rapidly approaching catastrophe, along with other professed foes of jihad terror who are more interested in smearing real foes of jihad terror than in actually opposing jihad terror.
All that said, however, Maajid Nawaz in this Facebook post (thanks to PK) calls for exactly what is needed, and what I have been saying is needed for many years now: a rejection of Qur’anic literalism, and a reinterpretation of its problematic passages so as to remove their capacity to incite believers to hatred and violence. For the most part, self-professed “moderate” Muslims (such as the Ahmadi leader Qasim Rashid, who belies his pacifistic pretensions by being even more personally vicious and hateful than Maajid Nawaz) deny that there is any problem with the Qur’an at all, and publish elaborately deceitful pieces asserting that the Qur’an when properly understood doesn’t contain any nasty bits at all — while glossing over or neglecting to mention altogether passages that disconfirm their arguments. It is hard to escape the impression that such pieces are written to lull the Infidels into complacency and inaction, rather than to convince jihadis that they’re misunderstanding Islam and should lay down their arms.
Here, however, Nawaz puts it exactly right: Qur’anic literalism “must be abandoned. It is bankrupt,” and justifies “slavery, beheading, lashing, amputation & other medieval practices.” It will be interesting to see if Nawaz’s Muslim allies, like Rashid, rush to condemn him for acknowledging that such practices are indeed justified by the Qur’an — a fact they have worked so hard to obscure. It will also be interesting to see if Nawaz follows up on this statement by rejecting the smear term “Islamophobia” and ending his vilification of people who have for years been fighting jihad terror and calling for exactly what he calls for here. I won’t be holding my breath. But nonetheless, this is good to see, and while this endeavor faces prohibitive odds in gaining any traction within Muslim communities, I wish it all success.
Jovial Joe says
Seriously though, once one abandons all the vicious injunctions against ‘unbelievers’ what is there of any value in the Quran aside from plagiarised passages from the Bible and flying horses? Nawaz is basically advocating apostasy from Islam which is exactly the remedy required; how many are willing to take him up on this request is a wholly different matter of course.
mortimer says
Indeed, Nawaz is advocating apostasy. Once people start questioning the literal interpretation of Islamic writings, it’s game over. The Koran’s many anomalies prove it is of human origin. The inconsistencies of the hadiths prove they were invented by warring dynasties. The absence of a Mohammed for the first 60 years of the Arab empire and the use of Christian and Zoroastrian images during that time, show there were no ‘Muslims’ before Caliph Abd al Malik.
Bettina says
Hiya, Mortimer! Would you kindly provide a link to some of your assertions as they are new to me. I don’t understand “the absence of (the depraved one) for the first 60 years,” or the other religious images you refer to preceding the caliph in question. Help?
Thanks in advance!
pumbar says
Sorry Nawaz but I heard your statement exactly the same way as your fellow mohamedans will hear it. One phrase for the Kufr and another for the mohamedans. There is a growing body of people that do not want to hear this soporific sewage anymore. You are untrustworthy… We won’t believe this rubbish anymore.
PRCS says
” We won’t believe this rubbish anymore.”
Unfortunately, that does not include those who can make an immediate, positive impact: politicians and journalists who cling to the “it’s not Islam” meme.
Beagle says
There is a good Islam-based argument that the stealth jihad and hijrah into the West is so successful that the sword jihadis should stand down especially in terms of attacking westerners. There are no real impediments to Islamization in the West.
Ultimately the spread of Islam and sharia are the major prongs of jihad, along with making all leaders Islamic. Nobody can rationally argue that Sweden or the UK, to name two, are doing anything of substance to resist Islamization or sharia. Or for that matter the US. Counter-terror is not resisting the spread of Islam, just treating the symptoms.
The inconvenient sword jihadis are causing the stupid westerners to have momentary moments of clarity which must be quickly subdued to keep the more peaceful jihad and daw’ah going. Proposing a temporary end to literal interpretation does not mean the literal words will be changed. In the future it will be possible to go back, yet again, to the ‘pure’ Islam of the Salaf.
Or, maybe, a Muslim is actually proposing innovation in theology. This could be viewed as bid’ah, shirk, riddah, or munafiq and be punishable by death, like everything.
All that and I only now get to the many deception doctrines in Islam and honor-shame culture. He could simply be protecting the image of Islam temporarily until, he hopes, the storm blows over.
What a mess. No matter how I slice it I find it hard to believe anything good can come of this, as good as it sounds superficially. Hope I’m wrong.
Beagle says
I just realized, our ‘Christian’ president advocated this “Islam-based” “stealth jihad” argument as I termed it recently when he was unofficially, but publicly, advising the IS on how to deal with the US. The “pin notes” comment was in no way against jihad or kidnapping, just trying to improve it for better results.
TONY DAVIS says
Never ever believe a SAVAGE!!!
mariam rove says
The problem is much bigger than this. As an ex muslim, when I talk to my sisters one whom is devoutly religious and the other one you may call a moderate. When I talk to them about ISIS and any other muslim/islamic terrorism, the first thing they tell me is that these terrorists are not muslims and good and practicing muslim do not commit this types of crimes.m
Angemon says
So, who should the burden of “reinterpretation” fall upon? And how would he go around making said reinterpretation normative for all sects of islam?
Unless he starts getting accusations of “islamophobia” and death threats I’m calling shenanigans…
Beagle says
Unless he starts getting accusations of “islamophobia” and death threats I’m calling shenanigans…
— —
Not to mention riots and being burned in effigy.
mariam rove says
OT.
Hi Robert! I just read on CNN that the Australians foiled a terrorist plot. They were going to do public beheadings. M
Robert Spencer says
You could have read it here at Jihad Watch, in several posts I put up last night!
Daphne says
……and immediately the Muhammadans screech Áustralia has been victimising Muslims for years!” I would like to be ‘victimised to the tune of $187,000 on arrival for ‘relocation”, with welfare money every fortnight from then on!
katarzyna says
new meaning of jihad – reinterpretation of koran.
the present one – has been going on for centuries without reaching the main objective.
hypocritic oaf says
I don’t understand. I see no difference between what the two are saying. One says Muslims need to reinterpret the Qur’an to exactly the way the other has already claimed to reinterpret it. Neither abandon the book nor remove any passages. I think you have been taken in
Mirren10 says
”Help us, defend us, donate or spread word. But don’t just stand by and watch. We cannot do this alone.”
Well, for me, that just encapsulates the whole suspect tone of this ‘heartrending’ appeal.
Why should it be down to us, the najis infidels, to ”help, defend, donate, or spread the word” ?
*We* are not the ones out there, crucifying, beheading, murdering, raping and torturing, in the name of our God. That, my friend, would be your fellow mohammedans.
Do you really think your co-religionists, however much they may declare themselves to be ‘moderates’, would take a blind bit of notice what any of *us* said about your disgusting koran, or your equally disgusting ‘prophet’ ? No, persuade your fellow mohammedans, your imams, mullahs, sheiks, ayatollahs et al, not *us*.
I notice, by they way, you haven’t said word one about the vile, murdering, thieving, raping, torturing, beheading, crucifying, amputating, paedophile mohammed. Why is that ?
Your ‘prophet’ made up this whole screed of evil claptrap out of whole cloth, to justify his own evil desires, so get to grips with *that*, as well. Or is it easier to suggest a ‘reinterpretation’ of the koran, rather than admit your vile ‘prophet’ was the instigator of it all – after all, he’s supposed to be the ‘best example’, and you’re all supposed to copy him, aren’t you ?
**Donate** ??!! What’s this, a veiled demand for more jizya ? Get lost. I’d drill screws through my toenails before I would ever donate one penny piece to **anything** that has a mohammedan basis. Fund yourself, if you be sincere.
”We cannot do this alone”. And why the hell not ? It is *your* foul religion that is perpetrating these horrors, **you** ”deal with it”.
If I had **my** way, we would be backing Israel to the hilt, crushing the IS with bombs and drones, and **any** mohammedans who indicated support, in *any* way, for IS, Boko Haram, or any other of your evil religious/terrorist groups, would be stripped of citizenship, and **deported**, declared outlaw, and never be admitted to any Western country, ever again. Same goes for your mosques, schools, islamic centres, and bookshops. **No** mohammedan would be allowed to wear a mask in the West, and any that defied the law, would be kicked out.
No. This seems to me to be just a cleverly worded, sly attempt to first; make us believe you really want to reform islam, which, as Jovial Joe noted, would mean there would be damned little left of your precious koran, and second, a sneaky psychological attack on the decency of Westerners, by trying to make it appear you can’t do the thing ”without us”.
Crap. It’s *your* religion, *your* prophet; deal with it, and stop trying to make us feel we have some sort of responsibility, **because we damn well don’t**.
Bettina says
See Ted Cruz’ 15-min. clip:
“Sen. Ted Cruz acts senate for unanimous consent to pass the Expatriate Terrorist Act. Sept. 18, 2014.” That acronym is stated as ETA.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/ds-reject-voting-to-strip-citizenship-from-us-jihadi-isis-volunteers/2014/09/19/
Or, just read the short article between the top picture and the actual clip at the bottom. (both pics look the same, bottom one has the video link)
Babs says
Hear hear! If there were enough “moderate” Muslims, as the likes of Nawaz insists that there are, why should they need our help? Is Nawaz resorting to magical thinking, the staple of the Muslim who expects everything good to fall into his lap without his having to work for it?
Muslims themselves will have to work hard to prove to us that they mean us no harm. Because of our past experience of them this will take time and patience and above all consistency, and we know, don’t we, that Muslims tend not to tolerate having to wait.
I do back Israel to the hilt. Of all the countries in the world, she has, out of necessity, learned the best ways to deal with Islamism, all the time becoming more and more successful generally and in many fields and sharing the fruits of her research and advancement with the rest of the world.
Bettina says
Babs, your amazing support of Israel is so heart-warming to me, as a Sephardic Jew! Last year, I abandoned liberalism and the democratic party, with its anti-Semitic philosophy — thanks to JW!
I’m comfortable now as an independent whose primary goal is to help select pro-Israel political candidates.
Bettina says
Babs, I meant “to vote for” instead of “to help select.”
Babs says
Good for you, Bettina! More power to you.
voegelinian says
Well, so for reading the few comments, I must say I’m pleasantly stunned — that pretty much all the comments by and large express the more rigorous skepticism Robert Spencer should have hedged his bets with.
This latest Maajid Nawaz communiqué must be seen for what we must reasonably suppose (if our Reason, that is, has appropriately assimilated and digested the horrible mountain of data of Islam’s Twin Peaks of Violent Jihad & Stealth Jihad over the years) it is: To wit, the sly Good Cop (who, we must recall, does not exist except as a tactical appendage in collusion with the Bad Cop) has upped his game.
Allow me to repeat more tersely for those JW readers who need punchy bromides:
The sly Good Cop has upped his game. That’s all that is happening here.
It’s a phenomenon I have noted has been happening increasingly: As the global revival of Islam continues to unfold and metastasize, its naturally attendant effects of hatred, horror and terror and grotesquely ghoulish evil have had the result of chipping away at the massive ice shelf of Complacent PC MC Denial that immobilizes the West, and some more adroit and astute Stealth Jihadists, like Maajid Nawaz, notice this with alarm, and decide to do their part in the Stealth Jihad by going daringly further in their Faux Moderation. In doing this extra Good Cop maneuver, above and beyond the call of Jihad Booty, their target audience is not the mainstream (the usual tried & true target of the classic Stealth Jihadist) — but rather, precisely, the Counter-Jihad.
And it is deeply dismaying that Spencer entertains it at all and effectively lends it his imprimatur of credence, rather than summarily dispatching it to the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing, the gnashing of teeth, and the biting of forked snake tongues. For that means that the Good Cop tactic works — or has a chance of working (though it is salutary, again, that the comments thus far, by and large (with some rough edges of specious assumptions and axioms here and there that need sanding down with a few applications of a power sander). One detects the likely reason for Spencer’s egregious lapse. Before I get to that, I note that I tend to think that by now, after all these years, I’ve been around the Jihad Block, utterly weary and jaded of all the cluelessness of the mainstream, and all the wrongheaded habits of the Counter-Jihad (against which I have been hitting my head for years now on my blog and in various lifetimes and incarnations here in JW comments as well as over across the hall in that camera non grata, the Gates of Vienna blog); and yet, darned if I can still be surprised. It hit me on reading Spencer’s analysis that he actually believes that the notion of calling for a change in the Muslim mindset about their religion is actually a realistic proposition! I guess I assumed he was being rhetorical all these years, in order to underscore and highlight what was monumentally NOT being done by Muslims. I.e., I guess I thought he was being rational about this. To think that Muslims en masse could actually reverse course of their 1,400-year warship of worship and turn it radically around in a uniquely unprecedented way for which there is not the slightest shred of an iota of a scintilla of evidence is even the remotest possibility — at least, that is, if your Bullshit Detector is set on “Reasonably Ruthlessly Skeptical” rather than on “Asymptotically Gullible” (with the “Christian Wilsonian” switch, in this case, additionally activated).
Sometimes clichés come in handy, and one comes desperately to mind now: something about a snowball, and its chances… in Hell, I believe…
voegelinian says
slight correction:
“…(though it is salutary, again, that the comments thus far, … have shown appropriate degrees of suspicion about the garden snake Maajid)”
voegelinian says
The curse of the unfinished sentence:
“To think that Muslims en masse could actually reverse course of their 1,400-year warship of worship and turn it radically around… is [how to finish this? oh…] strangely delusional [to put it mildly].”
Bettina says
Voeg, I appreciate your eloquent choice of words, and your edits, help me to further understand your meaning. I do lose focus, however, with very long sentences, having to re-read them for clarification. I’ll be a happy reader if you shorten them.
As for verbosity, we’ve seen the same or worse here on JW. Perhaps Joe and others could address their complaints more equally to all who are culpable.
But please, cut down those sentences.
Robert Spencer says
Voeg
I know I’ll never knock you off your hobbyhorse, but clearly you didn’t read or didn’t grasp my last line above.
Cordially
RS
Jovial Joe says
Plus Voeg your verbosity is just mind-numbing. Let’s keep it short and sweet eh ducks (to quote Robert;).
voegelinian says
To Robert Spencer,
I did read your last line — “But nonetheless, this is good to see, and while this endeavor faces prohibitive odds in gaining any traction within Muslim communities, I wish it all success” — and found it as oddly mild as I would find the same locution applied to a clearly mendaciously deceitful (or psychotically schizophrenic) Nazi who called for Nazis to moderate their Mein Kampf , embrace Jews as civic partners of equal standing and respect, and stop dreaming of a supremacist Lebensraum (but who, as Mirren pointed out above, said nary a word about his precious Führer):
“But nonetheless, this is good to see, and while this endeavor faces prohibitive odds in gaining any traction within Nazi communities, I wish it all success.”
Jovial Joe says
Who knows Voegie, maybe Nawaz is the new Von Staffenberg, in which case Robert’s blessing for the enterprise is apt enough. I’ll tell you what, if his endeavour fails we can push for his deportation instead; happy now?
duh_swami says
Qur’anic literalism “must be abandoned. It is bankrupt,” and justifies “slavery, beheading, lashing, amputation & other medieval practices.”
I guess this means the Quran is not the holy words of Allah, good for all time…I would like to be there when Nawaz has to explain this to Allah. ‘I thought some of your words were a little extreme so I erased them’…’I hope you don’t mind’…Allah always has a pot of boiling water and some molten lead on hand for just such an occasion…
Champ says
Well, I don’t think that islam can be reformed–since evil cannot be reformed, and islam is wholly evil; and I welcome the LORD’s return and the day when the unholy quran and islam–and all it’s adherents, are cast into hell, where they belong …
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” — Matthew 25:41
The devil and his angels = allah and his followers => Yep!
And the above passage in Matthew is referring to Jesus’ Second Coming and when He separates the sheep from the goats! And for more on this topic, read Matthew 25:31-46
mortimer says
Maajid Nawaz now says that most of the Koran and hadiths are ‘METAPHOR’?
How so? Is wearing a long beard and sawed-off trousers ‘METAPHOR’ as well? Is the VEIL also a METAPHOR?
Are obsessive-compulsive washings and stepping into the bathroom with the left foot also METAPHOR. Why are head- and hand-choppings METAPHOR? But why is bowing down to gravel chips ‘literal’? And should you bow down three times as the Koran says, or five times as the hadith says? Literal?
Lion Rampant says
Feel the love.
To Maajid Marwez.
It’s called abrogation stupid.
Under islam, adherents are allowed to lie and decieve the Kuffar with a view
to destroying Us. War, sayeth the prophet, is deceit.
So why the hell should I believe anything a muslim says ?
And btw, while my repugnance of islam is visceral it is based on a rational interperatation of the facts aka the bleeding obvious. So that rules out phobia
doesn’t it.
TH says
There is no way that mahomedanism can be reformed or rinterpreted. Anthing positive it has has been badly plagiarized from the Bible. If the historical critical method is applied to the Qu´ran and critical thinking to the whole mahommedan narrative, then the whole thing will collapse. It has been around for 1400 years and they can hardly come now and say that it is all a bunch of lies and atrocities. They are not going to come out, like Pope John Paul II did, and apologize for the bad things they have done throughout their disastrous history.
Reforming and civilizing islam is a non starter. It should be totally debunked and those of them who live in the west, could stay if they are willing to live by the laws of the countries. Its political side should be declared illegal and those who practice it jailed or expelled. As for the rest, it should be made more and more difficult for them to stay on in non muslim countries and money should be offered to them to go back to their countries of origin. No money would actually be lost by the States, as keeping them is a huge expense on dole and other social services, as they have no work ethic and expect to live on charity.
Kepha says
I think “literal” interpretation is a very common bogeyman to scare naughty little secularists. It’s a way those who seldom, if ever, seriously crack anyone’s sacred books think they can safely ignore the idioms and other turns of expression that necessarily exist in any compelling writing, “religious” or not.
From my own tradition, does anyone seriously believe that mountains grew feet and skipped and danced when Israel exited Egypt (Ps. 114:4)? No. Does anyone believe that the event was extremely joyous in the eyes of both God and his redeemed people? Yes, yes, yes, and amen, amen, and amen. Does anyone believe that the Psalmist is allowed to wax a little hyperbolic about the thunderings people heard at Sinai? I do.
As for Islam, sure, there’s a spiritual dimension of jihad to purify one’s own soul. But nobody can deny that the jihad of the sword is an important part of that Islamic pillar, too. Further, one cannot escape sensing a supremacist note in the Islamic sources, and a seeming absence of any sense that Abraham can wrong Pharaoh or Abimelech. While I welcome Maajid Nawaz’ call for reinterpretation of Islam’s sacred texts, I’m afraid I’ll have to skeptically wait and see how Muslims respond to such a call.
My idea of Islamic reform is still the mass movement of Muslims to the Christ of the Old and New Testaments.
Bettina says
Dear Uncle, I didn’t quite understand your first paragraph, and will appreciate clarification, if you kindly would add that, for my dense cognitive abilities…
Thank you in advance!
voegelinian says
“As for Islam, sure, there’s a spiritual dimension of jihad to purify one’s own soul. ”
This dimension of which Kepha speaks is only “spiritual” in the sense of what Eric Voegelin called pneumopathology (a disease of the spirit); and so, while the “soul” part of his description is indeed accurate, but the “purify” is not related to the purity we in the relatively undiseased West — except by diametrical contrast: for what the Muslim struggles with in his “interior jihad” is the concerted, devout, pious, daily effort — at least 5 times a day (if not all day long) to suppress the still small voice of his conscience. And all too often and all too well, he (and she) succeeds.
voegelinian says
delete that “but”
voegelinian says
I’m hitting publish too fast these days… more errors in grammar, etc.
Bettina says
Dear Voegel, I was referring to Kepha’s first paragraph, not the third one, but thank you for responding to my puzzlement, in any case.
Joe says
During the Boko Haram #BringBackOurGirls “outrage” (soon forgotten!) I spent weeks on Twitter repeatedly presenting Maajid Nawaz (and other “moderates” from Quilliam) with a screenshot of the hadiths which show that Mohammed behaved exactly like Boko Haram.
I kept asking these “moderate reformers” to denounce these texts. They would not denounce them. Eventually, they simply blocked me on Twitter.
In the subsequent months, friends of mine have kept reminding other “liberals leftists” about the failure of the Nawaz etc. to denounce these texts.
It looks like our efforts have paid off. Let’s see where this goes.
RICHTHOFEN says
We are all aware that the Qu’ran sanctions lying if it is in the course of promoting islam – the penalty for ‘apostasy’ is death – as decreed by the 7th century mantra of the islamic cult. It follows that anything sounding even remotely ‘moderate’ from a muslim is – a lie – they are simply placating the kuffar, lulling them into a false sense of security while their evil, medieval cult rapes, murders, robs its way to their goal of eradication of all non-muslims and, with that, civilisation as a whole. If such ‘moderates’ existed, they would be deserting islam in droves – they are not – far from it – they are raisng billions to support terrorism in their total war against us all. There is only one answer to the scourge of islam – proscribe it in every civilised country – declare it for what it is – an illegal, evil organisation of war and hatred. Those that wish to leave islam are welcome to stay – those that oppose the total ban on islam are free to go to a muslim country – it is that simple. Their human rights will be protected – they will be free to live where their cult is still legal – now, what is so wrong with that solution? It is far preferable to their great supporter and disciple, Hitler’s, final solution, after all
Bettina says
Preferable AND humane. Also, right now, these jihadis should be condemned in absentia — stripped of their passports and citizenship, and put in exile, all at the same time. When will our Western governments get it?!
SM ISAC says
Reform or Die, is about right. Good on Maajid Nawaz for clearly recognizing the challenge Muslims face. Courage!
Babs says
I’d believe him if he left Islam totally and declared that he had. After all, what’s the worst that could happen to him?
Julia says
Maajid Nawaz consistently puts his rear end out on a limb to expose the Islamization of the UK and to stop the radicalization of Muslims. I read his memoir, Radical, and I’ve followed every public speaking engagement… he is doing EXCELLENT work. His most recent appearance on Fox News was terrific, loved to hear a Muslim criticize Obama for not having a strategy for dealing with ISIS. It was his work that immediately exposed Benghazi as a terrorist attack, not a protest to a youtube movie gone out of control. It’s also wonderful to hear a powerful Muslim activist say that political correctness has gone too far and Muslims must not be pandered to….amen!
He actually tweeted a cartoon of Mohammed to make a statement about free speech and how not all Muslims have a problem with the controversial cartoon images of Mohammed…he paid a heavy price for it too. I have nothing but great respect and admiration for Maajid Nawaz. The political climate of England requires him to make talking points about curtailing “Islamophobia” because he makes SO MANY controversial statements about Islam he has to do something to demonstrate he isn’t “Anti-Muslim” like so many accuse him to be. Maajid risks his life every day to tell the truth about Islam and we should all be supporting him, not attacking him.
Mirren10 says
” The political climate of England requires him to make talking points about curtailing “Islamophobia” because he makes SO MANY controversial statements about Islam he has to do something to demonstrate he isn’t “Anti-Muslim” like so many accuse him to be. Maajid risks his life every day to tell the truth about Islam and we should all be supporting him, not attacking him”
Nonsense. As Robert points out, ‘islamophobia’ is nothing more than a piece of propaganda, a smear term invented by mohammedans, and their useful idiot apologists, like you.
If Nawaz is such a fearless critic of the islamization of the UK, and the ‘radicalisation’ of mohammedans, then why has he crowed about ‘decapitating’ the EDL, and why has he attacked Pam Geller and Robert for being ‘islamophobes’ ? Why is he all in favour of the mohammedan masks ?
As for his hypocritical nonsense about ‘reforming’ the koran, why has he said nothing about the vile and evil character of his ‘prophet’, who conceived and made the whole thing up ?
” Maajid risks his life every day to tell the truth about Islam and we should all be supporting him, not attacking him.”
Is he a constant recipient of death threats, as are Robert and Pamela, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Nonie Darwish, Geert Wilders, and other *honest* opponents of jihad ?
If he refuses to confront the character of mohammed, he is *not* ‘telling the truth about islam’.
You’ve swallowed the taqiyyah package, hook, line, and sinker.
I’ll support him when he apostasises, and not before.
Bettina says
I enjoyed reading Julia’s support for Maajid Nawaz and would like to see more of us to give him the benefit of the doubt, at the very least.
His progressive stand on islam, and his desire to improve and reform it forward from the dark ages, are worth paying attention to.
About death threats, who knows, right? But if he apostasizes, he’s sure to put himself in daily danger. Maybe he just wants to live and launch into his mission — which is SO refreshing to hear from a muslim.
Babs says
Thank you for this, Robert. I always find your articles informative and at times as brutally honest as is needed in this age of double-speak and taqiyya from Islam
I live in the UK, the same UK which so ignominiously banned you and Pamela Geller from entry while it allows hate speech by Islamic clerics from Saudi and elsewhere, and I heard this morning that three “Muslim clerics” have put out a YouTube video asking (note not telling) Islamic State to free the hostages and that their conduct is not the true Islam.
I have read your articles and books, in which you say (and I readily believe) that Muslims always act in ways calculated to advance Islam. As regards the message from these clerics several things occur to me – Why now? Why not release such a video after the first beheading and the first instances of mass barbarism?
Scales seem to be falling from eyes among UK citizens as regards the so-called “religion of peace” and we are hearing that Muslims are feeling very threatened here. One does not need to have a giant intellect to realise that this public action of belated condemnation by Muslim clerics is an attempt to deflect that danger to Islam rather than acting to do what is right and morally correct.
In short I don’t believe these condemnations and neither do I trust Majid Nawaz’s honeyed words. He too is trying to deflect the dangers to Islam rather than doing what is morally just.
We can start, all of us, by undermining the use of “Islamophobia” by such people and their fellow travellers, by pointing up, as often as is necessary, what a nonsensical term it is. A phobia is an unnatural, unreasonable, over the top fear of a benign stimulus. Islam has proven, by its behaviour towards fellow-Muslims as well as towards us, that it is scarcely benign. Muslims are commanded to copy their prophet’s behaviour and he was psychotically proud of striking terror into the hearts of unbelievers. It is not phobic to be at least nervous around Islam .
Bettina says
I’ve pasted your definition of islamophobia in a Word doc for further study, to enable me to block its assault on counter-jihadist free speech. Thank you, Babs!
Babs says
Bettina, thanks for the information, re multiple postings. My computer sometimes goes berserk. I prefer not to use internet explorer, for all sorts of reasons.
Talal says
The followers of Moses, for the most part, rejected what came down to them from God. The followers of Jesus, for the most part, rejected what came down to them from God. There is a drive to make the followers of Muhammad to reject what came down to them from God. I quote Quran Chapter 93
In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.
1. By the morning light.
2. And the night as it settles.
3. Your Lord did not abandon you, nor did He forget.
4. The Hereafter is better for you than the First.
5. And your Lord will give you, and you will be satisfied.
6. Did He not find you orphaned, and sheltered you?
7. And found you wandering, and guided you.
8. And found you in need, and enriched you?
9. Therefore, do not mistreat the orphan.
10. Nor rebuff the seeker.
11. But proclaim the blessings of your Lord.
source http://www.clearquran.com/093.html
Babs says
A drive by whom?
Surely there is FEAR on the part of the powerful in Islam (ie the religious leaders and their dupes) that their slaves will realise that the Islamic king is stark naked and that they have been lied to and conned for centuries.
We in the West are not fooled by people like you. Your fear that you may be wrong has you posting on sites like these in the vain hope that quoting the koran at us will somehow end all opposition to you as if by magic.
You may believe it, but you cannot force the rest of us, who are critical thinkers, to do so, but your fear that somehow we may be right is what drives you to insist that we are not. You are wasting your time and energy
John Brown says
All the bad things Koranic literalism is currently justifying doing and has done, have more than been justified, done and still being done by biblical literalism.
Genocide – wiping out native “pagan” populations in North and South America, and Australia. Stoning, burning witches and people at the stake ( Joan of Arc ? ), the crusades, the inquisition, homophobia, slavery, apartheid – using the story of Ham in the bible to justify blacks as inferior, and using the bible to oppress and suppress women into their deserved secondary place. The Anglican and other churches are still fighting against female priests and bishops.
Oh, and don’t get me started on how in America quite a few states have banned the teaching of evolution and insisted on creationism as an exact science.
However I am very sure that none of you believe in the abracadabra biblical literalism theory of the world being created in just 6 literal days.
Basically all religions, including Christianity have things in their holy writings that can be interpreted literally by the mad few to justify or explain anything. The Muslims are not alone in this.
Many of the posts online here show that there is certainly no shortage of racist, islamophobic “Christian” nutcases as there are of the Muslim variety. May Allah bless and save you all.
Angemon says
John Brown posted:
“Basically all religions, including Christianity have things in their holy writings that can be interpreted literally by the mad few to justify or explain anything. The Muslims are not alone in this.”
Basically, you’re wrong. And the proof of it is that there are no mainstream Christians burning witches or stoning adulterers nowadays but there is an islamic state enforcing stoning, crucifications and engaging in genocide, and that state is very appealing to muslims in a way that, for example, al-Qaeda never was because it’s enforcing islam like it has been understood since the 7th century. This is not about “a few mad man” simply because there are millions and millions of muslims in the world who consider that the islamic state is doing nothing wrong from an islamic perspective. And you want to compare that with a few fringe groups in the US who want creationism to be taught in schools or ban evolution?
Babs says
The Muslims take it to inordinate, grossly barbaric lengths though, don’t they? It’s true that early Christians and the Jews of Bible times took the old and new testaments as literal truths, because they were less capable of making sense of what was to them a threatening world. Nowadays, even the most off the wall hyperreligious individual wouldn’t go the “convert or die” lengths that Islam does.
And please lose the habit of calling even forceful criticism of Islam, most of it well-placed, “Islamophobic.” It’s a nonsense term. A phobia is an unreasonable, OTT fear of a benign stimulus. Islam is definitely not benign.
Bettina says
Not only is it NOT benign(!) but those devoutly islamic or muslim blood-curdling f-cks can’t ever progress the way Jews, with many generations of enlightened rabbis debating every point of the Torah and Mishnah with the finest of ethical standards. They cast a new mantle of compassion, justice, and human rights (as divinely ordered) over the scriptures of ancient times.
This is why Jews today are peaceful and amazing citizens of their respective countries and contribute greatly to world advancement in all directions.
The Crusades, later followed by the Inquisition, tortured and killed non-Christians en masse, but eventually rejoined the ranks of a peace-seeking humanity with its eyes set on promoting the good.
Bab says
Bettina, have you read Robert R Reilly’s “The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis”? It’s an interesting take on the history of how critical thinking became outlawed by Islam and the sort of slavish literal thinking we know of took its place. The blurb describes how In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of “irrationality” won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.
Reilly describes how the Muslim jurist, Ibn Ghazali, would never eat watermelon because, having scoured the koran, ahadith, sunna and other writings about the muslim prophet’s life, he could not find that his prophet had ever done so.
Babs says
Have you read Robert R Reilly’s “The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis”? The “blurb” describes how, in a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of “irrationality” won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.
My attention was captured by the example of literality on the part of the Muslim jurist, Ibn Ghazali, who refused to eat watermelon because, having scoured the koran, ahadith and associated writings, he could find no trace of his prophet having done so.
Bettina says
“… progress the way Jews HAVE…” sorry!
Babs says
Have you read Robert R Reilly’s “The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis”? The “blurb” describes how, in a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of “irrationality” won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture.
My attention was captured by the example of literality on the part of the Muslim jurist, Ibn Ghazali, who refused to eat watermelon because, having scoured the koran, ahadith and associated writings, he could find no trace of his prophet having done so.
Bettina says
Dear Babs, thank you so much for the title of what is obviously an excellent book!! I’ll hurry and check it out of my library. I so appreciate it! I’d love to offer you my feedback sometime soon…
Also, Babs, you posted your comment 3 times, and I think I know why:
Publishing takes maybe 30 seconds, during which time some people re-post as they don’t see it admitted the first time. If you have Internet Explorer, the tab for your page shows a timing circle that turns visibly until your post is published. You might have another browser, though, and I can’t address that.