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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Muslim secretly films “warts and all” pilgrimage to Mecca, gets death threats

Aug 31, 2015 11:49 am By Robert Spencer

“There is nothing kind about this process,” Sharma says of his pilgrimage to Mecca. “He calls his first experience at the Kaaba ‘probably the most violent night of my entire life.'” Those who are surprised by this have not been paying attention to the daily headlines.

“Islam is imploding upon itself right now and there’s a huge crisis,” he says, and adds that a reformation “is happening, but it is happening too slowly and we’re running out of time.” Yes. The global situation is rather like the ending of Rocky II, when Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed both collapse to the canvas, and the first one who can manage to get up will be the champion. The free world and the Islamic world are both, to use Sharma’s language, imploding upon themselves. Which one will get up first is anyone’s guess.

Meanwhile, the fact that Sharma has gotten death threats for his film illustrates yet again why reform in Islam is, while not impossible, prohibitively unlikely. Those who air unpleasant truths or discuss problematic aspects of Islam honestly, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, are targeted for destruction in various ways, while those who should be defending them stand by idly for fear of being charged with “bigotry” and “Islamophobia.”

Parvez Sharma

“‘A Sinner in Mecca’ documents gay Muslim pilgrimage,” by Jennie Matthew, AFP, August 31, 2015:

NEW YORK (AFP) — The confession of a Pakistani murderer. Overzealous religious police. An Arab angered his pregnant wife was molested in the holiest site known to Islam.

A new film made by a gay Muslim pilgrim offers a English-speaking Western audience a warts-and-all view of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in a documentary that has attracted death threats and an online hate campaign.

It is a rebuke of Saudi Arabia and its strict Wahhabi form of Islam, but it is also deeply personal — a man trying to reconcile his faith with his sexuality.

From that perspective which includes footage of his wedding to his American husband in New York, millions of Muslims will likely find “A Sinner in Mecca” provocative if not offensive.

But director and pilgrim, Indian-born New Yorker Parvez Sharma, sees it as a wake-up call for a faith followed by nearly a quarter of humanity which he believes has been hijacked by a violent minority.

“Islam is imploding upon itself right now and there’s a huge crisis,” Sharma told AFP.

“It (a reformation) is happening, but it is happening too slowly and we’re running out of time.”

“The change needs to happen with Wahhabi Islam — that is the root of all the problems,” he said.

Sharma associates with the Sufi branch of Islam common in his homeland India, which unlike Wahhabism embraces music and a more mystical — and less dogmatic — approach to faith.

He performed hajj in 2011, four months after Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed and seven months after the Arab Spring began. He says the timing was deliberate.

“I felt that it would be the most interesting time to go with all this churning going on in the Muslim world.”

Most striking is his footage, filmed on a mobile phone and two tiny cameras without permission from Saudi authorities, then smuggled out of the country.

“Early on,” he explains, “my iPhone was taken away by the religious police and they deleted initial early footage,” he said.

“These guys walk around with sticks and hit you if you’re doing something they consider un-Islamic, and I was on the wrong end of the stick several times.”

He captures the crush encircling the Kaaba, the sacred site in whose direction Muslims pray, the giant shopping mall next door where you can get a Starbucks coffee and the discomfort of standing on a bus an entire night to go to Mount Arafat.

“There is nothing kind about this process,” Sharma says in the film.

He calls his first experience at the Kaaba “probably the most violent night of my entire life.” He says he strung his iPhone around his neck and just let the camera roll.

Most of the film focuses on him. But he also includes two of more than 50 interviews he said he conducted.

An Arab man in the film complains that his wife was touched by other men, and a man from Lahore, a city in eastern Pakistan, confesses to seeking atonement for taking part in a so-called “honor” killing….

Sharma says much of the response has been positive. But he has received a torrent of hate mail and online death threats coming from servers in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

He says the Iranian government has denounced it. He tells of being accosted by yelling Saudi women at a festival in Britain.

“I hope that Muslims will eventually react positively,” he told AFP.

Good luck with that.

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Filed Under: Featured, homosexuals, Islamic reform, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: Parvez Sharma


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Comments

  1. Wakup says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 12:09 pm

    Somebody should take this guy aside and talk to him about Jesus but the we would probably get our heads chopped off. Just consider fella if your reading this the true God loves you see if you can find that in the Koran then read the new testament and invite Jesus into your life. The truth will set you free!

    How goes a kind word in a world of trouble. Willy Wonka

    • Blitz2b says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 2:18 pm

      Wakeup says “Somebody should take this guy aside and talk to him about Jesus….”

      Yeah that would be great, except that Christianity although soft on condemnation of the gay lifestyle, still frowns upon it.

      Would Sharma be willing to give it all up for Christ? I don’t suppose he would. That is why most in the LGBT community are rather anti-Christian….

      Muslims may brazenly gays all over the Islamic world, but the moment a Christian even whispers something anti gay, all hell breaks loose.

      • Brian says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 5:34 pm

        Yes, being homosexual is not sinful in Christianity…acting on it is. Homosexuals are called to be chaste just like all Christians are until marriage. Homosexual marriage is not a Christian sacrament so homosexuals are called to be chaste for life as a gift to God.

        • Brian says

          Aug 31, 2015 at 10:03 pm

          I think you’ve said it well.
          Temptation isn’t sin, responding to it is.

        • D Brown says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 2:52 am

          Being homosexual is sinful because Christians are taught that even their thoughts and motives are known to God. Christians are to resist sinful thoughts, not just keep them hidden. Entertaining sinful thoughts is sin and homosexual thoughts is both the sins denying the role that God has assigned through gender and sexual immorality. Jesus said that sexual immorality occurs first in the heart.

        • Adam says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 7:14 am

          Just a quick response to your quote: :Temptation isn’t sin, responding to it is.” That is not Biblical. Jesus said that if a man looks at a women with lust in his eyes than he has committed adultery. So just the temptation of looking lustfully is a sin even if you don’t act on it.

    • DaveGinOly says

      Sep 2, 2015 at 1:50 am

      Why would anyone consider the substitution of one delusion with another to be an appropriate remedy for any problem? An appropriate response to delusional behavior is the elimination of the delusion responsible for the behavior.

  2. Jan Sobieski says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    Ramez,
    Jesus may or may not be a superstition, but His teaching is rock solid: “Love one another.” Any atrocities committed by supposed Christians are done is spite of the teaching of Jesus, not because of it.

    • deja vu says

      Sep 1, 2015 at 1:12 am

      Jan Sobieski:

      ‘Jesus may or may not be a superstition, but His teaching is rock solid.’

      ‘Superstitions’ don’t usually teach anything, far less rock solid truths. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God, was a real human being whose teaching was so profound and radical that it touched the souls of His hearers and left them dumbfounded, for they had never heard anyone speaking with such power and authority. (Matthew 13:54, Mark 1:22, John 7:46 and many other references)

      “Love one another.”

      Actually Jesus’ teaching was much harder than that – it was to “love one another just as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) – that is, unreservedly and sacrificially, even if it meant paying the ultimate price, which He did by being crucified so that mankind could be redeemed.

      ‘Any atrocities committed by supposed Christians are done is spite of the teaching of Jesus, not because of it.’

      Totally agree!

  3. jihad3tracker says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 12:29 pm

    This is a relevant post (possibility of reforming Islam?) to mention again a brilliant 5 minutes of video by David Wood.

    Go to www (dot) answeringmuslims (dot) com — watch “The Jihad Triangle”.

    Send a link on to all the hopelessly clueless persons in your life — elected officials, friends, relatives.

    And check out his other superb postings . . . This guy is a true expert, and a courageous counter-jihadist.

    • TheBuffster says

      Sep 2, 2015 at 12:52 pm

      Yes, I think that is one of David Wood’s best videos.

  4. pdxnag says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    You don’t change Islam, you find something other than Islam.

    Personally I would like to see the haj as a one way trip, so that such pious Muslims never return to free lands.

    • RonaldB says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 1:13 pm

      “You don’t change Islam…”

      Yes. It’s difficult to see why a reform-minded individual who seems to be humane would consider staying in Islam at all. The violence, intolerance, anti-intellectualism, misogyny all start from the so-called Muhammad, and have been solidified and reinforced in virtually every Islamic exposition of law.

      What is there in Islam to retain a relatively cultured, humane person? What’s there to reform? The reformers, like Irshad Manji, inevitably wind up creating their own fantasy Islam. Manji, if you visit her website

      http://irshadmanji.com/

      appears to have completely given up any mention of Islam, in favor of promoting herself.

      I’m not sure if there’s a way out of Islam, in an Islamic society, other than migrating to a country that’s relatively free of Islam. It’s a chilling prospect: allowing free immigration of Muslims into our society is like injecting ourselves with the HIV virus, assuming it will become benign before it kills us.

      • MKG says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 2:20 pm

        Interesting point RonaldB. Does man write and reform religion to suit his wants and needs in the current social order, or does man let religion reform mankind for a better life here and after? It seems a simple question, yet reformers and traditionalists are more than willing to kill each other over it. Just an observation.
        Stay sharp.

        • SoCalMike says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 3:36 am

          The key difference is pedophilia is NOT theologically or legally sanctioned in the West among Jews and Christians they way it is among too many far too many Muslims in the Islamic world.
          You posed the question “Does man write and reform religion to suit his wants and needs in the current social order, or does man let religion reform mankind for a better life here and after?” but the more penetrating question is Did Mohammed create religion to suit his immediate wants and sexual and material needs in the name of Holiness?

          Previous generations knew the answer but today people are so confused.

        • MKG says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 11:05 am

          Hi SoCalMike, you’re absolutely right. I was commenting about mankind and religion in general. To be specific regarding mohammed and pedophilia, I agree 100%.
          Have a nice day.

      • IHateLibs says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 2:37 pm

        You forgot pedophilia

        • MKG says

          Aug 31, 2015 at 5:29 pm

          Pedophilia? Sure let’s throw that into the mix along with circumcision, FGM, and animal sacrifice including pigeons, rams, chickens and monkeys. Let’s not forget child sacrifice. There are also fertility rites that incorporate nudity and forced intercourse, forced marriage and polygamy. How about self-immolation by fire as a test of ones faith or spiritual accomplishment. Don’t forget religious caste systems and slavery, Etc. Etc.

          This sounds quite disgusting to many, including myself. Yet despite calls for reform or outright outlawing such practices, it is your traditionalists or fundamentalists who will fight tooth and nail to keep such religious traditions and practices, even some of the victims. Not many people are willing to step forward and acknowledge they have been following the wrong path in their own life or for past generations. Also, some people profit from religious traditions whether for good or evil, for prestige or to satisfy some dark desire. They are not about to give that up.

          Two extremes are at work here. On one side you have fundamentalists willing to kill to keep their traditions, and on the other you have hard core communists and atheists who would take extreme measures to eradicate these customs and beliefs. Where does that leave the rest of us? Somewhere in the middle, taking what we like and leaving the rest, kind of like a salad bar. The question each of us have to ask ourselves is; what are we willing to kill or die for?

        • Western Canadian says

          Aug 31, 2015 at 10:55 pm

          Hard core communists and atheists opposing anything related to islam (RTC)?? Since when?

        • MKG says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 12:09 am

          Hi Western Canadian, I’m refering to real communists, not those pathetic libtards we have in the west.
          Have a nice day.

    • abad says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 1:15 pm

      Yeah instead of a Black Rock to kiss and prostate themselves, a Black Hole surrounding their black deity might be a better solution

      • Huck Folder says

        Sep 1, 2015 at 8:26 pm

        @ abad & pdxnag

        Picture a sarlacc (THE sarlacc?) from Star Wars,
        with the Black Urinal as the bait.

  5. Jay Boo says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 1:20 pm

    Danger sign
    “Islam is imploding upon itself right now ”
    This year could lead to a spillover of the Arab Spring and Sunni Shia mess during the Hajj.

    Muslims afraid bad publicity during the Mecca Mania Fest might be planning a major attack beforehand in order to unify the carpet kissing world with the hopes of keeping Muzzies from tearing into one another during Islam’s Hajj of haters gathering.
    .
    Islam can’t last a single day with out finding someone to hate.

  6. Linde Barrera says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    I think Parvez Sharma is a very brave man, and I want to see this movie. I will pray he and his husband are touched by Jesus.

    • mortimer says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 3:13 pm

      Parvez Sharma’s film is the sort of thing that is world-changing. Parvez Sharma’s film is the sort of thing that is world-changing.

    • Huck Folder says

      Sep 1, 2015 at 8:27 pm

      A threesome?

      Fie! Shirk!

  7. Blitz2b says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 2:20 pm

    Wakeup says “Somebody should take this guy aside and talk to him about Jesus….”

    Yeah that would be great, except that Christianity although soft on condemnation of the gay lifestyle, still frowns upon it.

    Would Sharma be willing to give it all up for Christ? I don’t suppose he would. That is why most in the LGBT community are rather anti-Christian….

    Muslims may brazenly gays all over the Islamic world, but the moment a Christian even whispers something anti gay, all hell breaks loose.

  8. Mirren10 says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 2:27 pm

    ” … a faith followed by nearly a quarter of humanity which he believes has been hijacked by a violent minority.”

    Sigh. Here we go again.

    Parvez, you seem like a decent person.

    Take a deep breath, and ditch the whole bloody thing. You’ll never find a decent islam, except in your fantasies. Apostasise; return to the Hinduism of your ancestors, Jainism, Sikhism; turn to Christianity, or simply become an atheist, or agnostic.

    What you’re doing is desperately trying to retain the comfort blanket. whilst your brain and conscience is telling you what a load of diseased tripe it all is. Bite the bullet.

    • Wellington says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 6:14 pm

      Agreed, Mirren. Anything but Islam since Islam, all of it, is rotten to the core.

      • Mirren10 says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 6:30 pm

        Hello, dear Wellington.

        Yes, I confess to some sympathy with those muslims, like Parvez, who are so desperately trying to salvage *something* from the ‘faith’ they were brought up in.

        It can’t be easy, to jettison what a dear grandmother, or other loved one, inculcated one with.

        But, as I said, if one has any intellectual rigour at all, muslims like Parvez have to ultimately concede that what they were briught up to revere, s nothing more than the diseased and evil fantasies of a man, who, if he in fact ever existed, exem9lifies ever evil desire man was ever heir to.

        I hope you’re well, dear Wellington, and that everything in your world is , “nicely, thank you”. 🙂

        • Mirren10 says

          Aug 31, 2015 at 6:35 pm

          Apoligies for all the typos ! My tablet has a tiny keypad, and sometimes takes the bit between its teeth and does whatever the hell it l7kes. 🙂

        • Wellington says

          Aug 31, 2015 at 7:14 pm

          Yes, I have a certain sympathy with such Muslims too. For instance, years ago I taught a young man from Uzbekistan who was Muslim. He was a wonderful person—–thoughtful, considerate, talented, kind, intelligent, et al. It didn’t take me very long to conclude that he was what could be called a “cultural Muslim.”

          He didn’t know very much about his own faith (ditto for so many Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc.) but it was part of his familial experience to observe traditional Muslim holidays, to go to mosque now and again and so on. And yet I knew, completely knew, that the faith he adhered to was awful. I did on the periphery, so to speak, try to convey this to him but I don’t know how much of this got through to him. In any case, I felt with him that such a person was part of the “overall problem” of our time, though I think he remained completely oblivious of this.

          BTW, he received an “A” in my class because he was a very good student. But I know you see what was my larger dilemma here.

          I too hope you are doing well, Mirren Well, the fight of fights continues, doesn’t it? No rest for the weary and informed. But perhaps that is in the nature of things since civilization at its best is not a given, must be fought for continually and should never be taken for granted. Take care, my British friend.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 1:00 pm

          Hear, hear!

        • Joseph says

          Sep 1, 2015 at 1:37 pm

          Wellington,
          “He didn’t know very much about his own faith (ditto for so many Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc.)”

          You have exposed a very big flaw that some(many really) Christians(proclaimed) have.
          They DO NOT know enough about the Bible and the roots of their own faith to be able to defend it when it is attacked by others. My favorite one is the god of Islam is the same as the GOD of the Jews and Christians.
          You also pointed out that it was very hard for you to try and get it across to him how vile the depth of his religion is. This is a sad fact and I empathize with you for any statement you make could be met with violence and not debate, even though he was not a *devout* Muslim…..Keep up the good posts, I read them to gain insight and knowledge.

          @Mirren10—Your typo posts made me smile, one of the very few I had yesterday so maybe it was a good thing.

          @Mirren10, gravenimage & Wellington; Hope all is well, take care and be safe

    • PJG says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 9:01 pm

      He thinks being a sufi is the answer. “Mystical” and all that.
      “Mysticism” is not antithetical to violence in Islam. A Muslim can be as mystical as all get-up and still be a violent killer. The Mahdi of Sudan was one such sufi, always described as a “mystic”. And there are plenty of other examples from history – India included.
      Sufis are peaceful. mystical and “less dogmatic” – until they are not.

      • gravenimage says

        Sep 1, 2015 at 1:09 pm

        *Very* true, PJG. Sufi Islam isn’t really peaceful, either. What a surprise…

        Here’s a good article on the subject from the American Thinker:

        http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2005/05/sufi_jihad.html

  9. More Ham Ed says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 2:49 pm

    We can fix this poorly designed non-functioning Model-T rather than REPLACING IT COMPLETELY.
    Riiiiiiiiight.

  10. Yellowdog says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 4:13 pm

    I look forward to seeing the rest of the film. Good for you, you have a unique need and perspective. And you are sharing your journey with all of us. I have been hearing only supportive commentary from gays about Islam, or the typical ostrich head in the hole, although Islam is negating their rights at every moment. Is that masochism or what? I hope you can help set it straight. Whether reform can ever happen or not, to seek it, desire it, the intention is the important thing for now.

  11. voegelinian says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    ”

    Meanwhile, the fact that Sharma has gotten death threats for his film illustrates yet again why reform in Islam is, while not impossible, prohibitively unlikely.”

    That’s not the only, or even main reason why Islam is unlikely to be reformed. The main reason why is that Islam is unreformable.

    Muslims like Sharma are part of the problem, believing that Muhammad is great, that the Koran is great, that Islam is great (except for the extremists who are twisting it) yadda yadda same old camelshit.

    • voegelinian says

      Aug 31, 2015 at 9:35 pm

      How would reform be “possible” as Spencer implies? What would a “reformed” Koran look like? A “reformed” Muhammad? Answer: the very process of reforming it in fidelity to all that is good and decent in Mankind would cause Islam to self-destruct. There would be no Islam at the end of the process. That is not a “possible” reform of Islam, as Spencer implies.

      • Zimriel says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 11:33 pm

        It’ll be interesting to see how Mr Spencer reacts to Gabriel Said Reynolds’ twitter-feed. I assume he’s aware of Reynolds – Reynolds is an unashamed Catholic, has edited several collections of scholarly essays, and has written some well-regarded books of his own. Unfortunately Reynolds also hates Israel. (Yeah – hates it. He sets his watch to what Meryl Yourish used to call “Double Standard Time”.)

        I generally gather that Reynolds thinks that Islamic reform has already started, in Shi’ism. He sees the founding texts of Islam as grounded in an Oriental Christian “subtext”. He sees the martyrdom of Husayn as Christlike. And so on.

        • voegelinian says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 12:37 pm

          There are plenty of pundits out there who advocate Islamic “reform” in obviously untenable ways, and Spencer has no difficulty or problem dispatching them. The question is why doesn’t Spencer simply say that Islamic reform is essentially impossible, given the nature of Islam? Under what possible scenario of what possible configurations of figurative lipstick or lip gloss would the pig of Islam look pretty? (My apologies to actual pigs, who unlike monstrous Islam, can be cute.)

        • Angemon says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 2:44 pm

          voegelinian posted:

          “The question is why doesn’t Spencer simply say that Islamic reform is essentially impossible, given the nature of Islam?”

          The question is, why are you wanting to decide what Mr. Spencer should be saying or not? And who are you to make such a call (besides someone who spent years here deriding Mr. Spencer and other forefront figures of the CJ movement)?

      • Western Canadian says

        Aug 31, 2015 at 11:43 pm

        In the unlikely even that we were to ever see voegelinianism reformed, what would it be like?? Would it cease to beat the same old skeletal horse, until the poor expired creatures bones are dust? Would it cease to presume to read minds? Could it possibly consider questions or doubts, and maybe even disagreements to be legitimate? Ever? Is it possible for the endless efforts to impress (via vocabulary) to cease?

        Nah.

        • voegelinian says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 12:38 pm

          An actual counter-argument still absent from Western Canadian.

        • Angemon says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 2:47 pm

          voegelinian posted:

          “An actual counter-argument still absent from Western Canadian.”

          Lol! Seeing voegelinian complaining about some else’s alleged lack of a counter-argument is like seeing Kermit complaining about others being green, or Scrooge McDuck complaining about others being cheapskates, or a cow complaining about other animals producing milk, or a giraffe complaining about other animals having long necks, or … well, you get the picture.

      • Jay Boo says

        Sep 1, 2015 at 3:35 am

        voegelinian said,
        “That is not a “possible” reform of Islam, as Spencer implies.”

        voegelinian , You shameless liar.
        Have you no shame at all?

        You deliberately imply that Robert Spencer is promoting something he is not by grasping at a tidbit and extrapolating it to suit your purpose.

        • voegelinian says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 12:51 pm

          ROTPRLMAO (Rolling On the Prayer Rug Laughing My Ass Off). This, coming from JayBoo, who has said:

          Jay Boo says

          February 26, 2014 at 9:35 am

          “Islam is not 100% evil.”

          http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/02/nigerian-students-trying-to-escape-college-attack-were-slaughtered-like-sheep-by-islamic-jihadists-who-slit-their-throats/comment-page-1#comment-1013951

        • Angemon says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 2:48 pm

          voegelinian posted:

          “ROTPRLMAO (Rolling On the Prayer Rug Laughing My Ass Off). This, coming from JayBoo, who has said:”

          And what does that have to do with what JB said here? Oh, yeah, nothing. But you need to cover up your lack or arguments (or counter-arguments)…

      • gravenimage says

        Sep 1, 2015 at 1:14 pm

        Any human thought system can–theoretically, at least–be reformed.

        The idea that Robert Spencer is somehow being soft when he clearly refers to such a reform of the spectacularly oppressive and violent creed of Islam as “prohibitively unlikely” is just absurd.

        • voegelinian says

          Sep 2, 2015 at 12:44 pm

          gravenimage didn’t read me carefully.

          What would Nazism look like if it were “reformed”? It would no longer be Nazism. That’s not really reformation; that’s (self-)destruction. For a thought system to be reformable, it has to have enough good elements to make that possible. Islam has no good in it (for even the shreds of putative goodness it might arguably have are cogs in the pernicious ideological machine that has killed and oppressed millions, is killing and oppressing millions now, and portends even worse as we speak. It’s bitterly — nay, monstrously ironic that robustly anti-Islam folks in the Counter-Jihad who should know better, over years having digested this indigestible mountain of grotesque data about Islam called Jihad Watch cannot stand boldly on this point, but must prevaricate around the edges.

      • Angemon says

        Sep 1, 2015 at 2:15 pm

        voegelinian posted:

        “How would reform be “possible” as Spencer implies? What would a “reformed” Koran look like? A “reformed” Muhammad? Answer: the very process of reforming it in fidelity to all that is good and decent in Mankind would cause Islam to self-destruct. There would be no Islam at the end of the process. That is not a “possible” reform of Islam, as Spencer implies.”

        Ah, yes, voeg’s favorite magic word: “implies”. That word enables him to say the most outrageous things and ascribe them to others while escaping the consequences of slandering others. If anyone says they never said whatever it is he ascribed them, the answer is “you implied it”, regardless of logic and context. Not “you implied because such and such and therefore such and such”, simply “you implied it”. Like I said, magic word!

        The fallacy voeg expects others not to pick up on – because that would expose the baseness of his thought process – is that Mr. Spencer is not saying that islam must be reformed in this or that fashion. What voeg is doing is ascribing to Mr. Spencer a reasoning he never made. In fact, in clear voegelinian-esque fashion, voeg failed to realize that the person who brought up the reformation of islam was not Mr. Spencer but Parvez Sharma. Mr. Spencer made no comments regarding the reformation of islam whatsoever. It seems voeg’s reading and comprehension skills are on par with his capacity for logical thinking…

  12. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Aug 31, 2015 at 10:40 pm

    He captures the crush encircling the Kaaba, the sacred site in whose direction Muslims pray…

    Many times in here I’ve seen bloggers deride Moslems as rock worshippers, an unfortunate and unenlightened take on the followers of one of the world’s great religions a religion of peace one of the three Abrahamic faiths.

    Except, what is contained in the Kaaba? Rocks.

    I know the truth ain’t supposed to be brought up around Moslems, they’re so touchy and all, but rocks. “Oh, waiter! I’ll take the decline and fall of civilization on the rocks, please.”

  13. Nar says

    Sep 1, 2015 at 5:58 am

    The film maker is either insanely desperate to be known, extraordinarily masochistic, or entirely deluded. Maybe all 3. Trying to get Islam to change is like trying to get a pack of rabid dogs to be nice. Can’t say I admire anyone so stupid as to try.

  14. Mo says

    Sep 1, 2015 at 11:54 am

    But where is the link for the movie?

    • Alarmed Pig Farmer says

      Sep 1, 2015 at 12:27 pm

      I had the same question. Ain’t seen the link, but I’d love to watch the video. I wonder if he got footage of the place where the throng of Moslem men wearing white angrily froth at the mouth as they throw rocks against that wall in Mecca. Always makes me wonder what they’re so enraged about. God I love that.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 1, 2015 at 1:21 pm

      Were you able to watch the trailer? It’s at the top of the article.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 1, 2015 at 1:52 pm

      Mo and APF, the documentary is now making the rounds of film festivals. It is likely to come into general release–at art theaters, anyway–shortly.

  15. gravenimage says

    Sep 1, 2015 at 1:51 pm

    “Islam is imploding upon itself right now and there’s a huge crisis,” he says, and adds that a reformation “is happening, but it is happening too slowly and we’re running out of time.”
    ……………………………………….

    Actually, the only “reformation” we see today is an increasing return to orthodox Islam–in other words, exactly the opposite of what Parvez Sharma appears to hope for.

    I would also be curious–while he is clearly enlightened on some points, I wonder is he is an orthodox Muslim when it comes to other matter such as hatred of Jews, abuse of women, or oppression and violence towards Infidels?

    I hope not, but as we have seen more times than we can count, this is *not* uncommon–indeed, it is rather the norm…

    Well, I did some poking around, and found this hatred of Israel:

    “He objects to the conspicuous absence of talk about apartheid in Palestine, the killings in Gaza, the lack of another Muslim voice with a different perspective. You can see how emotional he is”.

    http://muzzlewatch.com/2009/04/20/gay-muslim-filmaker-parvez-sharma-is-my-hero/

    Never mind that Parvez Sharma could be arrested, tortured, and even killed in the “Palestinian territories”. The *only* place he would be safe in the region is…in Israel.

    That doesn’t stop his hostility, though…

    He also says that while he is Sunni, he feels affinity with Shia as outsiders–without ever mentioning that Shi’ite Iran hangs gay people.

    And despite the fact that Islam is trying to kill him, he–no surprise–carries water for Islam. When asked what Infidels can do to help reformers like himself, he says:

    “They can help by trying to learn the essential fact that the bastardised versions have no resemblance to Islam as it was originally intended. They can help by becoming allies. So engaging with Muslims in ways that are more sympathetic and understanding. The siege that contemporary Muslims are facing is what non-Muslims need to realise.”

    In other words, they should stop pointing out how violent Islam is, or hold any Muslims responsible for this.

    http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/05/a-sinner-in-mecca-gay-filmmaker-on-a-hajj-of-defiance

    More:

    “There is nothing kind about this process,” Sharma says of his pilgrimage to Mecca. “He calls his first experience at the Kaaba ‘probably the most violent night of my entire life.’”
    ……………………………………….

    Islam’s most holy pilgrimage violent? I’m shocked, shocked..,oh, wait…no, I’m not…

    • Mirren10 says

      Sep 12, 2015 at 11:58 am

      I take it back.

      Since he hates Israel, and is ipso facto an anti-Semite, he isn’t a decent person. He’s a mohammedan shit bag.

  16. wendy says

    Sep 2, 2015 at 11:06 am

    why are there such dirty ads on the side of this article–they are disgusting and I am tired of seeing filth on the internet when I go to a site to read news. Please get rid of it as it is offensive. Why are we selling sex and death all the time.

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