Nouman Ali Khan of the Bayyinah Institute appeals to the Quran, the behavior of the Prophet Muhammad, and common sense in upbraiding the violent believers for letting Islamophobes get their goat and provoking them to actions that detract from the reputation of Muslims and Islam.
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It is a consistent mistake of the “West”/U.S. to equate (muslim)violence with religion rather than politics—whether it is suicide bombers, terrorists or violent protests—the refrain is always that “its about religion”—well it isn’t. Research shows that it is political ends that contribute to violence—but talking about that makes the “West” uncomfortable because it is the cause. The U.S. encourages and arms the radicals—then when they get out of hand—they shove the “problem” onto Muslims to clean up!!!
This is hardly unique to Muslim violence, though.
In the 1990s, during the breakup of Yugoslavia, the situation was frequently described in Colin Powell’s phrase, “Those people have been killing each other for centuries.” Of course, Serbs and Croats and Bosnians had been living peacefully in an integrated society for decades, and it was only after Milosevic engaged in shameless rabble-rousing for political purposes that the ethnic violence started, but it the overwhelming view in the United States was that culture, not politics, was to blame.
It was only after the establishment of Yugoslavia after the First World War, and particularly under the strong leadership of Marshall Tito after the Second, that Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians ceased inter-ethnic violence. Prior to the establishment of Yugoslavia, there was plenty of ethnic violence among the various groups. This is actually an argument for the necessity of a strong, powerful leader to keep a country with a disparate, multiethnic population in check.
Gee, there’s this place called “Nacerima” where there’s an unruly, disparate, multi-ethnic, religiously divided, angry and heavily-armed population, and a rapidly weakening set of “traditions” that used to rely on common myths about democracy and opportunity ‘n stuff, to keep it all from flying apart into little secessionist units in places like “Saxet.” One wonders if Bill thinks there’s an argument for a strong, powerful Naceriman leader (what he implies is “ruler,” not “leader,” like a Saddam or a Bashad or Shah or Ayatollah, with the attendant ascendancy of one of the disparate groups over everyone else, and I bet he would expect to end up being part of the Ascenders) to keep it all, what’s his phrase, “in check”?
That “in-check-ism” sure seems to be the central the notion that the Experienced Players in the Great Game are constantly working toward implementing, world-wide. It’s so much easier to “do business” with a kleptocratic dictator, now isn’t it?
As usual, it was left to Jon Stewart to smack down the right wing generally and Fox News specifically on how they are speaking of the unrest in the Middle East. In a bit with John Oliver “live in Cairo,” they put the whole thing in perspective.
Islam, they said, at 1,400 years old is like an unruly teenager. When Christiainity was 1,400 years old, it was conducting the Inquisition and burning women as witches because they were left-handed. And Jusiaism? “At 1,400, Jews were doing a lot of begatting,” Stewart, himself Jewish, noted.
I agree with you Anon but most American s are too short sighted and uninformed to really understand the politics in the middle east. because we have so many extreme christians thats all they are controlled by. They make it about religion because they don’t understand politics. It’s an easy out for them. All the media shows us are clips of Iran offering threats to Israel and they say its because of religion
The ultras in any movement are unreasonable, and there seem to be plenty of them in this one. A moderate who speaks up is brave. As you can read in Salman Rushdie’s latest, some prominent moderate Muslims were murdered for speaking out against Khomeini’s noxious fatwa.
Alija Izetbegovic opposed Khomeini’s fatwa when asked in an interview in 1993 but he was never murdered.
The ‘essentialized’ explanations are generally preferred, not because of lack of information, but because they are simple and easy. And they can explain so much, since they are so terribly general and based in myth-making. It’s done all the time by people of every culture and religion all over the world. It’s the basis of all racism, tribalism and religious bigotry. It can even be seen in American politics as conservative talk of the ‘evil nature’ of liberals; and liberals hunt for psychological explanations of why some people are conservative.
Of course, we never like these types of explanations to be said about ourselves, but they get used all the time about the Other.
link to youtube.com
Here is the khutbah from last Friday at my masjid in Sacramento. Advising us, in the example of the Prophet (saws) to walk away, to do nothing when our faith or Prophet are denigrated by others…
Do we really need to be concerned whether it is politics or religion? In my experience in the Middle East, politics is religion. What Americans have to be wary of is an Islamist with a bomb.
“Do we really need to be concerned whether it is politics or religion? In my experience in the Middle East, politics is religion.”
You make a good point. Nine years of living and working in Muslim and Muslim-majority countries, and the better part of 45 years of studying and making sense of Islam, have confirmed in me the obvious fact that Islam makes no distinction between the sacred and the secular. And therein lies a problem that is key to why it is so difficult for Islam to accept and come to terms with modernity. There are many reasons for this, but in my opinion it is primarily due to Al-Ghazali and the Ashar’ites shutting down free inquiry in the 10th and 11th centuries and the lack of an Islamic equivalent of the 18th century Enlightenment.
How did Al-Ghazali shut down free inquiry? Recommend some books on it?
No reason to worry about or be wary of a Zionist Likudnik with not “a” bomb, but maybe 400 of them, and an “enrichment” and actual bomb-making program that is operating with a pretty good head of steam right now.
This is a nice video. Thanks Juan. I assume others are conveying messages like this in their respective countries.
however, i hope someone can translate this in Arabic and other languages for people to see.