Dumbassness of the Day: the Taliban 247365

Yesterday in Kandahar, Afghanistan, fifteen young girls were sprayed in the face with acid by an unidentified attacker. Although the girls were wearing head to toe burkas, some were still injured. The Taliban has denied involvement in the attack but it fits with their narrow interpretation of Islam, especially their treatment of women. Backward and illiterate, they skipped over the part in the Koran that tells Muslims to educate their daughters as well as sons.

Islam, or any religion for that matter, in the hands of the illiterate can be dangerous. Fundamentalist groups like the Taliban prove this over and over again. In Somalia, the Islamic Courts stoned a 13 year old rape victim to death. In Afghanistan, the Taliban murdered Malalai Kakar, the highest ranking female police office in the country. Now it’s acid in the faces of young girls on their way to school.

As usual, none of the Islamic clerics or governments have come out against these attacks on women. Not one fatwa, not one condemnation, just silence. Since when did women become the enemy in Islam?

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Fundamentalist Islam Strikes Again!

A few days ago, twenty-three year old Asha Ibrahim Dhuhulow,was stoned to death in Kismayu, Somalia. Score another one for Islamic extremists and their strict, archaic interpretation of Islam and Sharia law. Dhuhulow was accused of adultery and paid for it with her life. According to Sheikh Hayakalah, the Sharia court judge:

“The evidence came from her side and she officially confirmed her guilt, while she told us that she is happy with the punishment under Islamic law.”

Really!? Not that the 23 year old stoning victim can speak for herself now but I highly doubt she said that. In a gruesome scene that sounded like something out of the dark ages, the alleged adulteress was buried in a hole up to her neck while stones were thrown at her. A crowd of more than a hundred looked on. No word on what happened to the man she committed adultery with but I bet he didn’t get stoned to death. This kind of barbaric punishment whether in the name of Islam or not, needs to stop!

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Defining Martyrdom

Photo of Afghanistan policewoman Malalai Kakar in her burkha from Mother Jones.

As a Muslim, I have to admit that I am annoyed and appalled at what gets passed off as Islam. Yesterday in Afghanistan, Malalai Kakar, a 41 year old policewoman, was assassinated by two men on motorbikes. The newly resurgent Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Kakar was a mother of six children and the most prominent policewoman in the Afghanistan police force. She followed her father and brother into law enforcement in 1982 but when the Taliban came to power, she was prevented from working. She returned to the police force when the Taliban was ousted by the U.S. and its allies in 2001.

The Taliban emerged as a political power during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1990s. Under the leadership of Mullah Omar, the Taliban instituted a strict interpretation of Islamic law (Shariah) and was aided along the way by the ultra conservative Wahhabi teachings of our ally and friend, Saudi Arabia. As we’ve seen, religion in the hands of the angry and uneducated becomes a very dangerous tool. If you think you know what Islam is, think again.

By murdering Kakar, the Taliban are attempting to intimidate the women of Afghanistan. The Taliban and those of the backward ilk who murder in the name of Islam want to deprive women, girls and just about everyone else of a future with their nihilistic death wish. Sadly, they are ones who have defined Islam for the rest of the world.

In Islam, a martyr is someone who dies as a witness for good against evil. Though her Taliban murderers would claim they are waging a war against infidels, it is people like Malalai Kakar who chose to stand against intimidation and violence who are the real martyrs.

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Obama and Osama?

I belong to what I thought was a progressive group of people who are interested in social and economic justice as well as the environment. We share ideas about business and eco-friendly ways to make money while also making the world a better place. One of the members of our group sent a very disturbing email last week. The person was either jerking everyone’s chain or was really serious. This person was serious.

After the message was sent, many of our members jumped on this person’s case and an apology was issued.
As scary as the message sounds, it appears that this person is not the only one who espouses such disturbing beliefs. The good thing about being an American is having freedom of speech and being able to express opinions that are not always part of the mainstream. Here’s what they email said:

How can any American vote for a Muslim to be President of our country? It was Muslims who knocked down the twin towers, killing thousands of innocent Americans. It is Muslims who are killing thousands of our soldiers fighting the war on terror. It is Muslims who do and say NOTHING against the Muslim attacks on innocent Americans. It is Barack Obama who is against the war on terror. Whether or not he currently (or openly) practices the Muslim religion, he has a Muslim name and Muslim roots. He has stated that our troops should be out of Iraq by March 31, 2009 (within a couple of months of taking office). He is Al Qaida’s inside man, or at least the answer to their prayers. He also wants to give citizenship to every illegal person in this country and then give them free healthcare and jobs and money to start their own businesses at our expense.

NAME REMOVED

Red-Blooded American

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The Rules for Jihad

Sunday’s New York Times carried an article about jihad etiquette that touched upon every stereotypical belief about Islam that you could possibly imagine. The reporter, Michael Moss opens with a sensationalist bit about a jihadist who wanted to kill him because he is American and asked too many questions. Since Moss was the guest of Jordanian researcher, Marwan Shehadeh, he was saved because Shehadeh refused to allow him to be murdered.

This encounter set the tone for the rest of the interview but I got the feeling while reading it that Moss due to his ignorance of Islam, allowed himself to be duped by misguided scholars and researchers with their own personal agendas. Although Moss mentions that this group of backward minded people doesn’t represent the majority of Muslims, he has joined the chorus of journalists who only focus on what I call the lunatic fringe, the jihadists, al-Qaeda-types.

The biggest problem I have with these five rules of jihad etiquette is that it proves people will go to great lengths to justify murder and promote their own jihadist agenda. I don’t care who give the final approval for suicide bombings and martyrdom, whether it’s a scholar like Shehadeh or Osama bin Laden, murder is still murder no matter who does it. By killing innocent people, they are still committing a sin in Islam. Just like killing oneself is a sin, so is the killing of others no matter how you want to translate the verse from the Koran.

Another problem I have with jihad etiquette is that it plays up the post 9/11 paranoia many Americans have about terrorists and terrorist attacks. From Moss we know that jihadists don’t like Americans but we also now know that these jihadists have no reservations about killing innocent people, British citizens who voted for Tony Blair or even bankers. Everyone is fair game and the jihadist rules provide justification for. This is problematic on so many levels. The sources interviewed for this article are considered to be authorities on Islam but lack a moral compass. These jihadist rules were created to absolve suicide bombers of any guilt they might feel for killing innocent people. It’s called making someone feel good about doing something they know is bad.

Throughout history, religion has been used to justify all kinds of wrong. These jihadists and are no better than murderers and serial killers. Using Islam to justify suicide bombings and the murder of innocent people is deplorable, it just disguises the fact that these men are murderers. As far as the five rules of jihad etiquette, I say they are justification to commit murder on behalf of some kind of twisted honor or religious duty. If being a martyr is such a good thing, Osama bin Laden and all of those other jihadist leaders should have been the first in line to blow themselves up for the cause.

Five rules or not, a murderer by any other name: martyr, freedom fighter, revolutionary, etc. is still a murderer whether one is using the Koran, Bible or other holy book to justify it. Islamic scholars and others who condone this kind of violence Calling this foolishness etiquette is to imply that this conduct is the result of good breeding, I beg to differ.

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Carlos the Jackal Embraces Islam

Reuters Photo taken from Stuff

By my estimates, the majority of violence that takes place in the Middle East and other parts of the world is attributed to Muslim fanatics or jihadists. For those of you who don’t know, a jihadist is usually defined as a Muslim who has decided to make the ultimate sacrifice for what they perceive to be a war against the Islam; they blow themselves up in public places killing and maiming innocent people with them. Jihadists are known by other names like Islamic extremists, Muslim fanatics, suicide bombers, martyrs, etc. because they are willing to die for their cause however misguided it may be.

Jihadists are supposed to be dedicated to justice and furthering the cause of Allah but this is rarely the case. They believe by murdering innocent people, whether in Iraq, the World Trade Center or a Spanish train, they will make it to paradise. There is nothing honorable about murdering innocent people and claiming to be a devout Muslim, it doesn’t work that way. Instead of paradise, these murderers need to spend eternity in the burning pits of hell or someplace where its very uncomfortable, perhaps Dante’s Inferno, Ninth Circle, Ring Four where the worst sinners are punished by spending the rest of eternity in an icy submersion. Now that’s cool! For those who misunderstand Islam to be a religion of violence and intolerance, they’d best be educating themselves instead of relying on television commentators, religious zealots and the media for the truth. Lies are always more convincing than the truth.

I read today that convicted mad bomber Illich Ramirez Sanchez aka ‘Carlos the Jackal’ has converted to Islam and has praised Osama bin Laden. He can’t be serious so I’m assuming he became Muslim so he can wage his own holy war and justify the murder of innocent people. I’m deciding whether I should believe it but in the meantime I cringe because the last thing Islam needs is another lunatic. I find it duplicitous for someone like ‘Carlos the Jackal’ to be a Muslim and condone the murder of innocent people, it’s an anathema.

In the meantime, I don’t care if he took his vow to become a Muslim; I don’t consider him Muslim any more than I consider Osama bin Laden and the rest of those extremist murderers Muslims. They hide their evil behind the veil of Islam, giving people the wrong idea about Islam. If being a martyr is so honorable, why hasn’t Osama bin Laden dedicated himself to the cause? Better yet, since Carlos the Jackal is so impressed with bin Laden, why don’t we send him on his own suicide bombing mission?

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Slandering Islam

I always like it when Christian types who generally know nothing about Islam (or any other religion) try to convince everyone else that Islam is a violent religion. When disparaging Islam, Christians resort to very unChristian-like behavior to make their point. The latest is an article by Susan MacAllen about “Myths of Islam” on a website called Family Security Matters, a hard right website that advocates defending our national security and has somehow launched their own jihad against Islam and Muslims.

Capitalizing on people’s fear and ignorance must be very lucrative. because website has articles about how the mainstream media enables Islamists, Hezbollah’s terror network in the US and how to bring a new perspective to reporting on the Iraq War. They’ve managed to take the best of fear mongering and mixed in a healthy dose of intolerance and a pinch of xenophobia. After reading some of this alarmist, narrow-minded journalism, if I didn’t know any better, I’d be terrified too. Luckily, I was born with commonsense and learned to think for myself at an early age so I’m not buying any of their claims.

One of the most preposterous claims made by MacAllen about Islam is that it does not deserve to be treated with respect like other religions because it advocates violence, tortures its followers and is intolerant toward other religions. I’m not sure how she arrived at these conclusions but I doubt she has ever read the Koran, studied Islam or any other religion besides Christianity. If she had, she wouldn’t be making ridiculous claims like this:

True Islam advocates violence, is political in nature, embraces dominance, tortures its own followers, and does not contain a seed of tolerance for other belief systems. When one understands this, one cannot in good conscience treat it as an equal to other religions. We need to correct our teachers, politicians and newscasters who make incorrect assumptions that we all share values in common.

People like MacAllen have a very short memory when it comes to religion, especially their own. Religion is all about interpretation and with more than 50 versions of the Bible and more than a dozen sects and offshoots, she must have skimmed over the parts about compassion, love and tolerance for others. Christianity has been used to justify a myriad of sins like slavery, torture and murder so for her to expound on the myths about Islam she needs to provide some evidence other than her own personal beliefs. Moral superiority coming from any religion is wrong but hypocrisy is even worse.

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Another Face of Islam

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Touba mosque, originally uploaded by tj.haslam.

Each year more than a million Muslim pilgrims make their way to Touba, Senegal to celebrate the Great Pilgrimage or grand Magal. This pilgrimage commemorates Cheikh Amadou Bamba, religious guide and founder of the Mouride brotherhood. For most Senegalese, Islam involves membership in religious brotherhoods that are dedicated to the religious guides or marabouts who provide guidance and advice to their followers.

Islam in Senegal differs from Islam practiced in other Muslim countries, instead of fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran, the Sufi tradition stresses love and knowledge through one’s personal experience with God. Religous guides like Bamba and his descendents are revered as spiritual beings that embody divine grace and as a result, are very powerful. Of the four major brotherhoods in Senegal, the Mourides are the most influential and have members all over the world including a large contingent in New York City. Mourides are known for their hard work and reverence for their religious guide. Senegal’s recently reelected President Abdoulaye Wade is a devout Mouride.

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Puppet of the Neocons

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali, originally uploaded by jackobrinkman.

Outspoken critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is being played by the neoconservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI). If you are looking for up and coming neoconservatives, AEI is the place to be. Its board members, scholars and fellows have been appointed to powerful positions within the Bush administration, think Vice President Dick Cheney and presidential speech writer Dave Frum.

Hirsi Ali rubs shoulders with such famous conservatives and elitists like Lynne Cheney, Dick Cheney’s wife, Newt Gingrich and the author of the Bell Curve, Charles Murray. This is an unseemly bunch of folks for Hirsi Ali to be tied up with. After being kicked out of the Dutch parliament, Hirsi Ali, was invited to the US by AEI. They were, no doubt, impressed with her seditious views about Islam, most notably that the prophet Mohammed was a pervert and tyrant and that Islam is a backward religion.

Hirsi Ali’s inflammatory statements about Islam coupled with her involvement in a documentary about Muslim women and violence have garnered her multiple death threats (fatwahs). Estranged from family and accompanied by bodyguards 24/7, Hirsi Ali is extremely bitter about the brutality she experienced during childhood and adolescence. She has survived some of the worst things that we in the West have come to associate with Islam: maltreatment of women, female genital mutilation and arranged marriage. The only thing that appears to be missing in her family is a suicide bomber.

Our country is in the midst of a war on terror which is perceived by many in the world as a war against Islam. This couldn’t be a better time for Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim who paints all of Islam with a broad brush, to spread her Islamophobic ideas here in America. While those people over at AEI can welcome her and her ideas with open arms, I’m a bit more suspicious.

Hirsi Ali’s experience does not represent the experience of all Muslim women and her views are not representative of Islam. She is a divisive figure whose views are inflammatory, distorted and misleading.

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