Letters to the Editor
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red star nominations
Chris. W and Zaynab!
Thumbs down for Mr. Cole's reply, which just ended with that tired old "so's your mama" fallacy.
Not to mention it was not in good faith to say that, while these Q'uranic verses can be taken to refer to self-defense in the historical context, they can also be taken to mean "the best defense is good offense" and HAVE been frequently interpreted that way by Muslim empire builders themselves.
Not to mention all the hair splitting about "Muslim" vs. "Islamic". Please.
Then Cole completely negates this spun sugar argument by petulantly saying, "well the Bible is violent too".
Mr. Cole, you are 90% of the time in better form than this, and I really liked your article's subject and was hoping for a good read, but it wasn't, for reasons that many posters here have pointed out.
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@Tina Shrier
The Pastafarians are devotees of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
I guess you didn't take comparative reilgions
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Rupert C
That was worth the agony of the whole last 15 pages.
Thanks :)
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@zzz05
Muhammed was a real person and an historical figure.
Abraham, Moses and Jesus are not historical figures and are more myths than real people.
There are myths about real people but these myths have nothing to convince anyone that these people are real.
King Henry VIII founded a religion and ruled over a nation. He was a real person.
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'Islamic fascist,'
Is just a bullshit term cooked up by the Bushies in an attempt to tie the "War on Terror" to the legitimate struggle against fascism during World War Two. It's a clumsy, awkward phrase and it rankles me whenever I hear it used by these politicians.
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DQuintanta
Absolutely true and on the mark.
Now if only Dr. Cole had actually chosen to write his article on this topic.
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Muslims against jihadism, fanaticism, and extremism
Why don't you hear moderate Muslim voices speaking out against jihadism, fanaticism, and extremism? Because you don't pay attention and because the mainstream media do not air these voices.
As a Muslim Pakistani-American, I'm always speaking out against the hate-mongering and militancy of the radical jihadists. All the other Muslims I know also speak against this virulent strain in Islam. There's a real battle for hearts and minds going on in the Muslim world between the fanatic intolerant jihadi Wahhabi mentality and the pluralistic, democratic, loving vision of Islam. The long and beautiful Sufi tradition also is a testament to Islam's inner meaning.
For those who are truky interested in learning about Islam and dispelling prejudice, I recommend you read Reza Aslan's fascinating and engaging book "No god but God" and Seyyed Hossein Nasr's beautiful explication "The Heart of Islam". S.H. Nasr in particular is a well-respected scholar of Islam who represents the majority view of Muslims around the world.
The Muslim world is as diverse in its approach to its tradition as are the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist worlds. Truly, at the heart of Islam, as at heart of the other world's religious traditions, is the relationship between the individual and God (or Ultimate Reality) and the cultivation of divine attributes out of love for Him (or Her, It). Many paths, one journey.
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I only wish this nation WAS founded on Christian principles
And run according to them.
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Reza Aslan
Was here at our college recently.
He's good, but in his interview with our local newspaper he identified himself as an atheist, if I remember correctly.
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Reza Aslan
Hi Tina,
I don't know Reza Aslan personally, so I can't speak to his individual religious beliefs. He usually begins his talks with 'Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim' (In the name of God, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful), so I was assuming he's Muslim. But it makes no difference either way. He still speaks truth to power, and everyone can benefit from his rigorous arguments and ideas. I'm looking forward to his next book "How to Win A Cosmic War" which should be published later this year.
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@Baloo
Just wanted to thank you for a remarkably intelligent, informed, rational and restrained post. While there are some semantic hairs we could probably split ad nauseum in the 5th paragraph, overall I think yours is one of the most on-point, insightful and correct letters here (and there are quite a few really good ones, which is, in itself, a great blessing for a change).
Just wanted to second 99 per cent of what you had to say. Maybe 99.5.
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The GOP's holy war - fruits of US Zionism?
Nice discussion. I do wonder if these nutheads and perhaps fascist wannabees - that is, the American politicians - are not entirely at fault themselves. The distinction made between Muslim and Islamic could just as well be made between the Jewish religion and the Zionist political movement. For the past few decades many of the latter's American followers have conflated the two in reverse, such that a criticism of Zionism or Israel's policies is by definition anti-semitic. Given their influence in the U.S., especially in Congress, it's not surprising to find that many American politicians and party activitists are prone to apply the same logic to the rest of the world in the wake of 9/11.
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moderate vs. fundie Islam
Maybe we need to abort the terms "moderate Muslims" and "Fundamentalist Muslims".
"Islamofascists" is not a term but a slander . Does anybody seriously use that?
I would replace "moderate Muslim" with "Third generation, secularized, usually elite, culturally-identified-only Muslims". Unweildy, but more accurate.
I would replace "fundamentalist Muslims" with..with...well, actually fundamentalist is pretty okay because they are concerned with the fundamentals of the relgion, such as Q'uranic absolutism, implementation of Islam as the state religion and Sharia as the state law.
Sure Muslims are in a battle between themselves. Who will prevail?
The secular elites have wealth and power on their side.
The fundamentalists have accuracy on their side. They can claim with some truth to be "better" Muslims, not Westernized hybrids.
The street is divided between the two. They would like the freedoms and civil law and all the other things. But they feel the fundamentalists offer them validity and stand between them and being exploited by the West.
Right now, who is offering the man on the street something, whether in Cairo, Karachi, Jakarta, or Istanbul? Is it the elites comfortably writing about what Islam "really" is, from San Francisco and from their university offices?
Or is it the fundamentalists, who, in addition to their more famous violent activities, also run various charities? Who is actually out among the people giving them sense of pride and place?
Naushad, you may be right about all you say, but the fundamentalists are winning this internal battle if the wealthy in the Muslim world, particularly those in the West, do not do something to appeal to the millions of their co-religionists living in poverty.