Why I am not a moderate Muslim

Article Source: The Radical Middle Way

Last month, three Muslim men were arrested in Britain in connection with the London bombings of July 2005. In light of such situations, a number of non-Muslims and Muslims alike yearn for “moderate,” peace-loving Muslims to speak out against the violent acts sometimes perpetrated in the name of Islam. And to avoid association with terrorism, some Muslims adopt a “moderate” label to describe themselves.

I am a Muslim who embraces peace. But, if we must attach stereotypical tags, I’d rather be considered “orthodox” than “moderate.”

“Moderate” implies that Muslims who are more orthodox are somehow backward and violent. And in our current cultural climate, progress and peace are restricted to “moderate” Muslims. To be a “moderate” Muslim is to be a “good,” malleable Muslim in the eyes of Western society.

I recently attended a debate about Western liberalism and Islam at the University of Cambridge where I’m pursuing my master’s degree. I expected debaters on one side to present a bigoted laundry list of complaints against Islam and its alleged incompatibility with liberalism, and they did.

Violence amid Political Wrangling: Pakistan Zindabad

Another typical day in Pakistan. 2 suicide bombers, blowing themselves up, almost at the same time. And who are the targets? Factory workers at Pakistan’s main ordinance factory. As of this moment, the death toll has been reported to be 70. The families of the dead have only one person to thank for this tragedy… Musharraf.

I am at a total loss of words right now. My heart goes out to those who lost their lives, and their families. I try hard not to think about the government, or the ex-president, or the baboon who is the US president. I actually have to make an effort… because I can feel blood rushing to my head, a vein in my forehead pulsating. Honestly, I feel like blowing someone’s head off right now. Just like those terrorists, I want to kill too.

I want to kill those who are sitting in comfy chairs in air conditioned rooms, having a hundred people waiting for their command to serve them, discussing how to grab more power. Wrangling over who will be the next president. In other words, who will be mutually beneficial to every one in power to loot and plunder this already raped nation of ignorant fools.

Pakistan – the land of the pure. My elders gave up everything they had to come live in this country. They must’ve had high hopes. Almost unrealistic. They had hoped to finally be able to live in a country they could call their own. A muslim country where they would be proud citizens of a muslim nation. A place where Islam would be practiced without any fear or prejudice.

Islam? What Islam? It has taken us just 60 years to forget what Islam is. Islam is peace. And we kill innocent people in the name of this pure religion that prohibits all such actions. I keep trying to come up with a better word… but ignorat – JAHIL – is the only word I manage to come up with. Yes… a JAHIL nation.

I sit and I wait like millions of others. There must be SOME outcome of all this. Will Pakistan cease to exist? Will we be the next Iraq? Or will be simple self-destruct, like we are trying so hard? Only Allah knows.

Pakistan Zindabad.

CNN: Child bride gets divorced after rape, beatings

This is the MOST viewed story on the CNN website today.

Nujood Ali is 10 years old, but she already has been married and divorced. It was an arranged marriage in which she said a husband three times her age routinely beat and raped her.

“When I got married, I was afraid. I didn’t want to leave home. I wanted to stay with my brothers and sisters and my mom and dad,” she said, speaking to CNN with the permission of her parents.

“I didn’t want to sleep with him, but he forced me to. He hit me, insulted me.”

As she plays marbles with her brothers and sister, Nujood is a portrait of innocence, with a shy smile and a playful nature….”

The news story is followed by a long discussion of readers on Islam and the west.. totally getting off topic.. the westerners going on about how this is a religious problem and the muslims (supported by a few correct minded westerners) trying to prove otherwise, branding it a cultural problem.

But are we really dealing with a problem here? The world is full of bad people. If one person does something, and I am not talking about a group of people, like American interogators at Abu Gharaib or Guantanamo, I am talking about ONE person, can it be generalized to the entire region, nation, or religion???

Like every other faith, Islam has its own guide lines. You have a problem with them, take a hike! Muslims are not going to stop practicing their religion just because some illiterate, ignorant fool who dropped out of high school in his freshman year, and who’s sitting somewhere in small town USA, listening to Rush Limbaugh and watching FAUX (fox) news decides that it is wrong for muslims to marry their children young.

BIG DEAL! So Islam tells muslims to marry their girls when they start menstruating! Could there be ANYTHING better than that? If only every society, including the modern day so called muslim societies, were practicing this today, we would have a lot less messed up teenagers, a lot less headache for parents, a morally healthy and ethical society and much less bastards in this world.

They object that men marry more than once. Islam allows them to. Now lets compare. And i am not comparing islam with christianity or judaism or hinduism or any other religion. My comparison is between the fundamental Islam and the modern western society… the society of the so called leaders of the free world. Coming to the point, In America, according to the federal government statistics posted HERE, an average male sleeps with 7 women in his life time. 29% men sleep with 15 or more partners. 9% of women say the same. Not the mention that 16% of Americans lost their virginity before the age of 15, and another 16% waited till they were 21.

Do I even need to go into the details of moral and ethical implications of these figures? And let me remind again. Muslim men are allowed UPTO 4 wives at a time. There are more than 1 billion muslims in this world. How many of them do you think marry 4 women at the same time? Would it be better to marry early than to get drunk and loose your virginity to a stranger at the age of 16? And would it be better to marry more than one woman legally, than to marry one and cheat on her?

According to another article on the MSNBC website, HERE, 22% of married men who participated in a survey said they had had extra marital affairs, for “thrills or true love.” The articles goes on to say that it is believed that the true number is supposed to be twice more than what the survey calculated, that is, 44%. That is almost half of the married population of the leaders of the free world.

So I ask again… where exactly is the problem???