Muslims for peace

Hedieh Mirahmadi

Last week I wrote about the most persecuted religion in the world — Christianity. So dire is the persecution of Christians, Christianity is in danger of disappearing from its homeland. Christianity is most in peril, I noted, in Muslim-majority countries where either by official policy or official laxity, Christians are discriminated against, persecuted, tortured, threatened and even killed (Christians are not alone in this; atheists, Jews, Baha’is, and Muslims judged heretical are likewise persecuted.) Since this impending threat to Christianity has been largely ignored in the West I called upon the Western media to report on these atrocities and so prod Western governments to act in support of the universal human right to the free expression of religious belief. Finally, I said it was not my place to speak for Muslims but that Muslim leaders needed to make a compelling case that Islam is not inherently intolerant.

The most persecuted religion in the world

Over the past year, I have written of the intolerance that Christians have shown to Muslims in the U.S. From Missouri to Murphreesboro, Christians have demonstrated both a lack of charity and a denial of the right to religious liberty by setting fire to old mosques and opposing new ones. But Christians in the U.S. are rank amateurs compared to the Muslim persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Advice to the Sphinx: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Sheikh Murgan Salem al-Gohary recently called for the destruction of the Sphinx and Giza Pyramids in Egypt. In a television interview, he said, “Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam, including the elimination of idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues.”

How seriously should the Sphinx take the sheik?

“God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols,” he continued. “When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do.”

My advice to the Sphinx: be afraid, be very afraid.

Burning Mosques and Building Mosques

On July 4 we celebrate our Independence — “we” being descendants of those scrappy colonists who insisted on the right to worship as they pleased. However, in this day and age, we are more likely to extol the colonial revolt against the tea tax. But many of the early colonists were escapees from religious persecution in England. Various assertions of the King’s authority on these freedom-loving Brits led to our declaration of independence. Two things have changed since 1776: coffee has replaced tea as the drink of choice, and threats to religious liberty loom large in contemporary America.

Creeping sharia: a saner understanding

In my last post I talked about the fear that Sharia laws would replace or subvert US Constitutional laws. The claim is that Sharia has creeped into the UK and, if we are not hypervigilant, will creep into the US. I said that the UK is not really tolerant of Sharia laws, it is mostly just indifferent to Arabs and Muslims. I argued that this is based on a lack of respect and that if Sharia laws should impact “proper” Brits, they would rise up in enthusiastic support of traditional British law. But as long as female genital mutilations and child brides are restricted to Arabs, no big deal (this is not my view, this is what I think is the attitude of most Brits and explains why there are zero child-bride convictions and few FGM convictions).

Why do they hate us?

In a recent article in Foreign Policy, Mona Eltahaway, Egyptian born journalist, gets us thinking about “they” and “us.” During the so-called Arab Spring, Egyptian riot police violated her sexually and broke both of her arms.

It’s not the usual Muslims vs. the US sort of article. In the article, “us” is women and “they” are misogynists and patriarchs in the Middle East.

Socially, legally, financially, educationally, and morally, women are treated very poorly in the Arab world. One shocking statistic: 90% of married women in Egypt, a socially and economically advanced country, have had genital mutilation.

How to be a Christian terrorist

 Suppose we concede that we have an irrational policy given that most attacks against the US have been by Muslims (or at least nominal Muslims).

It’s not clear, however, that we should make such a concession. Were all of the attackers Muslims in more than name? Here’s another way of putting it: did their Muslim beliefs motivate them or was it some other, say political, belief?

The Munich terrorists, for example, self-identified as Palestinians, not Muslims; their motivation was political not religious. I won’t belabor the point. Any time there is violence committed by an Arab, the West usually labels the perpetrator, “Muslim terrorist.” Socio-political considerations simply fall by the wayside.

Muslim Male Extremists?

I was sent the following in an email that is being forwarded all of the world. I’m going to include the email in total below and respond to it in a few days. You might think of your responses in the meantime. I do not endorse the message. Here tis:

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves. Pause a moment, reflect back. These events are actual events from history. They really happened!!! Do you remember?