More thoughts about Islam
I wonder if the article I read in Newsweek can promote understanding between Christians and Muslims. Understanding some facts doesn’t mean understanding the whole situation and I personally don’t understand religion anyway in order to claim that I can ever understand Muslims, but I believe that man’s natural state is to be free and all my judgments are based on this belief and my personal judgment of what freedom means.
Two sets of events are analyzed:
- During the modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century Islamic education and law was marginalized. Lack of education led to the increase of tyranny and Puritanism. In stead of the traditional Islamic learning, which encouraged science and advancement there was nothing.
- Then there was Mohammad Ibn al-Wahhab, an 18th century thinker, notorious for demanding the death of those who opposed him. But he was lucky to gain the support of the Saud family and their petrodollars. This way his ideas spread quickly.
I want to believe that western culture has changed. Even if there are still tyrants in the world. In both sides. And nobody can take the other one’s tyrant down. There must be combined forces from both sides in order to achieve that. The enemies are not the cultures. It’s the tyrants. But while Muslims think that religiosity will protect them from external “bad” influences, so Christians do.
Finally, I shouldn’t neglect to mention how culture and religion have become one thing. I heard once, a long time ago, a Greek Muslim woman (converted) saying that marriage in Islam aims in protecting women. This was plainly stupid. You make women weak and insignificant and then you show how benevolent you are by offering your protection? But there’s more than that. Marriage is not a religious thing. It is social made religious because religion has taken over everything. When religion becomes the same thing with culture, this is when I call “mayday, mayday”.
Exploring Islam's 'Death Cult'
Two sets of events are analyzed:
- During the modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century Islamic education and law was marginalized. Lack of education led to the increase of tyranny and Puritanism. In stead of the traditional Islamic learning, which encouraged science and advancement there was nothing.
- Then there was Mohammad Ibn al-Wahhab, an 18th century thinker, notorious for demanding the death of those who opposed him. But he was lucky to gain the support of the Saud family and their petrodollars. This way his ideas spread quickly.
I want to believe that western culture has changed. Even if there are still tyrants in the world. In both sides. And nobody can take the other one’s tyrant down. There must be combined forces from both sides in order to achieve that. The enemies are not the cultures. It’s the tyrants. But while Muslims think that religiosity will protect them from external “bad” influences, so Christians do.
Finally, I shouldn’t neglect to mention how culture and religion have become one thing. I heard once, a long time ago, a Greek Muslim woman (converted) saying that marriage in Islam aims in protecting women. This was plainly stupid. You make women weak and insignificant and then you show how benevolent you are by offering your protection? But there’s more than that. Marriage is not a religious thing. It is social made religious because religion has taken over everything. When religion becomes the same thing with culture, this is when I call “mayday, mayday”.
Exploring Islam's 'Death Cult'