FSM HOT TOPICS
Why Is There Hysteria Over Radical Islam Hearings?
by DR. LAINA FARHAT-HOLZMAN March 23, 2011
Two important Muslim witnesses at the hearings include Dr. Zhudi Jasser and Asra Nomani. Jasser is founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which urges Muslims to assume the responsibilities of democracy along with its rights, respecting US law above Sharia. Asra Nomani, a Wall Street Journal correspondent and much in demand Muslim author, absolutely agrees. She has staked her own claim with a fight for women's rights within Islam.
Islam is a religion, but it has always been more: a way of life that includes not only private belief but communal as well. Therein lies the problem. The documents that govern Islam (Koran, Hadith (sayings), and sharia (religious law) were not written down until well after the death of the Prophet and his circle. It is very difficult for religious scholars, not to mention practicing Muslims themselves, to determine the original intent of the Prophet-a problem not faced by any of the other great religions.
Judaism has a clear line of evolution and change, from fierce tribal beginnings to a universal monotheism; it supports a variety of interpretations, from traditional to modern, pious to atheist. Christianity, an offspring of Judaism, has gone through many phases and internal wars, but the initial messages of Jesus remained unchanged. The problem for Christians was to live up to those spiritual, loving, and peaceful words of their faith's charismatic founder.
Islam had a founder with two very different lives. The first ten years of his ministry were as a missionary, a spiritual man driven by his belief in one God. His last ten years were spent as military leader with the mission to convert all Arab tribes by force, if necessary, to create a Community of God. This process was bloody, often genocidal, and terrible-until Mohammad was able to return to Mecca as an unquestioned Arab religious and political dictator. He died before seeing the spread of his faith.
Muslims who think of themselves as a peaceful community draw their religious sources from the Prophet's first ten years. During that period, he preached tolerance, love of learning, and all of the other peaceful pronouncements that they cite today.
However, Militants, who can quote scripture too, derive their theology from the last ten years of the Prophet's life. It is here that they quote the Prophet as saying that they should offer conquered people a chance to convert, and if they don't, kill them and take their women into slavery. Here we read that Muslims should hunt down polytheists everywhere (Hindus, for example) and kill them. It is here that we find “death for blasphemy” and cutting off hands and feet of thieves. It is here that Jews are described as descendants of apes and monkeys. And it is here that the blueprint is spelled out for conquering the world until everyone worships Allah.
The Islamist militants, when confronted with the religious contradictions between the earlier and later Mohammad, say that the later was the “final word,” canceling out the conciliatory and peaceful earlier Mohammad.
Muslims who adhere more to the early Mohammad have a better chance of integrating into modern society. Some suggest purging Islam of all sorts of constructs that no longer valid, such as the blasphemy laws and the unjust subjection of women. But every time someone proposes such a thing, as did the late Governor of the Punjab Province in Pakistan and a Christian Member of Parliament, they are targeted and murdered, to the cheers of and street mobs and Islamist lawyers.
Supporters of the later Mohammad cannot really prevail. They have outraged not only their Western targets (9/11, etc.), but even more moderate Muslims. Islam faces internal warfare far more dangerous than the radical war against the modern world.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or http://www.globalthink.net/.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a historian, lecturer, and author of How Do You Know That? You may contact her at Lfarhat102@aol.com or www.globalthink.net.
Join FSM and stay informed. Get your daily Security Update delivered each day to your e-mail.
Ky. primary has Barack Obama doing battle with a phantom; Let the mockage begin!
May 22, 2012 07:50 PM
Vote-counting for the Kentucky primary is underway, and Obama is leading among preferred Democratic presidential candidates. But ah, ah, ah … not so fast there, Barack. Looks like not everything’s comin’ up roses in the Bluegrass State. ONE FOR UNDECIDED: Bath County, Kentucky Democrats take "Undecided" over President Obama by 725-715 votes— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) [...]
May 22, 2012 04:29 PM
The South Carolina AFL-CIO president is on video beating an effigy of Governor Nikki Haley with a bat. War on women, indeed, and it comes from the Left as always. To Leftist thugs and union goons, she was asking for it, you see. That "uppity" woman won't keep her mouth shut and all. Scratch a Leftist and you will find not only a misogynist, but a racist.
Media still covering for no Biden access for press, blame Romney
May 22, 2012 03:39 PM
Media bias alert! RT @zekejmiller: Worth noting, given Romney flap last week, press not given rope-line access to Biden event here in NH— Sarah Huisenga (@SarahH_CBSNJ) May 22, 2012 Um. After the “Romney flap?” You mean the “flap” that the media breathlessly and endlessly reported all while ignoring the fact that reporters were shooed off [...]
May 22, 2012 03:08 PM
I'll see your Cory Booker and raise you a Joe Biden.— David Freddoso (@freddoso) May 22, 2012 Rut roh! Shall we add him to “hostage watch?“ Biden: When Bain companies failed, it cost taxpayers money in unemployment insurance, pension costs.— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) May 22, 2012 Uh. When they are “too big to fail” and [...]
Dan Savage: Marriage is make-believe just like BDSM
May 22, 2012 02:46 PM
That oh-so-deep thought on marriage was a followup to Savage’s 140 character thoughts on BDSM: Some BDSMers take BDSM very, very seriously, of course, and strive to make it as real as possible. But it's still make-believe.— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 22, 2012 And I respect BDSMers who take it seriously. They're fucking hot. xo— [...]
FSM Archives
blog comments powered by Disqus