INDCJournal: Amir Taheri on Islam

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February 08, 2006

Amir Taheri on Islam

Posted by Bill

Amir Taheri, an Iranian terrorism expert often approvingly cited in right-wing circles, launches an assault againt both those inciting violence and those extrapolating such incitement to malign an entire religion as the definitive cause:

"The Muslim Fury," one newspaper headline screamed. "The Rage of Islam Sweeps Europe," said another. "The clash of civilizations is coming," warned one commentator. All this refers to the row provoked by the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper four months ago. Since then a number of demonstrations have been held, mostly--though not exclusively--in the West, and Scandinavian embassies and consulates have been besieged.
But how representative of Islam are all those demonstrators? The "rage machine" was set in motion when the Muslim Brotherhood--a political, not a religious, organization--called on sympathizers in the Middle East and Europe to take the field. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh with his own program on al-Jazeera. Not to be left behind, the Brotherhood's rivals, Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party) and the Movement of the Exiles (Ghuraba), joined the fray. Believing that there might be something in it for themselves, the Syrian Baathist leaders abandoned their party's 60-year-old secular pretensions and organized attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and Beirut.
...
The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists. Muhammad himself pardoned a famous Meccan poet who had lampooned him for more than a decade. Both Arabic and Persian literature, the two great literatures of Islam, are full of examples of "laughing at religion," at times to the point of irreverence. Again, offering an exhaustive list is not possible. But those familiar with Islam's literature know of Ubaid Zakani's "Mush va Gorbeh" (Mouse and Cat), a match for Rabelais when it comes to mocking religion. Sa'adi's eloquent soliloquy on behalf of Satan mocks the "dry pious ones." And Attar portrays a hypocritical sheikh who, having fallen into the Tigris, is choked by his enormous beard. Islamic satire reaches its heights in Rumi, where a shepherd conspires with God to pull a stunt on Moses; all three end up having a good laugh.

Islamic ethics is based on "limits and proportions," which means that the answer to an offensive cartoon is a cartoon, not the burning of embassies or the kidnapping of people designated as the enemy. Islam rejects guilt by association. Just as Muslims should not blame all Westerners for the poor taste of a cartoonist who wanted to be offensive, those horrified by the spectacle of rent-a-mob sackings of embassies in the name of Islam should not blame all Muslims for what is an outburst of fascist energy.

Read the whole thing. The nature of the religion itself is not the key to defining this situation.

Yet we still have this not-uncommon sentiment from one RedState contributor ...

The longer this cartoon controversy goes on, however, I'm more and more in the "nuke Mecca and be done with it" camp, and I regret getting closer to that position -- but I find the hordes of angry Islamists willing to be swept up into a fury over cartoons to be appalling and, most likely, a harbinger of worse things to come.

... and this from another:

For some perspective, these are not isolated, small protests. They involve tens of thousands of Muslims around the globe. A single Palestinian protest was said to have involved over 10,000 demonstrators and several have involved more than 5,000. They spread from Indonesia, to the Middle East, to Europe.

"Tens of thousands?" If that's all it takes to define a culturally homogenous trend, then surely hundreds of thousands of protestors on any given topic are also enough to classify the characteristics and opinions of an entire people, right? No? I didn't think so either.

"Perspective," indeed.

(Via IP)

Posted by Bill at February 8, 2006 01:13 PM | TrackBack (8)

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Comments

Nobody's interested in your bland, moderate crap.

Posted by: Donnah at February 8, 2006 02:38 PM

Heh.

Tell me about it, I can barely stand it myself.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at February 8, 2006 02:43 PM

I've taken a similar oh so brave and contrarian position myself and have yet to be ostracized by a bunch of strangers on the Internet. I wait and I wait but...nothing.

Want to order a pizza?

Posted by: spongeworthy at February 8, 2006 03:05 PM

I wish the Nuke-Meccers would turn the music down at their party. I'm trying to sleep.

Posted by: Donnah at February 9, 2006 12:20 AM

Using Amir to back you up is slightly amusing...considering he said this about Islam. That he doesn't understand why the cartoons were published doesn't help.

Ladies and gentlemen: Islam is incompatible with democracy.
I commend the motion.

For more...
Bill from INDC picks up a tutor for his cliff notes version of the Koran

Posted by: Pierre Legrand at February 9, 2006 01:29 AM

OK, I see your point.
Now, how about identifying a demonstration in the US anytime during your lifetime that drew 10,000 demonstrators, but didn't represent anything to speak of.

Posted by: Ken at February 9, 2006 02:24 AM

Ken -

Now, how about identifying a demonstration in the US anytime during your lifetime that drew 10,000 demonstrators, but didn't represent anything to speak of.

Uh ... well ... who the Hell is arguing that? I don't understand your question.

Pierre -

just because I cite Taheri's knowledge of Islam as a religion historically cited as being comfortable mocking its prophet does not mean that I agree with or bow to everything the man says. See how that works?

A. We are moving towards proving that Democracy can exist within the Islamic world with every subsequent election in Iraq; the enthusiastic embrace of the Shia and Kurds of the political process speaks well for the effort.

B. Dean Esmay's post went a long way towards illustrating that the two concepts can co-exist.

As far as not "understand(ing) why the cartoons were published" ... (addendum: see comment below)

YOU are the dupe by joining in and actively, loudly agitating for the clash of civilizations, lending the inciting authorities power. Tell me: how does it feel to be Assad's sock puppet? Al Qaeda's Western mouthpiece?

And Pierre - there is a trackback feature above (which you've used) to make your posts known. Don't push your luck with the link whoring in my comments section as well. I'll let it go this time.

Posted by: Bill from INDC at February 9, 2006 08:13 AM

Ah, my mistake. I thought you meant I didn't know why the cartoons were being protested.

It's my understanding that the cartoons were published to show the difficulty a Danish writer had with getting illustrators for a book, as artists were afraid of getting their heads lopped off by Islamists.

The cartoons have been subsequently published by other newspapers to either stand up for freedom of expression or to merely display the newsworthy art. I've also read that some of the cartoons were originally published in Egypt prior to the controversy.

So what exactly is it that I don't know?

Posted by: Bill from INDC at February 9, 2006 10:26 AM

Then what was the point of your post?

Posted by: Ken at February 9, 2006 05:14 PM

Bill - I like your "bland, moderate --" uh -- ideas.

And obviously others do too, or they wouldn't be here.

Now back to my own bland, moderate blog.

Posted by: Gina Cobb at February 9, 2006 06:33 PM

Good idea mate, great article as well.I have a question, Just wondering ... If the tories take over in the next general election, do you think our education system will get more efficient ?Thanks

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