From Ali Rivzi:
~
A tw**t to the Yale Muslim Students’ Association
September 14, 2014 • 1:30 pm
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I thought exact the same…. :))
sub
Brilliant!
Heh.
Ha! Spot on.
Pretty insulting and silly of various Islamic student groups to argue that an educated and articulate Muslim who has been the victim of Islamic practices and who’s life is continuously in danger of credible assaination threats by Musims not be allowed to speak on the issue of the danger of Islam for lack of a PhD.
Educated and articulate apostate, to be precise.
I had never encountered Ali Rizvi before. He wrote An Atheist Muslim’s Perspective on the ‘Root Causes’ of Islamist Jihadism and the Politics of Islamophobia on HuffPo. Good stuff. Thanks, Jerry.
An atheist muslim??
There is an old Belfast joke about the man stopped at a roadblock and asked his religion. When he replies that he is an atheist he is asked, “Protestant or Catholic atheist?” (Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great, 2007)
He likes holidays and his Muslim friends. Like I enjoy Christmas trees and my Xtian friends. I don’t call myself a “Christian atheist”, though. Minor difference, though.
Dawkins refer to himself as “culturally Church of England and an atheist”
He explains it in his (excellent) article. “I’m not a believer, but I love Eid, the feasts of Ramadan and my Muslim family and friends.” Similar to saying that you’re a “cultural Jew”.
I suppose in a sense it could be confusing in the context of trying to convince people that Islam is a set of ideas, not something you’re born with, so that “Islamophobia”, if it means criticism of ideas, is not prejudice. But on the other hand, maybe the unusual term “atheist Muslim” underlines the fact that one can choose to embrace the good aspects of Islamic culture and teaching whilst rejecting the bad ideas. On balance, I like it.
Maybe “cultural Jew” seems more logical to me because there are so many of them. Jews don’t execute people who leave their religion, so they tend to multiply. Traditionally, there haven’t been too many “cultural muslims” because the penalty is rather steep. Even in places like the US, where they aren’t (hopefully) executed or imprisoned, they are shunned by their communities and are not accepted as “cultural muslims” by other muslims.
most turkish muslims are cultural muslims. and they are considered ‘not real muslims’ by muslims from other countries. i guess they exist
From my understanding of the religion, Sunnis and Shiites don’t consider each other real Muslims, either.
Yes probably like an atheist Jew. Ie just a cultural Muslim. However I don’t call myself an atheist Jain. I want just to enjoy the best of culture everywhere. I don’t want to restrict myself in any ghetto.
As far as I know, “atheist Jain” is redundant, since , strictly speaking, all Jains are supposed to be atheists.
Although it does seem that a lost of modern Jains don’t seem to follow Jainism that strictly.
That’s not true. All Jains believe in god but it’s not an Allah type of god, more “ground of being” type. And they definitely think morality comes from god.
I am not sure what modern lay Jains believe, but the rejection of any kind of creator deity (including the law-giver kind in Islam or Christainity, or the “ground of all being” kind in certain sects of Hinduism) seems to be a core tenet of orthodox Jainism. Wikipedia even has a whole article on the topic, which also quotes the famous argument against God of the Jain philosopher Jinasena.
So I am not sure you are portraying Jain beliefs correctly when you say “they definitely think morality comes from god.”
A good article. Thanks!
Ha ha! A long the lines of me asking which Imam they wanted to speak on behalf if Islam.
And sub
The world is filled with people, especially academic people, who believe one needs a license to think.
Refreshing. More like him in the muslim community please.
If they decline to invite him, I wonder on what basis.
Sub
The Muslim Students Association has got some chutzpah complaining about the ‘hate speech’ of AHA when they promote a bigoted, hateful Salafi called Yasir Qadhi
Here he is being promoted by them
https://mbasic.facebook.com/YaleMSA?v=timeline&timecutoff=1390240290&page=9§ionLoadingID=m_timeline_loading_div_1357027199_1325404800_8_9&timeend=1357027199×tart=1325404800&tm=AQCLVoXjBzlQ9NQ_
Yasir Qadhi is also a student at Yale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzPc0as8iXY
Here is Yasir Qadhi describing Jews as ‘hook nosed’ and saying that the Holocaust was a hoax
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGOO5FcAE8E
Here he is calling Jews and Christians ‘filthy’ and frothing at the mouth in hatred
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1jC0y8hIs8
He is a leading Salafi Muslim preaching hateful fundamentalist Islam, yet the Muslim Students Association seem to have no problem with his rhetoric of hate and bigotry.
It seems that he has subsequently apologised for his hate and bigotry, presumably they would say this lets him off the hook. But he is absolutely intrinsic to Yale Muslim Students Association. This hypocrisy is so sickening. Yasir Qadhi should be forgiven for his past hate speech, but AHA should be hounded because of some statements in the past? As for the Yale Humanist Association, can someone ask them for their opinion on the bigot and hateful Salafi Yasir Qadhi, or is that being ‘provocative’ and not ‘constructive’?
I suspected as much. Have you posted this anywhere else? It would be good to get the word out.
Sub
sub
I’d expect this level of hypocrisy from a Muslim group. It’s the atheists and agnostics association at the university that disgusts me.