Readers defend Islam

October 11, 2014 • 8:57 am

I’ve trashed a bunch of either off-topic or incoherent comments this week, but perhaps you’d like to see a couple that didn’t make it past moderation. (I’m not including the insane personal emails I’ve gotten, either.) These Attempted Posts are pro-Islamic, which is no surprise given my recent criticisms of the faith. They weren’t trashed for that viewpoint though, but for incivility or borderline lunacy. No words have been changed from the original:

“From reader BlogPhantom (from the UK), trying to post on “Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Literalism ‘n’ “moderate” Muslims“:

Personnaly I think you guys are wrong. Islam is a true religion, it’s as clear as crystal water and it looks like some of you’s are just a load of brainwashed people. Honestly I would think you people knew your stuff, but now I think abou it you guys are on the wrong path. You may think JUST because I’m twelve I’m a moran, well that’s not exactly true because i KNOW MY stuff Alhamdullilah. Islam is a religion of peace, I see it all the time singled out on the media, you know why? Because it’s the TRUTH! And people don’t want you to know what the TRUTH is!!!

A moran? Any relative of Larry’s? Probably not, but certainly a Muslim.

********

From reader titani2, attempting to comment on “Maher, Harris, Kristof, Steele, and Affleck squabble about Islam“:

Dear Maher, Harris, Kristof, Steele, and Affleck: Do do not squabble about Islam. Just read Quran. Quran is here: http://www.clearquran.com

Well, of the four in question, I’m sure that both Maher and Harris have already read that book; I don’t know about Affleck and Kristof.

*******

Now here is what you call a real rant. It’s from reader Malu, desperate to tell us how to regard Reza Aslan on the post “The handy-dandy Aslan/Affleck refuter”:

 I am disappointed!! I normally LOVE YOU, and admire the “boys atheist club” very much!! But you guys are disappointing me!! You should not join your friends when your friends are incorrect and inappropriate!!! How’s saying “Islam is the motherland of all problems” going to help us??- It was appalling the way Reza was interviewed by those 2 sensationalist super-biased CNN commentators “a la FOX news” style bringing a calf (I won’t dare say lamb) to be slaughtered, the way that news now is reality TV, they were ostentatiously racist and biased, not professional nor ethical!! and that’s the way that radical militant Zionist Marher operates – also admire his brilliancy, but his shows are despotic, not satires, noone who disagrees with him manages to talk, not to mention that he puts one conservative lamb (this time I’ll write it) in the middle of liberal guests with a liberal audience!!!! How can you NOT speak up about that??? Reza is not a particular evil person because he writes in defense of religion or Islam. I profoundly disagree with him, but he’s intelligent, well educated, and the kind of person we should treat with respect since he may be a LINK to connect to moderate Muslims!!!! People bash moderate Muslims and leaders if they don’t speak to condemn acts of violence, than they speak and try to at least convince their own people that Islam can teach good things and that it’d condemn violent acts, then YOU people bash them!! (atheists can’t move so aggressively!! All we need to do is to put the seed of doubt, of questioning in a debate or exchange, that’s all. Use science when possible. We don’t have to be so militant, it’ll back fire!!!) 1. you mention as defense “notoriously anti-woman Sharia courts”, but that is just as vague and incorrect as Reza’s statement. There’s a particular province that has seen a rise in Sharia law enforcement, but not all provinces of Indonesia. Indonesian women are not in an equal level with their male counterparts but not so far behind American women with issues of wage, work force… but by law, they can vote, drive, go to school, and protest for higher wages like us. 2. “… and often has much more to do with the political power of certain families in under-developed parts of the world.” THAT IS SO CONDESCENDING!! Turkey, which you don’t mention at all, and Reza did several times, has had many elected female leaders by democratic vote, so did India (Muslim minority), Pakistan, and many Muslim countries, and even Iraq under Hussein was an incredibly secularized society, and Iran way back when; the US can’t get a woman elected not even with “political power from certain families”!!! and look at the racism and white supremacy violent escalation because we voted on a “black” guy!! Haha! so before you look down at other countries, LOOK AT YOUR OWN SHIT! 3. And perhaps, since you won’t take Reza’s statements, perhaps you will take UNICEF’s statistics, that show that besides Yemen, which has like Oman, large blood connections with some Eastern African countries, ALL OTHER countries to apply FGM are African which predates Islam was ever conceived! and these ARE countries of varied religious demographics!!!!! So do me a favor, don’t become a politician, don’t throw me rhetoric, the only strength of an atheist movement is its back bone, its high ethical values! Or you’ll loose people and it’ll back fire even more! Part of skepticism, is honesty including details!!!!!!!!! and why to fight moderate religious leaders, why not to work with them, try to persuade them with respect not disdain????

Where to begin? I suspect nowhere; a comment like this is for display and not analysis.  All it’s missing are some “frowny face” emoticons.

 

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40 thoughts on “Readers defend Islam”

      1. Well, “!” is ASCII decimal 33, binary 0010 0001, so you actually got twice as many ones as you did exclamation points….

        Cheers,

        b&

    1. Diana, if you wander around the Internet enough, you will find there’s a nearly infinite supply of exclamation points (and caps lock, too), with a generous helping of reality challenged opinion.

      1. Yes, when I taught myself morse code as a kid, I learned the “N” & “A” for my name. Also for some reason, Sid the Squid. I found it funny.

    3. Here (!!!!!!!). I culled these from commenters on The Blaze and The Hill. Worn, but still serviceable.

      2. Isn’t it just like those right-wing types to go squandering our punctuational resources with nary a thought for future generations’ emphasis needs? Glad you could recycle these.

  4. > Well, of the four in question, I’m sure that both Maher and Harris have already read that book; I don’t know about Affleck and Kristof.

    Actually, I would tend to doubt that Maher has read the Koran. He doesn’t strike me as a scholarly type (just look at his books). He’s more of a talking head TV personality. Kristof is more likely to have read it, although I don’t he has either.

  5. Probably not a better example of delusion than the phrase “true faith”. Of course your religion is the true and great one and all the others are just made up and therefore, false faith. Funny thing is the evidence is exactly the same for all. Such a coincidence the true look just like the false.

    1. If there was a hell, Malu’s would be where she/he would be forced to use paragraph breaks and sternly be instructed every second–perhaps via an ear implant with the continuous playing of said instruction–not to hog all the exclamation points so others can enjoy using them also.

      BlogPhantom may be a Poe, but maybe not.

      1. And in her/his hell he/she would be forced to take same sex lovers, none of which are virgins.

  8. “Boys atheist club”?

    Ah yes, let’s talk about Turkey – in which Ataturk outright banned Islam’s intrusion into government, imposed secular and compulsory education, and declared women to have equal rights, for which he is despised by those who want to return to Shari’a. Not the argument you should go for, Malu.

    1. Malu has also got the UNICEF stats a weird combination of wrong, misapplied and misinterpreted. I won’t go into the details as anyone who is interested can easily check them out.

      1. Not to mention he can’t even get a quote correct.

        “…“Islam is the motherland of all problems” going to help us??”

        Didn’t Harris say that “Islam is the mother-load of bad ideas”?

  9. Malu is so poorly educated. He has a little local knowledge and projects that on the whole world. So sad and such a waste.

  11. Malu, a writing tip: only put in quotation what someone said exactly.

    Bad:
    How’s saying “Islam is the motherland of all problems” going to help us?

    Good:
    How’s saying “Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas” going to help us?

  12. And perhaps, since you won’t take Reza’s statements, perhaps you will take UNICEF’s statistics, that show that besides Yemen, which has like Oman, large blood connections with some Eastern African countries, ALL OTHER countries to apply FGM are African which predates Islam was ever conceived! and these ARE countries of varied religious demographics!!!!!

    No one said that mohammedanism invented FGM, or that it was the only social factor in its environment, only that the major Sunnis schools support it instead of condemn it.

    Last I checked, the UNICEF statistics isn’t world wide. And that seems to remain the status, albeit they constrain the data now:

    “Although no nationally representative data on FGM/C
    are available for countries including Colombia, Jordan,
    Oman, Saudi Arabia and parts of Indonesia and
    Malaysia, evidence suggests that the procedure is being
    performed.63 It is also practised in pockets of Europe and
    North America, which, for the last several decades, have
    been destinations for migrants from countries where
    the cutting of girls is an age-old tradition.64”

    [ http://data.unicef.org/corecode/uploads/document6/uploaded_pdfs/corecode/FGMC_Lo_res_Final_26.pdf ]

    Now, why would Indonesia and Malaysia practice FGM, when they are situated right across the world from is major region? Maybe because their major religion is mohammedanism.

  13. “and why to fight moderate religious leaders, why not to work with them, try to persuade them with respect not disdain????”

    because I hold everyone in disdain who doesn’t speak up on their own. it’s these so called “moderates” that allow their silence to become tacit agreement with the lunatics.

  14. I’ve noticed in the recent week a number of people are saying that we can’t attack Islam.

    We don’t attack Islam. We criticize some of it’s adherents practices which we find abhorrent in a modern society. Or any society.

    Just as the moderates do. They ask that we support the moderates. We do support them, by joining our voices to those few Muslims who aren’t afraid to speak out.

    One particular apologist told me the worst of the worst only represented 7 percent of 1.9 billion Muslims. I pointed out according to his numbers (which I believe are over representative) this represents some 133 million ‘worst of the worst’. Equal to almost half the population of the USA. He didn’t think this was a problem.

    I really don’t understand why so many of those who say we are attacking are atheists or liberals. They must also see the violence, the misogyny and the tyranny. The spread of fundamentalist Islam and the damage it’s doing to women and children. And the majority has little to do with US troops on the ground or US imperialism. As Rushdie wrote “…much of it has its roots in the ideological language of blood and war emanating from the Salafist movement within Islam, globally backed by Saudi Arabia.”

    Saudi Arabia has financed fundamentalist madrassas all over the world. Critics have said many of them are teaching a particularly abhorrent version of Islam, and hatred towards the west, Jews and Israel. There is a reason for a spread of fundamentalist Islam around the world in the last 40 years. A large part of the problem can be laid at the feet of Saudi Arabia.

    When Islam’s apologists give us examples of moderates, it’s never Saudi Arabia. And when we complain of Saudi Arabia’s particular Islamic practices we are told it’s a minor example and can’t be held as an example. But we need to remember that Saudi Arabia is financing the spread of their sect of Islam all over the world. It seems absolutely absurd that we shouldn’t point out that Western nations are funding the spread of an Islamic sect that treats women like chattel.

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/madrassas.html

    http://fpif.org/wikileaks_saudi-financed_madrassas_more_widespread_in_pakistan_than_thought/

    http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/26014.pdf
    CRS Report for Congress Oct 29 – 2003

    “In response to such allegations and follo
    wing a review of schoolbooks in 2002, the Saudi foreign minister stated that, in light of a Saudi government survey, 5% of the material was considered “horrible” and 10% questionable, while 85% called for understanding with other religious faiths.”

    “Shortly thereafter, the government vowed to remove objectionable parts and to train teachers in promoting tolerance, but skeptics question the extent to which the government is willing or able to instill reforms in its schools.”

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