Sam Harris already posted this 7-minute clip on his site, but in case you missed it, this Muslim “peace conference”—held in Norway in May to dispel misconceptions about Islam—has in fact reaffirmed the view that Islam is far from a “religion of peace.”
The video, and the audience reaction, is unbelievable.
At 1:07, the moderator asks why the media is always focusing on the supposedly bad tenets of Islam while ignoring those of Christianity and Judaism. One panelist responds as follows:
“The answer is very simple: Islam is the truth. And Christianity and Judaism are not the truth.”
Can you get any more cocksure or arrogant than that? So much for the claim that religionists are humble.
At about 2:30, Norwegian Islamic leader Fahad Qureshi appears and asks the audience a series of questions.
At 3:30, he asks the audience how many of them are “not radical” but “normal Sunni Muslims.” All raise their hands.
At 3:47, he asks the audience, “How many of you think that men and women should stick separate?” All raise their hands. General approbation for the suppression of women.
At 4:09, Qureshi asks the audience whether they agree that Qur’anic-based punishments like stoning for adultery and other crimes constitute “the best punishment ever possible for humankind, and that is what we should apply in the world.” All raise their hands, and Qureshi approves with an “Allahu akbar!” (“God is the greatest”). In other words, they’re affirming sharia law.
At 5:05 Qureshi asks the audience whether they consider themselves Muslim extremists. Nobody raises their hand. (Remember, these are Muslims who live in Norway.) They again affirm that they are regular Sunni Muslims.
Of course there may be social pressure here, so that everyone in the audience must raise their hands to avoid social opprobrium. Still, this gives the lie to the notion that Muslims, particularly those who live in Europe, are rarely fundamentalists, and certainly do not adhere to the extreme tenets of “radical” Islam like stoning for adultery or death for apostates.
Some of you will say that this is not a representative sample of Muslims. But remember that this is a “peace conference” designed to portray “normal” Islam and dispel media misconceptions. And these are Muslims who live in Norway. They are not the Taliban.
Actually, the media does have misconceptions, but the wrong way around. It seems that much of the media fosters the notion that Islam is a religion of peace, and that those who believe in the subjugation of women, sharia law, jihad, and so on are but a tiny minority of extremists. In this case, though, the media has it backwards, for the evidence is that “radical” Muslims constitute a substantial fraction of all Muslims, including those who live in Western countries. It’s time that we realize this and stop cozying up to Islam in the name of interfaith harmony.
The coddling of Islam by mainstream media, and the presence of who cry “Islamophobia” every time that faith is criticized, is a function of “mainstream” Western religion. It is in the interest of all religions to support each other’s delusions, for if you show that one faith is based on no evidence, then you show that they all are.
Islam happens to be the most pernicious faith in the world today, and it’s disingenous to not see that. For one thing, it disenfranches half of its adherents: those who have two X chromosome.
And those who should recognize these dangers, and should criticize vicious Muslims like those in the video above, are the genuinely moderate Muslims. Where have they gone?
