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This Article is from
The Society For Islamic Humanists message #1613
By Lysium
Dear Owl77,
I have been reading your postings and thinking about them.
It is true that fundamentalism is not a regular stream of
any religion. Can Islam be responsible for the acts of
Muslims? This question is raised again and again by many
people. Islam is not responsible for each and every act of
every Muslim but definitely responsible for the acts
concerning the religious matters. Let me elaborate it.
Islam is an abstract concept. In reality what exist is
Muslims who believe and practice Islamic teachings. These
teachings are understood and practiced depending upon the
individuals understanding of Islam. If a Muslim is caught
stealing, nobody can blame Islam for his acts. But when
women are treated second class citizens I don’t blame
Muslims but I blame Islam. If the women are prevented from
interacting with other members of society I blame Islam
for it. If a Muslim discriminates a non-Muslim on the
basis of his religion, I blame Islam for it. (Of course I
am assuming that you consider these things as evil). If
any Islamic country try to rule the country on the basis
of religious laws, I blame Islam for this. Because all
these teachings are as per Quran. You may consider Taliban
as evil. Don’t you see any relation between Prophets’
political theory and taliban ?
In some of your postings you wrote that we can ignore bad
aspects of Islam and take what is good. From practical
point of view it is perfect to do so. We also take good
aspects of other religions.
You advised that we should ignore bad aspects of Islam
and concentrate on what is good. It is possible when we
are in a position to decide and choose what is good and
bad. It is possible in intellectual matters and spiritual
matters. But in the practical aspects first of all there
should be free environment where I can have access to
different ideas and freedom to choose. If I am living in
Saudi Arabia, I do not have access to the material which
is contrary to the official version of the Govt. and I can
not follow my ‘version of’ Islam. I can blame the
Saudi Govt. for this situation. But is it that simple? In
the present Muslim countries ideological regimentation,
discrimination on the basis of religion, sect and sex,
lack of civil rights are practical realities. Political
power is in the hands of fundamentalists. How can you
“prove” that the fundamentalists are wrong from within
the Islamic framework. You may dispute with them in
details like how many lashes can be imposed for certain
crimes or how many inches should your Islamic dress above
the ground etc. But you can not question them for imposing
a dress code on all Muslims of their country or punishing
you for your religious belief. You can not question them
for treating women as second class citizens. Do you think
that confining women to their homes and not allowing them
to socialize is a result of some misguided Muslims or is
it a part of religion it self?
There is a lot of controversy regarding whether Hijab is
obligatory in Islam or not. The real question is even if
it is obligatory in Islam why should it be imposed by
state? If you question the basic principle behind the
states’ right to impose a religious issue, I think you
are questioning the important aspect of Islam, and not the
acts of some Muslims.
You advised to concentrate on what is good in Islam.
But in this regard I would like to mention that selecting
some aspects of Islam and rejecting some other aspects, is
not the question of interpretation of Islam but the
question of choice. That means we are subjecting the
aspects of religion to our critical reasoning and judging
it against some thing ‘out side ‘ of Islam. This
implies that we are not accepting Quran as the final word
of god. We are not accepting the notion that prophet is
the role model of a good character or what ever he said is
true.
In my view there are three categories of people.
1) People who consider all aspects of Islam are true and
correct for all times and places. We ought to follow every
thing. Whether they follow every thing or not is another
question but they recognize Islam as absolute. (Here, what
they think as Islamic may differ. But the question is what
ever they think, as true Islamic is true for them.)
2) These people like some aspects of Islam. They ignore
some other aspects though they believe that Islam teaches
these aspects. They may not pass a judgement whether these
aspects are good or bad. They simply ignore thinking that
they can not understand the purpose of such teachings.
Most of the moderates fall in this category.
3) These people also like some aspects. But they reject
some aspects. They can judge that certain aspects of Islam
are untrue or incorrect. They hold their conscience above
Quran above Islam. If the rejected aspects are of
fundamental nature then these people are called Apostates.
I do not consider that Quran is perfect and true. I do not
consider the character of Prophet is role model. for all
times and all places. I do not approve the Islamic
teaching that state should impose religious laws. I do not
believe that God created us to worship Him or God is in
need of our recognition to the extent that He goes on
punishing who do not worship Him in the “prescribed”
fashion. Since all these aspects are against the basic
aspects of Islam, I do not consider myself a Muslim. But I
do not understand how a person with similar views can
consider himself Muslim.
I do not know your concept of god or your views on
Prophet. I realized that it is not possible to question
the basics of Islam within the framework of Islam. I do
not know whether Sufis in theory question the validity of
some Quranic teachings but in practice they silently
ignore or reject most of the fundamental aspects of Quran.
That is the reason many Muslims consider them as
non-Muslims. From your postings still I could not find any
radical difference between your ideas and my ideas (in the
social matters like ethics or morals) except in you try to
ignore the negative aspects prophet and Quran where as I
try to high light the negative aspects. My aim is to show
that Quran is not God’s word. It is a product of
specific historical and socioeconomic condition like all
the scriptures of the world. All the teachings can not be
applicable to all times and places. To break the myth that
it is perfect, it is necessary to show what is wrong in
the Quran and what is wrong in the values taught by the
Prophet.
Since there was not much discussion on our philosophical
ideas, so I can not tell in what way your ideas are
similar to me or different to me. You were mentioning
about Mystics. I personally know some Mystics from both
Islam and Hindu religions. Though they are from different
religions in their philosophical out look they are
similar. It is love and devotion. How do you consider
them? Do you classify all the mystics in one category
irrespective of their religious origin?
I like to share your philosophical insights. So please
write about your idea of god, purpose of creation, place
of free will Vs destiny etc., which are the philosophical
foundation of any religion.
With regards.
Response to this message
Owl777
One Thirsty Fish
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