Re: RE: Muslim Outrage
FiveParadox said:
I must disagree, Dexter Sinister[. I do, in fact, see a correlation between the two relationships; in one case, the actions of a few extremist Muslims are being applied as the wishes of mainstream Islam — even where Islamic Associations in Canada protest peacefully, and go further to condemn such extremist expressions.
However, in the case of the Klu Klux Klan, no such automatic application is made. The KKK is an extremist faction of Christianity — why, then, is there no automatic application to mainstream Christianity? Why do we accept that "Oh, it's different, they're only extremists" when it comes to the Klan, but most seem to think "Islam is a hateful and barbaric faith, because of these extremists" when it comes to Muslim extremism?
Dear Five. You might already know from previous posts and threads of mine that I have the utmost respect for Islam, have read theQur'an numerous times with pen and paper in hand, and literally (I'm not kidding here) lived with Muslims for over five years of marriage which eventually broke down partially due to Islamic fanaticism.
I'd received much harassement, my ex-wife had received threats at one stage. We had to move away from Victoria for her security. Why? Because the extremists were dangerous and the oderates were neutral to that. I'm afraid to inform you that among many of Canada's Muslims, extremism and fanaticism is the norm! This is not from newspapers, this is from my own eyes and ears, my own experience.
I will tell you tha most do not know the Qur'an, most have never even read it, and those who have have often read it in Arabic without even understanding its import. One man at a funeral in Victoria began spouting out how if Islam had nukes, the world would respect it more. Many of the Ethiopian Muslim community was there, and didn't think twice about it. And the Ethiopians are generally more moderate than their Arab brethren! Another couple were closet non-Muslims, and had said there were a few such people in Victoria. I haven't even gotten onto Montreal yet, and I'll skip that one for the sake of brevity.
I'm opposed to sensoring Islam or suppressing it or trying to discriminate against immigrants on the basis of religion. But I will tell you that something desperately needs to be done. If the liberals (even I tend to sympathise with the moderate left) want to avoid any suppression of Islamic immigration in Canada, then they definitely need to present viable alternatives to controls over immigration.
What are your alternatives?
From my experience with the Muslim community, one of the main problems is that the leaders are often among the more fanatical elements of the community, with the general Muslim population, among which most moderates are to be found, respecting the "erudition", "education", etc. of the "wise scholars" will generally passively ignore their own ideas (and some of these people are well educated, believe it or not) in favour of accepting those of the "scholars" in order to be in the right with God. So the moderates exist. They might be the majority, but they are a majority (even the educated ones) bowing before extremist clerics, in Canada!
The only way I could see of not controlling Islam while at the same time ensuring Canada's security, would be to break the power of the leadership. And the only way I could see of doing that would be to educate Muslim children about the Qur'an in a more intellectual and academic environment, thus breaking the shackles of dependance upon "the correct interpretation" as given by the clerics.
Yet even that would be a radical step. to actually impose Muslim education to Muslim children in public schools, possibly even against the wishes of the Muslim parents and community which intends on teaching not how to read the Qur'an for oneself, but rather a particular extremist interpretation thereof which controls the entire muslim community from the top, from the clerics themselves. So it would seem we have the option of a radical "left wing" step as presented above, a radical "right wing" step as presented by others concerning controls againstMuslim immigration, the veil, etc., or a centre which simply allows this cancer to continue to grow until it explodes in everybody's face.
Good one Joe. I'm going to keep that one!
