I have written that we should not dehumanise Muslims. However, we can be critical of religion and certainly those that try to be the apologists of it. Mehdi Hasan in writing “Woolwich Attack: Demonising Muslims Won’t Help” does not help by trying to rewrite the history of Islam. It feels like he is trying to take advantage of the solidarity we show Muslims by trying to get us to swallow that Islam has been misunderstood.
Perversely, it was the non-Muslim cub scout leader who, in trying to save the soldier’s life and standing up to his alleged attackers, was acting in accordance with Qur’anic principles. Let’s be clear: Islam, like every other faith, doesn’t permit the killing of innocents.
I have asked him via twitter what could possibly be perverse about a non Muslim going to help someone she thought was injured in the road, and verbally challenging the attackers? He may be wanting to contrast her actions with the killers. That is not what perversely means. Rather it sounds like a Freudian slip that Ingrid Loyau-Kennett showed heroism and compassion without needing to be a Muslim – how out of character for a non-believer, how perverse.
In case you think I am being too hard read what Hasan had to say in 2009:
“We know that keeping the moral high-ground is key. Once we lose the moral high-ground we are no different from the rest of the non-Muslims; from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfil any desire.”
The problem Hasan has is the belief the Koran must be right as the Word of God. As such, if we find anything there which is an anathema to us we must be mistaken in our interpretation. That does not work. The translation is very clear, and how the Koran and Hadith are applied in the world a testament that followers of Islam can think that too.
If Islam does not want us ever to harm the innocent, it becomes most important to know who qualifies. Clearly the following people are not as innocent as we would like them to be.
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Apostates
Qur’an (4:89) – “They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.”
Bukhari (52:260) – “…The Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’ ” Note that there is no distinction as to how that Muslim came to be a Muslim.
Hasan suggests apostasy is only a sin awaiting punishment in next life
Speaking of dehumanising:
Our rights in Egypt, as Christians or converts, are less than the rights of animals,” El-Gohary said. “We are deprived of social and civil rights, deprived of our inheritance and left to the fundamentalists to be killed. Nobody bothers to investigate or care about us.” El-Gohary, 56, has been attacked in the street, spat at and knocked down in his effort to win the right to officially convert. He said he and his 14-year-old daughter continue to receive death threats by text message and phone call. (Source)
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Homosexuals
al-Tirmidhi, Sunan 1:152 – Muhammad said “Whoever is found conducting himself in the manner of the people of Lot, kill the doer and the receiver.”
Speaking of dehumanising:
Citing the Qur’an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. “Even animals … dogs and pigs don’t engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments.” (Source)
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Unbelievers
Sura 9:29
YUSUFALI: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
PICKTHAL: Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
SHAKIR: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Speaking of dehumanising:
The restrictions placed on non-Islamic faiths, and enshrined in law in some countries different legal status of non believers.
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Women
Quran 4:34
“Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and forsake them in beds apart, and beat them.”
Sura 2:223 – Your women are your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like.
Speaking of dehumanising:
“The passage of a law in Afghanistan asking Muslim women to unconditionally submit to the sexual whims of their husbands once in four days is a shocking piece of legislation that seeks to dehumanise women reducing them to mere chattels devoid of human rights.” (Source)
My secularism means no Muslim should be threatened or denied their rights and must be treated equally as a citizen. An issue that I want Hasan to go further on is promoting acceptance and equal rights for gay Muslims. I know humanist Muslims that condemn the verses above. But the rights we give apostates, unbelievers, homosexuals and women are not because of Islam.
It is in spite of Islam.
UPDATE 1pm: The article above is concerned with how cherry picking is used, indeed by all faiths, or a different interpretation given to fit in with enlightenment values. All can quote mine, but my point above is not just that detractors of Islam quote mine – extreme Islamists do too to legitimise their actions, by law or by terror.
The key difference being I want Muslims to live in peace and harmony. Jihadists want us all, believer or not, to accept their version of faith and will do this by all means they can.
Because of how they view a book written over a millennia ago.
Is it too much to ask we move beyond one ancient book to work out how we should treat one another?
Follow up blogs: Hasan replies – perverse meaning of words
Buffet Style religion – the cherry pickers
Article written by John Sargeant on Homo economicus’ Weblog
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Homo economicus' Weblog 
Too numb to blog about this latest sacrifice on the altar of multiculturalism, but now I don’t need to, because you have encapsulated my thoughts with the grace and eloquence that I could never muster at the moment. I’m sick to a dead salmon’s gills of reading PC apologetic twaddle on one hand (“Terrible what happened, but what do you expect when we invade their land?”) and hateful, scare-mongering propaganda on the other (EDL, BNP). Where is the voice of sanity? Too numb, like me, I expect to say anything lest we are accused of racism. So thank you for casting a wonderfully balanced and rational view into the void. Respectfully, A
“Once we lose the moral high-ground we are no different from the rest of the non-Muslims; from the rest of those human beings who live their lives as animals, bending any rule to fulfil any desire.”
What truly arrogant, despicable, and literally de-humanising thing to say.
From Harry Perry on Facebook (with permission for me to re post here)
Good post John. There is a fundamental contradiction here isn’t there. Hasan is likely to complain that you have taken the “kill verses” in the Koran out of context and assert that those numerous Islamist groups across the globe who engage in daily killing of unbelievers, apostates, gays or anyone of a different Muslim sect are not following the tenets of the Koran, despite their quoting the kill verses as their justification. This places those of us who just want to get along with our Muslim neighbours in an impossible situation. Inevitably the more cynical amongst us will see mainstream Muslim disavowals as part of a game that facilitates Islam making advances while we rest easily in our gullible complacency. When the doubters raise the clear contradictions between the Koran+Islamist practice and the assertions of the Muslim mainstream the Left is likely to accuse them of Islamophobia and being fellow travellers with the EDL or BNP. Many non-believers suspect that by the time it has become obvious what they fear Muslims are up to it will be too late and we will be living under Sharia law. It’s a question of trust and the only thing that will build that trust among wide swathes of the non-Muslim population is to see mainstream Muslims actually abandoning the religion or publicly condemning the kill verses and embracing secular liberalism. And that ain’t going to happen, if anything the trend is in the opposite direction. Any solution?
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