--- Edward Desilva wrote: > > please read the following article from the Observer > (London), (killing people in the name of religion > and calling it a peaceful religion? there is > something fundamentally wrong there, I say). > http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/17/netherlands.islam > > Here are some of my selected extracts from it if you > wish not to read the whole article:................ > > 'My intention is to show the real face of Islam. I > see it as a threat. I'm trying to use images to > show that what's written in the Koran is giving > incentives to people all over the world. On a daily > basis Moroccan youths are beating up homosexuals on > the streets of Amsterdam.' > Santosh Helekar chimbelcho at sbcglobal.net Wed Feb 20 01:01:43 PST 2008 > Unfortunately, when a gratuitous hate post is directed against an unrepresented minority there is no one to counter to it. I can only imagine how Tariq might have responded to this if he were still subscribed to this mailing list. > Mario responds: > Santosh, > While there is apparently no Muslim on Goanet to counter the post under reference, what prevented you and other Goans of good will from countering it, based on facts as you know them to be? > So, let me follow my own advice. I don't particularly care what Tariq would say, since he chose to drop out of Goanet. > I grew up among Muslims in India. I never saw them attack anyone pre-emptively. They, as well as my Hindu friends, celebrated my religious holidays and I celebrated theirs, out of respect and mutual goodwill, not religious conviction. Besides, no one makes better Biryani and Kababs than Muslims. > Whatever the intentions of Edward Desilva and Geert Wilders, a Dutch MP, may have been, it is simply wrong for anyone to attack and indict an entire group or religion using selective extracts from its Holy Book or the actions of some of its members without proper context and perspective. > Mr. Wilders says, "Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims." My answer is, "So what?!" The problem with his sophistry, if said as an indictment of Islam, is that over 95% of Muslims are not terrorists and only a very miniscule number are. All it suggests is where modern terrorism may come from for security and preventive purposes. > Mr. Wilders does not show the true face of Islam as he claims. He is using selective information to make his case. Most Muslims are no different than anyone else. Physically attacking others, wantonly killing innocent civilians, and suicide - whether done in the name of Islam or not - are "haraams" - basically mortal sins - in the Qu'ran, and those who promote such activities or engage in them are considered to be sinners and heretics under the precepts of the Qu'ran. > If there are supremacist tenets in the Qu'ran, there are similar tenets in other religious texts. People tend to commit to a religion because they feel it is superior to others they could have joined. As long as these beliefs end where they intersect with my skin, I have no problem with their beliefs under the principles of freedom of speech and religion. > Muslims are taught by the Qu'ran to defend their religion from attack. However, other than the occasional verbal attacks as in this post there is no attack taking place against the religion that justifies the indiscriminate killing being preached by Osama Bin Laden and carried out by Al Qaeda. Their motives are an aggressive form of politics and religious hegemony involving plans to form a radical Caliphate from which to spread their version of Islam around the world, by force if necessary. These radical objectives are on the public record. > The Muslim hostility and attacks on Israel are being justified by some religious Muslims by construing Israel's defensive actions and very existence as an attack on Islam. > To summarize, none of what the Qu'ran says on balance has stopped some Muslims from engaging in such aggressive and heretical activities any more than the Bible and Christian teaching stopped the Crusaders, the Inquisition and the other Christian extremists from carrying out their atrocities. > In my opinion, everyone of goodwill should avoid generalizing against any group, including Islam. There are more than enough individuals committing specific atrocities to aim your fire at without indicting an entire group or religion based on selective generalities when most of them are not harming anyone. >
