Re: [IslamCity] Islam blasted by gay Muslim peer

[Ibrahim Hayani]

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Islam blasted by gay Muslim peer Exclusive by Urmee Khan 24/11/2005 NEW LABOUR PEER Waheed Alli has attacked Islam claiming the Quran is riddled with contradictions and the religion dominated by rituals. Lord Waheed Alli: searing attack on Islam. In remarks which will infuriate Muslim leaders the openly-gay Lord Alli accused clerics of being “intellectually lazy” and called for a “radical democratisation of Islam.” One Muslim figure who witnessed Lord Alli’s speech reacted: “I’m angry, I think he’s got it wrong”. The normally low profile peer waded into the religion in a lecture called ‘Islam the Third Way’ at the Canadian Embassy on Monday night. Lord Alli – who has previously never spoken out on Islam - attacked “Muslim reluctance to tackle the contradictions in Islam.” Referring to the community’s response to the London terror attacks, Lord Alli issued a stark warning. “Verbal condemnation is not enough. We can no longer be intellectually lazy”. values Lord Alli argued that Muslims must try and understand Islam better and Islam must be reconciled with the modern world, saying: “ritual has overtaken religion”, adding that 7th century values do not fit 20th century life.    Have Your Say “The problem lies in the Quran itself”, he said. “There are contradictions in Quran; we have to stop avoiding them. If you find the Hadith literally, you can kill and maim as many people you can. "If you use Quran as literal text, you can stone a woman who has been raped and in Iran, two boys were hung up for being gay”. Lord Alli, a friend of Euro trade commissioner Peter Mandleson, said that Sharia law could be a powerful defence in balancing the rights of individuals against the rights of the state. lambasted “In a Muslim country, I as a gay man, should be able to go to Sharia law for protection, Sharia law should be a source of protection not oppression” He called Muslims to follow “the third way” which he said was the democratisation of Islam. “We have to take individual responsibility for action, collective responsibility for our religion. “We are today at a crossroads – modern values in Islam against orthodox values in Islam, this century will be defined by this conflict – conflict of values” Green Party MEP Jean Lambert found his speech a useful contribution and called for Alli to speak on campuses where many tensions lie. “I think he was good, and he should go and speak to the younger people at the universities”. However there was some scepticism from the Muslims in the audience. A young hijab-wearing student lambasted Alli for misreading the Quran and argued that Islam guaranteed rights for women. A Labour politician said privately before the event, “I have great respect for his work in every other area, but I don’t understand why he has chosen to get involved in this debate”. Voted the most powerful Asian in the media in 2005, Lord Alli first came to prominence in the media through his TV production company Planet 24. Lord Alli, was given a life peerage at the age of 34 in 1998, became the youngest and first openly gay peer in Parliament. He has been very close to new Labour and was an outspoken critic on Section 28, the legislation that bans local authorities from promoting homosexuality.   Comment:   The war against Islam continues with so called Muslims who follow the western way of life being used to show that Islam needs to be modernised and made compatible with the western way of life.   What i fail to understand is that if these so called " Muslims" think that the western culture is superiour to Islam then why not abandon Islam and follow the western culture instead of reconciling Islam to agree with the west. How much free photo storage do you get? Store your holiday snaps for FREE with Yahoo! Photos. Get Yahoo! Photos To the No-Name Brother/Sister who commented on Urmee Khan's article on "islam blasted by gay Muslim peer: SALAMA Please don't blame the so-called "Western Culture" for the silly remarks/statements made by peer Waheed Alli.  The hard-to-define "Western Culture" has absolutely nothing to do with this kind of nonsense. Your argument is a useless argument at best and destructive at worst. You are avoiding the issue. For the blame (if there is one) should be put squarely and exclusively on the person himself. The so-called Western Culture is as wide and varied as the so-called Western world itself. Simply put, peer Waheed Alli is either ignorant and misguided (in which case he needs to be shown where he went wrong intellectually), or, worse still, he is trying to gain popularity by jumping on the wagon train of those who have made it their mission in life to demonize and malign Islam and Muslims (in which he needs to be exposed for what he is, a cheap opportunist.). Ibrahim Hayani *************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". SPONSORED LINKS Holy quran YAHOO! 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