Wintonsweek British Muslims Need Help Tackling Koran Reform Medieval Relics Must Be Dropped To Avoid Culture Clash Emancipate women, pay interest, end Halal killing for starters Dump “Desert Islam”; embrace independence and “Operation Ijtihad” The silent majority of British Muslims need our help as they seek emancipation from an often outdated religion, which insists on taking medieval writings literally and clashes with many basic British cultural and political standards. At the same time, there is no shortage of ideas which we can learn from Islam, which still reveres the family, and stubbornly refuses to embrace shocking western decadence like abortion on demand. At the moment, the problem of slavish adherence to Islam is the great unmentionable. We are exhorted to show respect and understanding for all religions, which sounds fine in theory. But this always falls short of asking the key and obvious question – just what are the principles of Islam? Are these principles compatible with the traditions and culture of Britain? Britain’s media monopoly, the BBC, is especially cowardly on this issue. The evidence of a culture clash mounts daily. Recently we heard the call for separate education for Muslims in Britain. There was also the demand, shamefully accepted by new Labour, for a scheme which would disguise the fact the Muslims were paying - shock-horror - interest on mortgages. This week came the news that police have reopened investigations into about 100 Asian “honour killings” in Britain, a concept that is an abhorrent oxymoron in the west, but not in unreformed Islam. In a recently published book, “The Trouble With Islam”, (St Martin’s Press - $22.95), Irshad Manji, says Muslims are trapped in a medieval, authoritarian and contradictory religion which enslaves women and encourages violence against Jews. Only root and branch reform can make Muslim life styles compatible with the freedoms and openness of the West, and this means confronting the rotten “desert Islam” which, by its mindless and literalist adherence to the Koran, condemns hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world to lives of poverty, ignorance, and exploitation by dictatorial regimes, according to Manji. Operation Ijtihad Canadian Manji, (www.muslim-refusenik.com) wants to start a campaign called “Operation Ijtihad”, named after a lost Muslim tradition of independent thinking. Manji’s thoughts are well timed, as here in Britain the nature of the Muslim religion and its incompatibility with British culture and traditions becomes ever more apparent. Her book is especially welcome because as a Muslim herself, she is able to spark a debate about the problem without the knee-jerk abuse of “racism” which always greets those pointing out the often ludicrously counterproductive, and down-right cruel nature of unreformed Islam. Dimmest Idea Of The Century? Here in Britain recently, a report published by Muslim academics and educationalists came up with possibly the dimmest idea of the century. The “Muslims on Education” policy document said it wants more Muslim-only state schools, and changes to regular state schools to understand better Muslim sensitivities. Apparently, some Muslim children have been included in organised cooking and dancing classes during Ramadan, or they have been served pork in school dinners. What harm can this possibly do? Modern science shows clearly that there is no longer a health reason to avoid eating pork. Is there an idea more likely to introduce a kind of apartheid or “ghettoisation” of Muslims in Britain than seeking separate education? If there is to be any addressing of “sensitivities” it should be undertaken by Britain’s Muslims to stop offending indigenous British customs. We need action to bring communities together, not to underline differences and keep us apart. Modernising Islam would contribute to this. Leadership Hit A Wall A useful contribution to the debate recently came from Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who in a speech in Rome denounced moderate Muslims for failing to condemn unequivocally the “evil” of suicide bombers. Irshad Manji also has a sobering thought, if that’s possible in the mind of a deranged fanatic, for any would-be suicide bombers. We are told that suicide bombers expect special treatment in heaven because they have killed infidels. But it seems that instead of going to heaven and being serviced by 72 virgins, all that awaits them is a bowl of raisins. Here Are Your Raisins; Sorry, No Virgins “The word that Koranic scholars have for centuries read as “dark-eyed virgins” – hur – might be more accurately understood as “white raisins”. Raisins would have been pricey enough delicacies in 7th century Arabia to be considered a heavenly treat. Still, raisins instead of virgins? Please. How can the Koran be so mistaken,” said Manji. If Islamic leaders pointed out coolly and unequivocally that suicide bombing would not mean an inside track to heavenly bliss, that might quickly put a stop to this barbaric activity. Lord Carey pointed out the lack of democracy in Muslim countries, and wondered why Islam had stagnated for about 500 years, when its undoubted cultural and scientific leadership hit a wall. According to Carey, Islamic thought has been in a straitjacket since, because Muslim leaders refused to allow any changes in a code of living that was designed for drastically different times. “In the first few centuries of the Islamic era, Islamic theologians sought to meet the challenge this implied, but during the past 500 years critical scholarship has declined, leading to strong resistance to modernity,” Lord Carey said. This has hamstrung the development of Islamic societies. West Leapt Ahead It is no coincidence surely that the Muslim world’s loss of leadership in culture and science happened as western societies were shedding their top-down structures and embracing the rights of man. This became an ideal atmosphere in the west for developing the talents of all the people, women included, and which has given the west its huge superiority in living standards, both spiritual and material. Meanwhile, Muslim economies, and citizens, have stagnated. Among the pointless dictats forced on to Muslims is the ban on paying or receiving interest. The reasons for this ban have disappeared in the mists of time, but it remains. Meanwhile Islamic economies are often crippled for lack of capital. Look Out For Weasel Words Irshad Manji also points to other selective interpretations of the Koran which are used to justify, or explain away, grotesquely inhuman acts by Muslims. The recent cruel killing of American Paul Johnson in the name of Islam has been greeted with silence by Muslims. The same hush greeted the merciless killing of South Korean civilian Kim Sun-il. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Manji was disgusted by the lack of protest in the Muslim world to the cold-blooded killing of American Nicholas Berg in Iraq. Sure, there were some who denounced the videoed throat slashing, but the typical reaction, according to Manji, was from the Muslim Council of Britain, which said such acts were “utterly repugnant” to Islamic rules of war. True Muslims couldn’t have done it. Manji said that, as with other sources in the Koran, what starts out as a clear mandate for action is often watered down or neutered by convenient weasel words. “….. whoever killed a human being, except (my italics) as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regard as having killed all mankind”, the Koran says according to Manji. “Sadly, the clause starting with “except” can be deployed by militant Muslims to fuel their jihads. That’s precisely how Nicholas Berg’s executioners justified their travesty,” said Manji. Contradictory, Opaque Another example of hard rules, followed by phrases which water down the edict, allows Muslims to insist on the Halal ritual for killing animals for meat, a barbaric and inhumane method. The justification for this – animals must have their throats cut while facing Mecca - is based on a section of the Koran which is as contradictory as it is opaque and which suggests to me that vegetarianism was the preferred lifestyle choice. “Forbidden to you (for food) Are: Dead meat, blood, the flesh of swine, and that on which hath been invoked the name of another than Allah”. That seems clear enough, at least if you ignore the last clause. But it then goes on to say that if you are hungry it doesn’t matter anyway and you can eat whatever meat you like. The Koran doesn’t actually spell out how animals should be killed. Perhaps the Halal treatment has been dreamed up to get around the idea that “dead meat” is forbidden, and that killing in this way means that you are not somehow eating “dead” meat. Perhaps it would be wise if the host nation, if it was to urge Muslims to end Halal killing, should also take a long hard look at the way we slaughter for meat. This has become an activity of shame for us too, as animals are now moved often hundreds of miles in awful conditions to huge abattoirs, after many local slaughter-houses have been closed down. Science Proves Otherwise Also the ban on eating pork made perfect sense back in the days when nobody knew why people became ill after eating undercooked meat. Now, science has demonstrated that this is a perfectly safe. Why can’t Muslims, and Jews for that matter, face this fact? If they live in the West, why can’t they make a concession to the host culture and ban Halal killing because it is so offensive? Adherence to Islam in the rest of the world has led to servitude and poverty. There are 57 nations in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Not one is a democracy. Well almost. An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Europe was headed “Mali Elects to Stand Out In The Muslim World By Adopting Democracy”. “With all their oil wealth, why are there no Muslim countries among the top 30 of the world’s richest nations? Why is it two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries? Why are democracy and the rule of law non-existent in most Muslim states,” said James Bissett in a foreword to Serge Trifkovic’s book, “The Sword of the Prophet”. Bissett is a former Canadian diplomat. In the face of all this evidence that Islam is often incompatible, even an affront, to western values and culture, it must be right to suggest to Muslims living in Britain that they modernise their religion. Can I suggest a few changes for starters –
Manji agrees that reform is urgently required and that literal reading of the Koran should be questioned. |