I do insist that the reform of Islam is urgently needed. But this is not the business of Jews nor Christians. It is a Muslim problem. It requires a Muslim solution. It must be addressed and dealt with as a Muslim concern. Christians and Jews have their own enormous problems to acknowledge and resolve.
George W. Bush has been pushing for a new Islam that welcomes occupiers as liberators and labels oppression as democracy. He is promoting an Islam that requires his adherence to turn the other cheek to U.S. and Israeli soldiers, who are ordered to kill, maim, torture, burn and destroy. He has been working hard to restrict Islam to spirituality, only to issues that deal with God and not man.
No jihad! Jihad is not suicide, which is a great sin in Islam, but a struggle against injustice, oppression, occupation and aggression. Hitler, who proclaimed himself a “Christian” and a fighter for “his Lord and Savior”, didn’t claim to have spoken to God. George W. Bush did make such a claim.
“God told me to strike at Al-Qaeda and I struck them. And then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did. And now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East.”
However, God warned Bush, “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile.”
Here Bush’s destructive god is right.
“The mother of all battles” will continue until all foreign troops return home. His “obedience” to his killer god has resulted in the murder of over a million Iraqis. Iraqi death due to war and economic sanctions are three and a half million. Iraqi orphans number five million and widows are three million. Six million people fled Iraq or were displaced. Museums, libraries and educational institutions were bombed and ransacked. Their contents were stolen or burned. Thousands of scholars and scientists were assassinated. Seven thousand years of human civilization has been leveled to the ground. The only ministry building that was left standing is the Ministry of Oil. What a coincidence!
What about Western achievements the Pope attempts to protect? The Church cannot take credit for the awakening, enlightenment, progress and freedoms men and women enjoy in the West today. On the contrary, the Church resisted and continues to resist reform and change until this very moment. Muslim leaders who enjoy the support and blessing of the United States are the obstacle for social change and development. The Saudi dynasty continues to forbid women from driving and deny Saudi citizens the right to vote.
However, Islamic reform is taking place slowly but steadily. Polygamy was outlawed in Tunisia. Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, a former head of the Sudanese National Assembly and one of the most influential thinkers that I’ve had the honor to meet several times, issued a fatwa, a religious ruling, which gives the right to Muslim females to marry non-Muslims, and for women to lead Muslim prayers.
Revolutionary change is taking place in Iran, U.S. enemy number one. A divorced housewife has the property right to a half of the wealth her husband amassed while being married. Sex change is legal. The surgery is paid for by the state. Four Muslim countries, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia had women as heads of state.
The Pope wants Muslims to tailor Islam to fit Judeo-Christians values. However, in terms of peace, universal brotherhood, equality, freedom, logic and simplicity, Islam is far more rational and progressive than Christianity and Judaism. No Vatican. No sainthood. No priesthood. No present day miracles. No spiritual healing of the sick. Those who may claim to have the power of healing end in a mental institution or a jail.
The Old Testament, an integral part of the Bible, as described by Christian and Jewish researchers and historians, is filled with blood and sex. The God of Israel, Jehovah, orders his “Chosen People” to destroy, burn, kill, enslave and rape non-Jewish virgins.
Furthermore, Islam’s religious affairs are not merely addressed by a hierarchy of clerics. Islamic affairs are not confined to graduates from al-Azhar University or other Islamic institutions. As a matter of fact, the greatest Muslim scholars are intellectuals, such as writers, physicians, engineers, lawyers, and other professionals.
According to an interpretation of the Old Testament, Noah’s three sons were the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth/Europe, Shem/Asia, and Ham/Africa. Ham’s children had been “blackened” by sin and a curse. Ham made fun of his lying down, drunk and naked father. Noah’s two other sons who covered him were blessed. Their descendents were not black.
In Islam black is not a curse but a beautiful color in the rainbow of the human race. Muhammad declared that all men are equal. The Quran says, “O mankind! We (God) created ye from a single (pair) of a male and female, and made ye into nations and tribes, that ye may know one another, (not that ye may despise each other). Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most Righteous of you.” Chapter 49, verse 13.
Islam has no confession and no intermediary. A man, a woman or a child has a direct and private line of communication with God, free of charge, anytime and anywhere. In the Quran, God stresses that He is close to all. He responds if he is called. In Islam, no one represents God on earth. No one is infallible. Muhammad, Jesus, Moses and all prophets are not divine, but humans. All efforts and promises for a better life made by the Vatican and other Christian groups to convince Muslims throughout the world to convert have failed.
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