This post will be about Reza Aslan’s response to Bill Maher’s comments about ISIS and Islam. Here is a YouTube link to that response. I will not summarize it, so, I suggest that you watch it (it is not too long) before reading my comments.
I don’t follow very much on Reza Aslan’s TV appearances or his academic work, and I supported his stance about writing a book about Jesus Christ when he was criticized and practically interrogated on a TV interview by the same kind of people for writing the book. However, I know his kind. He -as far as I know about him- is more of an intellectual, educated and logical version of his kind. But how can we make that distinction, when anyone who pledges their allegiance with the Quran and knows a little bit more than the average guy about Islam can be considered an intellectual by the Muslim community, and taken seriously as a “scholar” by the non-Muslim community? Think about completely idiotic examples like Tariq Ramadan, for instance… Cultural relativism or over-politicized correctness of speech is the key problem here. Yes, not every Muslim is the same. Yes, not every Muslim is inherently violent, but this approach, while logical and factually correct, bring nothing onto the table while discussing the state of affairs in the world regarding our collective Islamic problem.
One might as well fall into another logical fallacy in approach and say that “they have many Muslim friends who don’t agree with the views of ISIS or any other Islamic terrorist organization” or “the majority of Muslims are peaceful”, and both of these views would be factually correct. Again, neither of these views tells us anything about the nature of the threat the entire world is under, if there actually is any threat. Statistics can’t establish facts, but they can be meaningful in understanding the implications of the existing facts. Today, in the world, Muslims are attacked and killed by other Muslims the most, among other religious or philosophical “communities or classifications”. On the other hand, when there is a Muslim conflict in hand, the widest range of people among all religious groups and communities attacked and/or killed by Muslims are again other Muslims. I’m not over-generalizing or assigning names to people here. This is the demographic we are facing.
While Aslan is right on many points he makes, he is wrong on using the examples of Turkey regarding women’s rights (mostly about the honor killings and constant attacks on women by leading political figures), and the sources of Islam.
I don’t need to explain my point about Turkey, because all of you know how to use Google and you can search for news articles about Turkish women and their problems.
Islam’s promotion of violence is more of a debated issue despite some clear facts, and you have to “be or used to be” a Muslim to know some of those facts.
Most important thing: If you want to call yourself a Muslim, you have to accept the whole package, that is, all the teachings and “commandments” of the Quran. You might not be a Sunni and you might not follow the sources of hadiths, most of which are controversial in correctness. But for the core of Islam, the Quran is not entirely or partly optional. You can have your own version of Islam as a “person”, but you would be a Muslim only according to your own claim. For the Quran, there are Muslims who accept the whole package and act accordingly, and there are non-Muslims. No middle ground on that one…
So, if a supreme being -that you believe created the universe for you- orders you to behead someone, you go ahead and behead someone. Or, if that “being”(!) orders you to beat your wife when she doesn’t obey, you go ahead and beat your wife. If you can rightfully call yourself a Muslim ( = if you accept the whole package without any exceptions) and if, according to your belief, a supreme being all-powerful and all-wise found it suitable for you to hate Jews and Christians, and put it in a book that you hold holy as an order, you would go ahead and hate Jews and Christians. These examples are all in the book, and contain nothing that is my own opinion or comment. Again, you can google these.
So, the fact that Islam promotes violence is not negotiable, and is as clear as the fact the Earth is not flat like a tray. Anyone who objects this, can go ahead and read the book. If you object this, you haven’t actually read the book. Just don’t take my word for it. I’m fed up with this cultural relativism bullshit. I see the problems with the religion itself everyday around me as first-hand information. It is easier to be a Muslim living abroad who tries to justify a religion that he can actually die for if it is necessary, or a non-Muslim living abroad who doesn’t actually see or hear Islam every hour of everyday around him/her. Maybe I’m relatively lucky not to be living in Saudi Arabia or the occupied parts of Syria, but I am not lucky in an absolute sense.
Please remember that according to Iraqi Yazidi survivors’ words, the first ones burning their homes and attacking them right after the declaration of caliphate were their Sunni neighbors and friends with whom they had lived together peacefully for decades. There is no reason to suggest that this won’t happen in Turkey, where there have already been many incidents of so-called extremists attacking people publicly eating or smoking during Ramadan, or peacefully drinking with their friends at a bar in even the most civilized parts of the country. So, these people are not actually extremists. They represent the core of the Turkish society and family values, and most importantly, they have a source that they can’t deny or differently interpret any part of: Islam.
Muslims don’t have to be guilty about this. In fact, I believe that critics and generally people commenting on Islamic terrorism are harming the safety and social legitimacy of Muslims when they say “it’s not about Islam, but about extremists who interpret it wrongly.” I say, it’s not about the people, but the source itself. While the majority of the Muslims are non-violent people who don’t agree many things ISIS represents, the fact that all Muslims believe in a book that clearly and openly orders hate against other religions and violence against the members of other religions or non-believers is significant, as it constitutes a fact that represents 100% of the community we are talking about.
I must, on the other hand, give another detail that is crucial in understanding Islam. The Quran is believed to have been directly descended from Allah, that is, it is believed to be the direct word of the Abrahamic God. The Bible is more of a collection of books and “cautionary tales” ABOUT the Abrahamic God when compared to the Quran, which is AUTHORED BY the God and sent to Mohammad, according to the Islamic belief. This is why Islam is much less likely, almost impossible to change and get rid of the fourteen centuries of the “dark ages” we have been experiencing. This is also why Islam’s scripture is much more likely to be taken literally. There are of course some verses in the Quran (which I can proudly say that I read in three different languages in more than a handful of versions of translations; and additionally in Arabic, on which I can’t claim any mastery, so, I’m not saying four) that are presented in a metaphorical sense, like birds throwing stones from above, etc. While there actually are many Muslims who believe these are past miracles presented in the Quran in a “literal” sense, there are also many others who think they are not literal narrations, but storified versions of physically possible or scientifically “provable” real-life events or concepts, and their purpose is to explain complex things in a clearer language by the power of using metaphors. This still doesn’t change the fact that according to Islamic belief, they are stories, but they are not stories ABOUT Allah. They are stories directly told BY Allah to make a point in HIS words.
So, in the light of all the facts I presented above, we can say that an average Muslim is the most kind-hearted, peaceful and the loveliest person in the world, as being a complete, devoted Muslim and being a nice person at the same time is extremely difficult in this era. Why? Because being supportive of gay rights, making Christian, Jewish or Atheist friends, understanding and supporting free speech, treating women equally as men, thinking little girls shouldn’t be married right after they pass the age of 7, not thinking that even the best, kindest, most well-intentioned person in conduct deserves by default to suffer, burning for an eternity just because he/she is not a Muslim, and many other things I can’t waste my time on mentioning, are against the Quran.
I know it is hard to accept that there is something wrong with a thing you were brought up in since before you know your poop from a toy. I know it is hard to accept that if you call yourself a Muslim, you have to devote yourself to some principles you actually would hate to be even mentioned in the same sentence with, just because you haven’t actually read the Quran. I hope it doesn’t come to this, but you will know yourself better and really see what your “neighbors” and “friends” are capable of, if any organization like ISIS actually gets a little closer to your neighborhood. I support the idea that I think Reza Aslan tried to imply, that a non-Muslim looking from far away to a completely different side of the world would have difficulty in understanding a completely different set of people and reach valid generalizations. However, it is also applicable to Aslan’s situation. He doesn’t know a shit about, for example, the situation in Turkey, regarding Islam and/or women. He has no idea about what, even being a non-Muslim in a relatively secular, slightly Islamicly populated (not technically Sharia-ruled, but having a majority of population as Muslims) country. I will help him about this issue: being a Muslim in a country populated mostly by Christians doesn’t even seem to come close.
So, he is generally right. We can’t come to “huge” conclusions even from a hypothetical violent majority among 1.5 billion people. Even if 1,499,999,999 people were violent, 1 non-violent person would make us reject our hypothesis that Muslims are violent; but even a single certain, written “command” or “teaching” that is supposed to be taken literally and is in the book that is not an optional, but a compulsory part of everyone’s lives in a society, makes that religion violent; because (1) you have to believe in that book if you want to have the technical right to call yourself a Muslim, and (2) you have to accept everything that is required by that ultimate source, and you can’t pick and chose according to your liking. People can choose to ignore or they might not be aware of those darker parts of the religion, but those are there regardless of people’s points of view. 2 million people openly and clearly getting out of their homes and countries to behead people, invade land and rape and/or enslave women might not constitute even 1% of the community we are talking about, but it is still 2 million people openly and clearly getting out of their homes and countries to behead people, invade land and rape women. The “2 million” example is just an example to show that YOUR MAJORITY ARGUMENTS DO NOT MATTER. ISIS probably is in control of, or has more people than we can imagine.
ISIS or real Islam (Islam in the Quran) might not seem to represent the Muslims we know, or the people who call themselves Muslims, but representation or majority inclinations are not important. The question is, if we have a threat or not. Yes, we have that. If suddenly 5 million people were diagnosed with Ebola, you would go insane; you definitely wouldn’t say “but it is not representative of the human population, it is much under 1%, we can’t say every human has Ebola”. If 5 million people were diagnosed with Ebola, you would do anything necessary to protect yourself and your loved ones. A few million people do not seem to be significant among more than a billion people, and it is understandable, but it’s different from the Ebola example. Ebola is considered deadly and “bad” by literally everyone. For every one of the few millions of people fighting with or under control of ISIS, there probably are dozens of people who at least support their position and ideas. For every one of the ISIS guys, there are hundreds of people worldwide who think they are extremists and most of their methods are against humanity, but they are a product of western oppression in that area of the world, and they have a rightful motive. For every one of these murderers and rapists and barbarians, there are much more dangerous thousands in the world who think Islam is not inherently violent, and obstruct the way in dealing with this really serious threat.
Open your eyes, and see that this actually IS the real Islam (pun actually intended with the verb). This makes everybody’s life very difficult, but not everybody is under the threat of imminent death. You can’t close your eyes on some facts and points of view, just because you are not directly affected NOW. Just don’t be a complete dick-head and leave your “majority” arguments at home. Muslims are not the problem, Islam is.
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