How To Help Muslims Reject Islamic Fundamentalism

The following is an excerpt from an article called How To Beat Jihad by Ali Sina, an Iranian ex-Muslim, who makes some interesting points, and because he grew up in a strict Islamic country, his insight adds a unique perspective. Reprinted with permission.

Our responsibility is to awaken the non-Muslims and warn them of the danger of Islam. The danger comes from Islam and not the Middle Eastern people. Unlike Muslims, who discriminate, violate and abuse the human rights of non-Muslims, the non-Muslims have difficulty with discrimination. However, they must understand that Islam is just a belief and beliefs do not have rights. Humans have rights, beliefs don’t.

Muslims can become feral dogs if their religion is criticized. Savagery should not be tolerated. Those Muslims who choose to defend their religion with savagery should be locked up or kicked out. Dialog should be welcomed, but there should be zero tolerance for violence.

Once dialogue begins, Islam will be discredited and Muslims will be set free. Once their source of pride becomes a source of shame, they will no longer cling to it but rather will be embarrassed of it and would want to dissociate themselves from it.

The Western culture is guilt-based. The Eastern culture is shame-based. For us Easterners, everything is about image and how others see us.

The opposite of guilt is innocence. If your ethos is guilt-based, you have an inner police that stops you from doing wrong because doing wrong makes you feel guilty.

If your ethos is shame-based, all you care is to preserve your image. The opposite of shame is honor. You can do wrong but as long as no one sees it, your image is not tarnished and you can still be seen as an honorable person. In a shame-based culture, wrong and right have no meaning. It is all about shame and honor. If the stain of shame is removed, even if it means the murder of your own daughter, honor is restored. These are two very different worldviews. Unless we understand them we will not be able to make sense of Muslims and their minds.

Shame-based cultures are primitive. All Eastern cultures are shame-based even when they are not Islamic. Japanese culture, for example, is, or it has been, a shame-based culture. Our Persian culture is also shame-based. Proverbs like “I keep my cheeks rosy with slaps,” are telltales of a shame-based culture, where image is more important than facts. This proverb says that I may be starving but my pride does not allow me to let anyone know it so I slap myself to keep my cheek rosy. Because poverty is the source of shame as long as I hide my poverty, I have preserved my honor.

Islam is a fear-based philosophy that has taken root in a shame-based milieu. This is a very dangerous combination. When you combine fear and shame moral codes, you give birth to the most insidious ethos imaginable. That is Islam. Islam is an illogical doctrine that is based on fear and is defended through honor. This makes Islam more dangerous than Nazism. Muslims are not concerned about the irrationality of Islam or about good or evil. They are mostly concerned about losing face and upholding the image of Islam.


The following is from the same article (How To Beat Jihad):

One fact we must all agree on is that brute force is stronger than civility. If you and I confront each other and I use violence against you while you try to reason with me, I will win and you will lose. The reason Muslims have won since the time of Muhammad is because the non-Muslims were reluctant to resort to violence while Muslims were always ready to do so. The reason we live in freedom today is because the Europeans responded to Muslim barbarity with equal savagery. If not for the crusaders, we probably would not be free today.

When in the battle of Badr, Nadhr ibn Harith, a poet of Mecca and a cousin of Muhammad who was critical of him was captured, he turned to his captor Musab, his one time friend and asked him to intercede on his behalf so Muhammad does not kill him. Musab reminded him that he had denied the faith and had ridiculed Muhammad. “Ah!” said Nadhr, “had the Quraish made you a prisoner, they would never have put you to death!” “Even were it so,” Musab scornfully replied, “I am not as you are; Islam has rent all bonds asunder."

Muhammad ordered his cousin Nadhr to be decapitated. Musab was telling the truth. Islam rends all bonds asunder. It is called Moqalib-al qulub. It transforms the hearts of the believers and makes them ruthless and hard. After converting to Islam, believers turn against their own people and do not shy away killing their own loved ones.

This has been the secret of the success of Islam since its inception. Ordinary people are not militant. They subscribe to the philosophy of live and let live. This is a commendable trait in a civilized world. However, where the law of jungle applies, the most ferocious and the most cunning beast is always the winner. A pack of hyenas can raid a large herd of wildebeests or gazelles; kill as many of them as they want and they are always victorious. The hyenas and other carnivores always win, because herbivores are not violent. Brute force wins. Good and evil are human concepts. In nature force is what matters. This is a principle. Because Muslims are militant, and the rest of mankind is not; because they are violent and the others are not, Muslims always win.

Tolerance of intolerance encourages it. Islam must be stopped. There are two ways to do that. One is by weaning Muslims from Islam and the other is by responding to their violence with greater violence. In the humble opinion of this writer the first option is sanity while the second is war. Needless to say that the option of inaction is insanity and suicidal.

If we choose the path of sanity, the only way to help Muslims leave Islam is to discredit it. This means openly criticizing it, the way we do with Christianity or other religions. Christianity has not been spared from criticism. There has been nothing against Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism that could have been said and it hasn't. Why should Islam be spared from criticism? If there is any truth to Islam, let its apologists defend it. If it cannot be defended logically then it is a lie. Why should we bow to a lie when it is responsible for countless deaths and so much bloodshed?

The best people who can criticize Islam and discredit it are people like you and me. We know Islam inside out and it is up to us to speak out. Everyone must become a critic of Islam. However the ex-Muslims can do what others can't. Our enemies are militant, determined and proactive. We must also become militant, determined and proactive.


Here is a final passage from Ali Sina's article. His perspective is from inside the religion, and it's so different than anything a non-Muslim would say, it's fascinating and makes me think in new ways about approaching a solution to the problem of radical Islam. Listen to what Sina says about the the West's vulnerabilities (and Islam's).

You can’t win a war without knowing your enemy. In order to win this war, we must know the psychology of Muslims. Once we know his mind, we know his weaknesses and his vulnerabilities.

The weakness of Muslims is Islam. They cling to it for their identity and pride. They want you to respect Islam and with that feed their narcissistic craving. When you see millions of Muslims go berserk over a few cartoons, you know that you have touched a very sensitive cord.

This knowledge is crucial to win this war. When in war, you attack your enemy in his weakest spot. That is why attacking the character of Muhammad and the credibility of the Quran is essential to our struggle against Islamic terrorism. To win this war we must wean Muslims from it and to do that we must discredit it. Islam’s grip on Muslims is not logical but psychological. We can win this war only if we wage it psychologically. How to do that? By telling the truth! Once everyone stops kowtowing to Muslims and calls them Mohammedans and pedophile worshippers, the battle is already won. It amazes me that some non-Muslims who pretend to be fighting against Islamic terrorism are offended by these terms and think calling Muslims with such derogatory terms are gratuitous and unnecessary. Far from being unnecessary it is imperative. It is the very strategy of our war against them. These are not insults but facts. These facts, once spread worldwide and echoed by everyone, will crush the Muslim's faith in Islam and will help them cut their umbilical cord from it.

Muslims are not afraid of fighting. They are not afraid of killing or dying. They are afraid of ridicule. That is their weak spot. It is right on their weak spot that we must concentrate our attacks.

Only a fool would deny that we are in a war. Muslims have resumed their jihad against humanity. Each side has its weakness. The weakness of non-Muslims, particularly the Westerners, is their guilt. Muslims abuse the non-Muslims in their countries and violate their every human right, but when they come to the West they demand, not just equal, but preferential treatment. Not only they do not abide by our rules, they make us abide by theirs. Most of the meat served in fast food restaurants, and schools in Europe is halal. Why? It’s because the non-Muslims don’t care. And because of that, Muslims win. They win because of our indifference and inaction. The Westerners feel obliged to comply because they are bound by their guilt. Here is where Muslims have their enemies by their collars. They know our weakness and our legal system and they take full advantage of that to strengthen their position. Do we know their weakness?

The vulnerability of Muslims is shame. Having lost their identity, Muslims seek their selfhood and pride in their religion. Criticizing Islam for Muslims is the most devastating experience. For them, who literally worship Muhammad more than God, hearing him questioned and ridiculed is traumatic.

Paradoxically, this is also their salvation. The more Islam is criticized, the less sensitive Muslims become and gradually they stop clinging to it as their source of pride. Eventually Islam will become their source of shame. It’s then that the great exodus from Islam will begin. It can happen overnight.

Muslims are afraid of dialog. When they talk about “dialog between civilizations” they actually mean monologue. They want you to listen to their story, but they are not willing to listen to yours, much less to tolerate your probing questions. They demonstrated their intolerance for dialogue when the Pope quoted a Byzantine emperor saying Islam is violent. They avoid situations where Islam can be seriously examined. This is their weakness.

The Westerners cannot overcome their weakness. They can’t bring themselves to discriminate against Muslims. Their sense of guilt is too strong and too debilitating. This gives Muslims an edge. The only way for the West to overcome this handicap is to take advantage of the weakness of Muslims and this means criticizing of Islam and ridiculing its pedophile, rapist founder.