Why Are There Peaceful Muslims?
Friday
A READER asked this question: "If the Koran was arranged out of chronological order and Mohammed started out a nice guy and then turned into a "Psycho-Killer," why don't some of his earlier, more peaceful teachings contradict his later, more violent teachings and consequently prevail?"
It's a good question. As you probably know, Mohammad's chapters (called "Suras") are not in chronological order in most versions of the Koran. It is traditional to have them arranged in the order of the Suras' length. But when two passages conflict, the mullahs decide which passage overwrites which by looking back to the chronological order rather than the traditional order.
They know with certainty what order the chapters were written in. But the chapters are arranged from the longest to the shortest chapter (except for the first chapter), and that has become the traditional way to arrange them.
Unfortunately, the most intolerant, violent passages in the Koran are chronologically later. So they abrogate (supersede or overwrite) the earlier, more tolerant passages.
So then the question is, "Then why are there any peaceful Muslims?"
Peaceful Muslims come about for three reasons:
1. Muslims are, of course, human beings and most people do not want to be violent. Mohammad anticipated this and told Muslims they had to be intolerant and even violent whether they liked it or not (and as a test of their faith), but people do their best to ignore these very direct Islamic teachings. And they tend to ignore the teachings rather than speak out against them because it can be dangerous to contradict or criticize the Koran. More devout believers can become quite violent and intolerant when a fellow Muslim criticizes any Islamic teaching.
2. If the Muslim is living in a non-Muslim majority country and violence (or even intolerance) would impede the ultimate victory of Islam, then peaceful behavior is called for, at least for the moment. Mohammad anticipated this too (the possibility of a Muslim living in a Muslim-minority country) and provided ideas for many other ways to work toward eventually gaining control of the laws of the country (Islam's prime directive) — by having lots of children, trying to convert others, giving money to Muslim organizations, etc. I'm sure many Muslims are quite happy to avoid living a life of political agitation, and this way they get to satisfy their Islamic obligations while enjoying a peaceful life in a free country.
3. And of course, a Muslim can always pretend to be peaceful while actively working toward violent goals. Apparently nice people have occasionally been known to be intolerant and even violent.
6 comments:
Someone emailed this comment:
For the same reason there are lousy Christians; most people do not understand or live their faith. There are no liberal, moderate, or fundamentalist Muslims Cannot be. The Koran is the only holy book directly from god's mouth to your ear. You must accept every word as god's eternal word spoken directly to you, unless he admittedly contradicts (abrogates) himself.
When Allah says to make a great slaughter in the land, this is an eternal, unabrogated mandate, compulsory upon all Muslims. When Allah says slavery is allowed, it is eternally allowed. When the Koran says the word of a woman is worth half that of a man, this is eternally true. When the Koran says a husband may lightly beat his wife, this is eternally true. The Koran was recited by the Angel Gabriel from an emerald tablet made by Allah in the seventh heaven. It is eternal and mandatory, in toto, upon all Muslims.
All the above apply today, as you read this. They must.
when the Qur'an speaks of beating a woman, I don't believe that the word "lightly" is used.
By the way, does anyone have any advise on how to date al Hadith in it's chronological order?
This would be useful for the same reason that it's helpful to be able to chronologically date the surra's of the Qur'an.
Thanks!
Rev.Gemm
Someone emailed this comment:
Citizen, as ever a reasoned, measured article.
For too long in the West and elsewhere our leaders have made the cardinal mistake when dealing with Islam - of approaching it as if it were as reasonable, inclusive, mutualistic as western culture is. Muslim leaders, however, when faced with this reasoned and reasonable approach perceive it as weakness and despise those offering it and up the ante of threat and violence.
And it IS weakness. Most Western leaders are indeed weak when it comes to standing up to the excesses of Islam and are spineless and supine in the face of this threat, either ignoring it and pretending that it isn't happening, or resorting to the default of all foolishness when dealing with Islam at the interface with the West, that of telling themselves that they are good, multicultural folk who are accepting of difference. The difficulty is, as we see day in and day out, is that they have misconstrued what multiculturalism actually is - the EQUAL privileging of all peoples, cultures and faiths rather than the cowardly acquiescence to Islam's overblown sense of its own worth at the expense of every other culture.
Every Muslim is brought up in a classic double bind, which is heightened when he mixes with decent Western people - he is damned in the wider community if he declares that his allah is the greatest and even more damned by his own people if he does not. For the Muslim, cognitively distorted as he is, there can be no middle ground, - compromise on his part (another staple of the West, which is vital to peaceful coexistence with others who may hold different views) is viewed by him as defeat and he will dig in or turn violent even if he is proven to be wrong.
He is brought up to hate women which is chiefly responsible for the screwed up attitude of the Muslim male generally, and towards Muslim women and other females and therefore of Muslim societies per se . It IS taught that the woman is intellectually and otherwise inferior, and as a result the male is massively conflicted, having been brought up by and had to depend on an entity which he is later taught to despise. That, and the injunction against masturbation and open homosexual practice means that sexual tension is immense and is released in testosterone-fueled violence, or as is happening more and more in the UK, (which more often than not turns a blind eye to it unless it becomes glaringly obvious), the grooming of underage, vulnerable white girls for prostitution.
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Here is the rest of that emailed comment:
In the Muslim female this lack of acknowledgement by the more powerful male of her selfhood often leads to passive-aggression and manipulativeness because she is unsure that her needs will be met in any other way, and therefore her children are brought up in an atmosphere of deceit where their own reality is invalidated.
All of this comes from the slavish and literal adherence to the Koran and Ahadith (critical thinking and questioning belief is actively discouraged if not punished) - a tome written by someone who was a malignant narcissist and massively personality disordered.
Since Muslim males are enjoined to imitate their prophet in every way, little wonder that the Arab/Muslim world seems to many to be similarly personality disordered too.
Having written all that, I do believe that we should support those Muslims who genuinely want to break out of the chains of Islam, but I have some concerns about that, too: the Muslim prophet enjoined his slaves to be faithful only to each other and to defend each other against outsiders (this is typical paranoid behaviour), and that injunction goes deep, having been dinned into Muslims from early childhood. For myself, I have grave doubts about questioning Muslims support for change when the going gets tough as it invariably will. I cannot know that, when push comes to shove even the so-called moderate Muslims will not revert to extremism, so used have they been to following the herd and doing as their imams and mullahs say.
It seems to me that we have much work to do to undermine the fascination of the West by Islam. We can start by insisting that the truth about Islamic influence in the West is published in our media, that ALL instances of double-standards, whereby Muslims get a free pass because they are Muslim, are exposed to the daylight and those who enact those double standards called to account, (political correctness be damned), and by assailing our political representatives with facts which can be backed up about how they are selling us out.
Under mental pressure, the human mind can operate with 2 totally opposing viewpoints, simultaneously. (The bicameral mind.) So, while outwardly being peaceful, a person can harbour intense dislike (hatred) for the society around him. Islam has perfected the creation of the bicameral mind in people, to propagate the faith. Normally peaceful Muslims can become 'activated' (become jihadists) because of religious pressure.(their Imam tells them to protest, rise up etc.) The Koran ia an army manual, basically.
Most good people do good things, most bad people do bad things, in order to make good people do bad things - you need religion.
(Christopher Hitchens (PBUH) et al.)
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