Do We Want to Win or Do We Want to Be Correct?
Saturday
Bill Maher, an outspoken liberal, had Ayaan Hirsi Ali on his show (see a link to the video below). As usual, Maher takes liberals to task for not "getting it" about Islam. Ali suggests that the solution is for Islam to reform. My first reaction is, "Yeah, right." I just don't see how that would be possible. If you edited out all the bad stuff in the Koran, it would not be a book anymore; it would be a small brochure.
But notice that her plea for an Islamic reformation gives her a great opening to say what needs to be reformed in Islam — things which any non-Muslim would find unacceptable, like FGM, Sharia, the death sentence for anyone who leaves Islam, etc.
This might be a useful tactic for all of us.
If you're talking to someone who already understands the threat of Islam, you can dispense with the nonsense about Islamic reform. But when trying to reach someone who doesn't understand, it is an intelligent strategic approach to discuss reformation.
Ali is a brilliant, articulate woman and I'll bet she realized she would be more likely to be invited to talk to mainstream viewers with this approach. And she has been very successful. She's been interviewed on many mainstream television shows and magazines, and she's had her articles published in large, mainstream newspapers. In other words, she's reaching the people who need to be reached.
Technically, she is correct: An Islamic reformation is exactly what is needed. Realistically, that seems completely impossible. But strategically, it may be an intelligent and effective way to sink some solid facts about Islam into the minds of those who need it, with very little resistance. Something to think about anyway. Here's the video:
Bill Maher to Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why Do Liberals ‘Blame the Victim’ When It Comes to Islam?
4 comments:
I think we will need to agree to disagree on this one.
To me, it's the same as lobbying for a reformed Nazism - only with a sharp negative difference. Nazi ideology does not claim to be from any deity delivered in perfection to a prophet. Islam does claim that. So everything in it: killing those who leave, those who openly question, upholding slavery, and on - all that is essential to Islam, according to the Quran.
Mein Kampf, Hitler's little book - anyone is free to edit. Nazis may foam at the mouth - but they can't claim the book was divinely inspired.
The Quran. Let's say Islam gets reformed - meaning that the Quran is gutted so that, in Bill Maher's words, it is a small brochure. Anyone who goes back to the Quran will see that this was utter sacrilege - in other words, anyone who is a true adherent of Islam will revert to what is in the Quran. Dangerous stuff.
Okay, you get on more talk shows. Not okay: more people are confirmed in the widely held belief that Islam is not inherently dangerous.
"And the truth shall set you free" - the truth, not convenient expedient lies.
I don't think we win if we put out lies that feel convenient about Islam. I think we set ourselves up for both short-term and long-term failure. A very dangerous move.
I completely understand where you're coming from, Elsa. But you wouldn't have to lie to use this strategy. It IS technically possible to reform Islam. It is just unlikely as hell. If you listen to that interview, I think you'd be hard-pressed to call anything she says a lie. And yet she gives some good information about Islam as it is unreformed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali may be the best ambassador of the counterjihad. She's articulate, she's an ex-Muslim, well-educated, a victim of FGM, and nobody can accuse her of racism. Even the most devout multiculturalist would have to at least listen to her.
Love and truth make goodness. Love and lies make badness. Love and ignorance make badness. Hate and truth make badness. Coldness and truth make badness. Only when love and truth work together does goodness have the chance to appear.
So we can ask rhetorically for a reformation in Islam. Ms Ali does so and no harm done. If we pretend that it can be done we go too far. Muhammed said it cannot be done, and his word is final. Islam is Muhamed's plans, words and ideas, nothing else. If we take rhetoric too far and start to believe our own rhetoric or propaganda then we lose sight of why Islam is wrong. Muhammed believed that the Creator believes in hate, lies and cruelty, which justifies all sorts of evil. That is why Islam is wrong. Muhammed was wrong about the Creator. That is the problem with Islam.
Our best plan of attack is to show that Muhammed was wrong on secondary or third-level issues. None of us can prove to other people the nature of the Creator. We can prove that Muhammed's contradictions are so big and blatant that nothing he said about the Creator is worth any time.
One big contradiction is his claim that the Bible is true - a gift from God. If true then Islam is false. Another big contradiction is that he disobeyed Jibril and Allah yet he demands obedience from all humans. Another is Omar's prayer, which is also a scientific experiment. Anyone can try it in privacy and in with a genuine spiritual intent. It is a multiple choice request to God to show himself if he wants to be worshiped in: the way of the Hindus, the way of the Buddhists, the way of Muhammed or the way of Jesus. It is a complete proof that Muhamed was wrong, because the prayer is not answered in Muhammed's favor.
Because most people lack confidence in matters of religion the third-level issues are usually the persuasive ones. These are the details of his life, which show that he was not a spiritual, wise or good man. The story of his life is so shocking and disgraceful that almost all people who know it discount Muhammed's ideas on politics and religion.
Ms Ali is a clever good woman. As long as she does not deceive herself into believing that Islam can be reformed then she does good work.
First,about winning ,this means truth speaking and not "politically correct talk" Second, about two wise and non-PC Founding in Fathers of the United States. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and how their wisdom by apply to the evil and murdering madness of of jihad suicide/homicide bombings and attacks of Islamic terrorism is the following.
Concerning the subject of Islamic suicide/homicide - bombers /attackers: They are so thoroughly brainwashed and deluded that they actually think of their murderous actions as “martyrdom operations.” This jihad evil and madness is based on the Koranic doctrine, 9:111. , of a far-fetched and nonsensical doctrine of a sex- filled paradise with many virgins, hours, in it for the use only the jihadist/Muslim male who dies as a “martyr” fighting for the cause of Islam. This weird religious/Islamic teaching is found contained the Koran in 44:56. .55:56. 78:31. This bizarre and odd, irrational Koranic doctrine is not open, to the jihadist, to inquiry, questioning. logic or reason. So this blind unreasoning kind of “faith” in the Koran is a reminder that Thomas Jefferson had written. “Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without a rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” Likewise, Benjamin Franklin had printed in POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK something which may apply to this topic. For Mr. Franklin had printed “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
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