Quote of the Day:

With regard to the destruction of the Golden Mosque in Samarra:

"Having once been an orthodox, believing Muslim I find myself almost at the limits of my imaginative capacities in trying to grasp the mentality of a Muslim capable of such a thing. A Muslim capable of flying a 757 into the World Trade Center or Pentagon is perfectly imaginable to me. A Muslim capable of blowing up the Golden Mosque is not.

But maybe one needn't strain so much. We shouldn't forget that the principle behind the macabre absurdity of the destruction of the Golden Mosque is endorsed in the Qur'an itself. 'What is this life,' asks Surah An'am, 'but play and amusement? But best is the Home in the Hereafter, for those who are righteous. Will ye not then understand?' (6:32).

The thing to 'understand' is that if this life is merely an instrumental means to the next, so is everything and everyone in it. The implication is that if someone or something stands in the way of what you take to be your salvation, your job is to sweep it out of the way and let God deal with it later."

-Irfan Khawaja