Pages

Saturday, October 27, 2007

A Message To Peaceful Muslims

On the Infidel Blogger's Alliance and other sites, I've seen many comments by Muslims trying to tell non-Muslims that Islam is really a peaceful religion and that the terrorists have it all wrong. A friend of mine I've known for years is an ex-Muslim, who grew up in a Muslim country, and even he has told me Islamic terrorists don't understand the "true" teachings of Islam.

This article is my response to all those comments on web sites, including this one. This is a message to Muslims who want to convince non-Muslims that Islam is a religion of peace.

My main message is: Please stop. We are trying to defeat terrorism here, and when you tell non-Muslims that message, you aren't helping the cause. You're actually hindering it. I'll explain how in a minute.

If you peaceful Muslims are trying to defend your religious beliefs, I think most people would understand and sympathize with your motives. But by doing it here, what have you accomplished? On this site, and on many others, we are trying to defeat terrorism. Have you helped our cause? No. All you've done is try to convince us Islam is great.

You need to understand the effect of your defense on the non-Muslim mind. If you want to end Islamic terrorism, and if you understood what effect you had, you would stop defending your faith to infidels.

Because even if we all believed you, so what? Even if you successfully convinced us Islam is really a religion of peace, what difference would it make? Does it help us defeat terrorism?
No, not at all. We have terrorists quoting the Koran (urging Muslims to kill infidels) and we have other Muslims saying the Koran is only about peace. Where does that leave us? You've replaced clarity with confusion. You've replaced resolve with hesitation. And to that degree, you've given the terrorists the upper hand.

This is a deadly serious business, and this seemingly insignificant issue is the crucial pivoting point. Knowing how and why your enemy wants to destroy you is an enormous advantage in a global war in which many hundreds of thousands have already lost their lives.

Peaceful Muslims, I ask you to hear this: You make non-Muslims less able to defend themselves by going on these websites and justifying your religion to them.

Part of what makes the issue confusing for westerners is that we don't know if you're sincere or if you're trying to deceive us. Many terrorists exclaim vehemently that Islam is a religion of peace. But when they say it, they are trying to trick non-Muslims and confuse us while they continue their jihad against us (or what they mean is: as soon as Islam conquers all countries, the world will be at peace, so therefore, Islam is a religion of peace).

But my feeling is that most of the Muslims who have written to me are actually sincere, peace-loving, non-terrorist Muslims who have no interest in blowing up infidels. My friend is one of those. He is perfectly sincere.

If you are one of those sincerely peaceful Muslims, I know you have explained away the violent parts of the Koran terrorists often quote. And good for you. I'm glad you have. You had a teacher who convinced you jihad is really an inner struggle. And that's great.
The teacher provided you with the complex mental maneuvers you need to see the Koran as a peaceful document.

But you are doing harm and causing confusion by telling infidels you know the "true teachings" of Islam.
The Islamic terrorists aren't listening to unorthodox teachers. Terrorists are fundamentalists. They are strongly against any moderation of Islamic texts.

It doesn't really matter that you have somehow explained away Allah's commands to kill all the infidels the terrorists have not explained it away! They make the more direct assumption that if Allah said it, He must have meant it.

You think the terrorists who quote the Koran are wrong. And you believe the fundamentalists running Iran, Syria, Pakistan, the Sudan, and Saudi Arabia don't really know what Islam is all about. Okay, fine. Does that help us defeat terrorism now that we know that? Not one little bit.

But when infidels get a good idea of what is actually in the Koran, and when they learn about the Islamic principles of deceit and pretext, and when we find out the goal and purpose of the Islamic faith, and when we learn about the methods Islamists use to infiltrate and destroy, then we infidels are better able to protect ourselves. It's like finding out the plans of an enemy during war. It helps tremendously to anticipate what they're going to do and to understand their motives. This knowledge improves our ability to defend ourselves against it.

13 comments:

  1. Great post, CW.

    I like that you wrote this to real, honest, sincere, peaceful Muslims. They exist (in large numbers), and they deserve to be acknowledged here at this site, and everywhere where there is inquiry into truth.

    However, as you say, they do us no good by defending their religion, because our point is to "defeat terrorism." I would use the phrase "defeat Islamofascism", but why quibble over terminology.

    I very much admire this article. I'll go over to your site and continue reading it.

    By the way, the article on "The Koran" is very good also. Maybe you ought to put that one up here, as well as they articles on "deceit and pretext" and "methods used to infiltrate and destroy."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I originally started Citizen Warrior to do what I could to defeat terrorism. The more I've learned, the more I realize that the only kind of terrorism that is a real problem for democracies is Islamic terrorism, or Islamofascism. My understanding of the problem is evolving.

    Thank you for the suggestions about what to add to IBA. I will do that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You do a great job. You don't need many suggestions from me. Man, you've got a lot of energy, don't you?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I have a lot of energy, but I think it's only because I have a personal rule: Whenever possible, I only read what really interests me, regardless of what I think I "should" read. And I only write about what really interests me, and I only say what I really want to say, regardless of what others might think about it or what I think I "should" say.

    Whenever I do anything other than that, I don't feel nearly as energetic.

    I find this whole subject of Islam and its unique character and history and impact on current events fascinating.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Actually, I have the same rule. You might have noticed I write quite a bit myself.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Why we comment on sites like this dividing islam between the peaceful and the others? youve answered it here, cos we dont want you or your readers to place us all in the same box. Our lives get affected when that happens, so its us trying to defend our way of life.

    And about why we dont tell them directly to stop making all of us look bad? Well maybe we've tried over and over but the reality stands that alot of them have rocks in their heads hence their warped up understandings and beleifs and refusal to listen to other muslims who they categorize as 'muslims wanting peace' which are also the bad guys . At least we know that non muslims beleive in critical thought and not to take everything at face value. So this way at least our comments dont always fall on deaf ears (or eyes in this case)
    :)

    And no i am not defending those types of muslims, just telling you that they are not the only representatives of islam, so why does it cause confusion? you have a range, from the peaceful to the extremists, that sounds simple enough to me, even before i was muslim.

    well those are my thoughts while reading this article.
    cheers
    emma

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Emma,

    You don't want us to put you in the same box as the dangerous Muslims. Fair enough. I don't put you in the same box, and I don't see many others doing that either, at least none of the contributors to the IBA. It seems very clear and not at all confusing that some people do not follow Islamic memes very strictly, and some do.

    You said you are trying to defend your way of life. Yet nobody is criticizing your way of life if you are not following the violent and intolerant principles of Islam.

    What I do not see in your comment is any open admission that you do not follow some of the commands in the Qur'an. Why is that? And I would like to hear your explanation of how you explain away the violent and intolerant verses in your most holy of books (the verse of the sword, for example). And especially I'd love to hear how you explain away the verses that say you cannot alter or pick-and-choose only the verses that you like.

    You say your are peaceful. Are you tolerant? Do you have any Jewish or Christian or Buddhist or Athiest friends? If so, how do you justify ignoring Allah's commands to never befriend a kafir?

    Are you really a Muslim? If you do not follow the principles of Islam, why call yourself a Muslim? Why not write a book that has all the good parts of Islam and none of the bad parts and call it something else. Then nobody could possibly be confused.

    Let's hear it, Emma. You have lots of people listening now. Intently.

    ReplyDelete
  8. If internet existed back in the McCarthyism times, i could picture such sort of argumentation from some Faithful Christian Alliance "citizen warrior", corageously fighting communism through the internet, complaining about atheists who try to explain that atheists are not necessarily communisms, and not necessarily evil. Saying that it only confuses the dull western xian mind that is not able to grasp the concept that under a label of people there might be different sorts of people, that they're not all perfectly alike. That by doing that, no one is helping fight communism through an internet blog. What else can I say? I'm an atheist and I'm embarassed by such level of bigotry. "Cut the nuance crap, we just need a label to equate with terrorrism, with enemy, don't make things hard on us".

    But with atheism it's all different and probably easier to understand, and even to complain about generalizations is acceptable, even if it makes someone confused about an atheist not being a commie, or even (gasp!) a commie not being an atheist, or (gasp!²) a commie not being evil.

    ... I can even imagine some atheists applauding loudly some speech where someone says that rather prefer seeing his children die as atheists, than to convert to islamism (tweaking Reagan's speech).

    You just better hope that, before the islmamic question gets its final solution, they don't ask "who's next?", and someone suggests "well, the most hated group almost worldwide, the atheists, those bastards".

    "Atheists shouldn't have citizenship" is somehting that a president of the USA once said. Other president of the same country, the country with the most belic power worldwide, had deep connections with Jerry Falwell, and there are all the sorts of creepy fanatic figures from another abrahamic reigion, always lurking around, making their subtle moves. Their book might be not so bad as the Koran, but it's not a cocktail party, that I can say.

    Some quotes from American Christians:

    http://adultthought.ucsd.edu/Culture_War/The_American_Taliban.html

    I should warn you that these quotes are not endorsed by *all* christians, likely they're not endorsed bt most of them; even though probably most of these quotes have support on their holy book. It's essentially the same situation you wondered about here:

    "What I do not see in your comment is any open admission that you do not follow some of the commands in the Qur'an. Why is that? And I would like to hear your explanation of how you explain away the violent and intolerant verses in your most holy of books (the verse of the sword, for example).You can check that. There are plenty of sites with the bible online, and sites exclusively dedicated to pointing the gruesome stuff.

    And, flabbergastingly, most of the people in your country are not burning witches, stoning the whole family to death; rape victims are not obliged to marry their rapists, and so on. Even though most of them are Christians! How come? Well, I can't explain it in all detail, but basically they're non-fundamentalists, they somehow, logically consistently or not, "explain away" such passages - and there's nothing exclusively Christian about that. So -- something to you work on here -- maybe it's similar with muslims and other creeds.



    That's basically it. Good luck with your fight against terrorism via blogs, though.

    Dann

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mr. Warrior,

    I served this country, well, and with honor. I don't know you, your history, nor do I have any affiliation to you what so ever, except for the Citizen part (born and raise American) and the Warrior part (trained and true Marine).

    Your words, although, well written and genuine are misguided. If a moderate Muslim did read this ( as a new convert I can tell you personally) it will actually ramp up the amount of comments. If I have any control over matters I will promote your site and blogs, so people that know me as an example will shy away from your tactics.

    Early, you asked for people to stop commenting about Islam. Why would you ever ask people to stop promoting peace? Jesus promoted peace, Thomas Jefferson promoted peace, Martin L. King promoted peace, Gandhi promoted peace, Mohammad promoted peace. Are you aware that Muslims lived next to Jews and Christians in Muslim countries. Are you aware that Islam pulled Europe out of the dark times. If you knew history then you would know that. I will never stop promoting peace unless someone comes into my house and makes me. After the fallout I will continue. Good luck trying though.

    If you want to defeat terrorism you have to stifle it not attack it. You put out a flame by choking oxygen, not by over blowing. You and others are creating a forest fire. If Americans change their opinion on Islam, then Islam will change it's opinion about them. If you stop attacking Muslims then they have to stop defending. It is against Islam to attack. How could this be important news? If Muslims can't attack, but still do, then the attacking Muslims will be scrutinized and not saved, funded, or backed. They are looked at as unlawful and disgraceful. Moral to this story--- Promote peace and stop telling people to 'stop'. What don't you understand here? If you see me being peaceful, then you will be. If my brother is being aggressive then I will stop him out of respect for OUR arrangement. It is called mutual respect.

    In the middle of your body or work here, you stated that 'nice' Muslims were undermining the blogger by taking away the resolve of the other patriots. If the resolve of the patriots were strong in the first place then there could be no undermining. If someone questions what they are doing and whether it is right or wrong then it is wrong. I don't question whether eating is right or wrong, but when you wake up with a hangover at night from drinking, It is obvious that something that feels 'soooo right' is wrong. Same thing applies here. If your commitment is strong great. But if your feelings waver when you meet a nice Muslim, that is because it becomes personal to you and the hate is gone. When the hate is gone you are faced with reality. Welcome to reality readers, even if it just a short while longer.

    What happened to the KKK is the 60s and 70s. They acted no differently then the Islamic Fundamentalist. The killed, terrorized, hung, and burned Jews, blacks, gays, atheist, and whoever else they wanted to. Even their own kind if they turned away! They failed eventually because people like them disagreed with them and stop supporting them. That is the only way to defeat a terrorist! Take away his base! Take away his recruits, money, shelter and love. If he is left with nothing he can do nothing and will be nothing.



    Thank you for reading my blog, feel free to respond to me at anytime. Hell you can even call me, as I am sure I can say some more things to draw confusion to the 'not-so-sure-this-is-the-right-approach' people.

    ReplyDelete
  10. To Defend Emma as I can like not many others.

    I am a new convert and my studies have led me in this direction. I started as the only Muslim around, and now my family friends, neighbors and strangers are welcoming Islam. Slowly but surely I have reached people through the grace of God. This is important news because the Quran says not to be friends with non-believers. Guess what Christians and Jews are believers fellow. Giving the message to new people is how information is spread. I will be friends with who listens and agrees. Atheist however don't get it until I ask them how they were created? What is the driving force? What are the odds of everything we have in this world working on such great accord? Then we talk and they end up asking for a Quran. I have bought many for personal use and only have one left in my glove box as of yesterday. The prophet Mohammad spread the word of Islam to others that he was neighbors with, talk to, family and so on. Before him there were no Islamic Muslims.


    "O ye who believe! Take not for friends and protectors those who take your religion for a mockery or sport - whether among those who received the Scripture (i.e., the Bible) before you, or among those who reject Faith; but fear ye Allah, if ye have Faith (indeed). (The Noble Quran, 5:57)"

    I am not to be friends with someone that does not RESPECT my religion and choices. You seem to think that we are not allowed to coexist with anyone else. If that were true then there would be no Muslims. You are silly to think that God did not want you to have our message. If you have read the Quran in it's entirety, and you haven't ( I know because your pride wouldn't let you + you write too much to read), then you would be like me and write more uplifting things. Don't attack Emma! Attack me! I am sure that I have your Moralistic, Honor, Courage, Brain and Talent. All praise due to YOUR One true God. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you if you choose to accept them.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hello Citizen, just now I copied your text to my facebook-account for my friends to read, i.e. those of them who can understand some English. Later I will translate it for the others.
    By the way, I am no atheist at all. Quite the contrary, and glad about it. Some of the comment (yes, I perused it completely) was disturbing to me. Especially, when that so-called Prophet is named in connection with Jesus. There are no similarities whatsoever.

    ReplyDelete
  12. As a Muslim whenever another Muslim asks me "why don't you support Sharia law" I simply reply "Islam is a religion, not a political movement", that always shuts them up :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. I like that.

    As a Christian, when a person asks me to support moralistic legislation, I say, I believe in Freedom, and God believed our Freedom of Choice, including our Freedom to sin, was so important that He was willing to die for it.

    ReplyDelete