Today in the news:

Writers Rushdie, Saviano discuss death threats at panel discussion in Sweden

Security high for visit of Rushdie and Saviano

All these years since The Satanic Verses controversy and the death sentence by Iranian Mullah’s I am wondering how it came exactly like Rushdie had planned. He wanted controversy and he knew that conservative Muslims would be infuriated. The news would go around the globe like a forest fire and he would be famous.

Why are Muslims so easy to trick to do exactly what is the aim of these provocateurs?

The same phenomenon was with the infamous Danish Islam caricatures. They were publishes i.e. in Egypt half a year earlier and nobody bothered to protest. Only after it came international news, when radical Muslims started burning Danish flags and puppets. Governments were forced to give statements that they are powerless, because there is a law for freedom of speech.   Again and again provocateurs are trying the same trick. These days, so I read, in Holland is a new cartoon movie in the making about Islam.

Fortunately Muslims are awakening and do not react as they wish anymore.  There is a sura in the Quran that advice believers to answer to provocateurs with words of  peace:

Quran [25.63] “And the servants of the Beneficent God are they who walk on the earth in humbleness, and when the ignorant address them, they say: Peace.”

I am not a literature critic but at the beginning of this all I read several critics which suggested that Salman Rushdie is a mediocre writer at best. Now there are even rumors, that the Swedes would give him a Nobel literature prize soon.

The Problem is not Islam.

While reading latest comments to the Queen Rania’s award winning Youtube Video one of them made me think, is he/she right or wrong?

“zeppelinsteen In Malaysia where I come from, there is approx. 60% Muslims. We have a lot of Christians as well. But the Muslims here are totally different from the Middle East. For example we don’t have any problem with women rights or whatsoever. Yet, other religions are going well with Islam. I think it’s not about challenging stereotypes, it is changing attitudes of the ARABS! “

Yes, he or she is right: the Problem is not Islam.

The problem is, that some Muslims do not realize that what they believe to be Islamic teaching is in fact tradition. The Hadith’s (traditions) sometimes clearly contradict the Holy Quran. The best example is the stoning of adulterous women as it still happens in some areas  in the Middle East. It was common practice before Christianity, which Jesus abolished (pls. read the article below “Stoning of a child” ).  

In the Quran there is NO mentioning of it but a sura, that cannot be misinterpreted:

“And as for those who are guilty of an indecency from among your women, call to witnesses against them four (witnesses) from among you; then if they bear witness confine them to the houses until death comes close to them or God opens some way for them.” (Quran 4:15)

They somehow manage to distort the Original Message of  Righteousness, Tolerance and Humanity. It was Islam,  that introduced 1400 years ago all these virtues to then pagan Bedouins, who were warring each other in bloody tribal conflicts.  And it is not solely the problem of the Arabs, who count only around 15 % of  the Muslims worldwide.

The reason  is that many preachers still prefer the Hadith’s,  even if there are clear instructions of tolerance, forgiveness, human rights, even animal rights and  “do not kill” in the Quran.

Please read the passages of the Quran on the right panel, No. 7  “What the Quran has to say..”

Traditions change last, unfortunately.

A Joke
(everybody gets those, a.k.a. spam): A little girl asked her mother: “How did the human race appear?” The mother answered: “God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so was all mankind made.”Two days later she asks her father the same question. The father answered: “Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race was developed.”The confused girl returns to her mother and says: “Mom, how is it possible that you told me that the human race was created by God and Papa says they were developed from monkeys.” The mother answers: “Well dear, it is very simple. I told you about the origin of my side. “

“Garden Eden” by Jacob Savery the Elder, 1601, on Copper panel

A peaceful paradise as we love to imagine it. According to Judaism and Christianity after creation God drove Adam and Eve out of Garden Eden for disobedience. Islam, although it has common ground with them, does not mention this incident. Muslims believe in all prophets of the Bible and in Jesus, who was to them a teacher and a prophet and accuse early Christians of making him the Son of God. Jews and Christians are mentioned in the Quran several times and referred to as “The People of Book” (meaning believers in the same God/Allah). Allah is the name of God in Arabic and in Aramaic and Jesus called God (=English word!) Allah, after all Aramaic was his mother tongue.

The origins of humankind has always been surrounded by mystery, faith and superstition and since Charles Darwin by controversy.

In my opinion there is no contradiction between the story of creation in the Bible or the Quran and the modern science. The origins of the faith were in Palestine and the race and language of the people were Semitic. First parts of the Old Testament were written down between the 12^th and 9^th century BC and in course of time then translated several times.

Please read also the topics No. 3 Short History and No. 5 Jesus, Christianity on the right panel.

From about 3^rd century BC Jews in Palestine came to use Aramaic in both speech and secular writings. Aramaic is a Semitic language and was also the mother tongue of Jesus as Arabic is a Semitic language, in which the Quran was revealed.The creation of the universe is told to have happened in seven days. In Arabic (a Semitic language) the word day can also mean a long period of time. Thus we could say that the creation of the Universe took place in seven very long periods of time.

Lets imagine the superstitious people of Palestine 10000 years ago. The existence of One almighty God had to be told them in a language they could understand and thus events in the Bible are told like stories. And generations after generations told them their offspring until in the 9^th century BC first scriptures were written, known as the Pentateuch.

So, there ins no problem with the stories of Creation.

The Darwinist theory of creation ist still not complete when it comes to humans. You may have heard the termMissing Link, a link that would connect today’s man Homo Sapiens with its primate relatives, the apes. There is a real possibility that this missing link will be discovered, but wouldn’t it be one more prove of the power of God Almighty, who “created Man from a single cell” (Quran) ??

I quote myself from the Topic No. 7 on the right panel “What the Quran has to say about Creation”

“O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Truly, the most honored of you in God’s sight is the greatest of you in piety. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware.” (Quran 49:13)

“Do nit the unbelievers see, that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then we clove them asunder and, We got every living thing out of water. Will they not then believe?” In another translation of the same verse: “Are then, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were (once) one single entity, which We then parted asunder?” (Quran 21:30)

“Moreover (God) turned to the heaven, when it was smoke and said to it and to the earth…. ” (Quran 41:11)

“And it is We who have built the universe with power, and verily, it is We who are expanding it.” (Quran 51:47)(The Theory of the expansion of the universe was developed by Albert Einstein in his Theory of Relativity and is widely accepted today.)

“And God has created from water every living creature: so of them is that which walks upon its belly, and of them is that which walks upon two feet, and of them is that which walks upon four; God creates what He pleases; surely God has power over all things.” (Guran 24:45)

Charles Darwin’s theory is strongly backed by these verses:

At the beginning there was smoke, Big Bang, out of which God created earth and heaven and that every living thing came out of water!

With greetings,

Mona

“One of the 100 most influential people in the world”

Ayaan Hirsi-Ali

was named in 2005 by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

For some time now it has been in my mind that I should write about her, because she is spreading information as Islamic which actually is NOT and the readers of her bestsellers and articles hardly can make the difference what is true and what is her view. Everything she says should be seen on the background of her Somalian childhood. It is one of poorest and most backward countries in the world and its traditions should be seen in that perspective. There is also an interview with her on Youtube “On Losing Faith In Islam”

She is a Dutch feminist born in Somalia. When she was eight her family left Somalia for Saudi Arabia, then for Ethiopia and eventually settled in Kenya. From Germany se came to the Netherlands where she sought and obtained political asylum in 1992, under circumstances that later became the center of a political controversy.

A political crises surrounding the potential stripping of her Dutch citizenship led to her resignation from the parlament, and led indirectly to the fall of the second Balkenende cabinet.

She is known in the West by her assumed name, Hirsi Ali, instead of her original name, Hirsi Magan.

She opposes vehemently immigration to the Netherlands while she herself lied about almost everything when getting her asylum status and later her Dutch citizenship.

In its critic of Ali’s autobiography, The Economist called her a “chameleon of a woman”, referring to her talent for reinvention and opportunism.

Speaking of opportunism: her books are translated into numerous languages and turned best sellers. She is living now in the United States and  recently I came across an ad: “URGEND APPEAL: Please Help Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali” on the website ofRichard Dawkinds, wheere she is collcting money for her personal safety. Strange, don’t you think? All these best seller -books and fame cannot pay for her bodyguards?

Hirsi Ali is today an atheist renouncing Islam. She is free to believe or not to believe, it is her decision. As it is stated in the Quran “There is no compulsion in faith” (Qur’an 2:256)

There might be Hadith’s in which a death penalty is suggested for abandoning Islam. But in light of the numerous relating passages of the holy Quran they do not weigh much.

Please read also the Topic No. 7 “What the Qur’an says about…” on the right panel. I would be delighted to have Ayaan on my blog reading these statements. All her arguing would be nullified.

I am not denying that Islam is often distorted out of ignorance or due to uneducated preachers, too much have been changed in the original Message of Peace and Humanity and it urgently needs revival.

What Hirsi Ali experienced in her early childhood in one of the 3 poorest countries of the world and during her schooling with the most strict interpretation of Islam, the Wahabism in Saudi Arabia, has influenced her thinking.

And as I surf the net trying to find specific statements from her about Islam I could not find any! Strange. There is her Homepage but there is no writing or thoughts from her, just a link to collect money for her safety. Very strange, one of the 100 most influential people in the world has nothing to say on her website.

I have to pick up lines from articles and try to answer them one by one.

Quote: “Hirsi Ali criticizes Prophet Mohammed on the grounds of both his morality and personality. In January 2003 she told the Dutch paper Trouw, “Mohammed is, seen by our Western standards, a pervert”, as he married, at the age of 52, Aisha, who was six years old, and the time of consummation, nine. “

As I have written very detailed in this blog about Aisha I just direct you, my reader, to articles on the right panel, No.4 “Biography of Mohammad” (the names and ages of the wives of Prophet Muhammed are listed at the end of the article)

Just a short reminder: from surviving documents we can estimate the age of Aisha at the time of her marriage. She must have been in her late teens or early twenties.

His first marriage with the wealthy widow Khadijah (who was his employer) lasted for 25 years, it was monogamous and very happy. She bore him all his surviving children.

His other wives where aged widows, a young slave girl Maria (a “present” from an African ruler and whom he set free and married and who gave him his only son,w ho died in infancy). Lady Aisha remained childless and after the death of the Prophet she continued teaching Islam and even participated in politics of the early Muslim community.

To be continued soon, her view vs. my view.

http://www.rekombinant.org/old/article.html.sid=2467