tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post7877071602732192376..comments2024-03-29T10:30:32.188-05:00Comments on Bayou Renaissance Man: Discrimination, distrust and xenophobia: Part 3Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-7938937241623529332012-04-18T18:34:00.835-05:002012-04-18T18:34:00.835-05:00I think that the biggest problem many have with &q...I think that the biggest problem many have with "the other" is that they do not know- really know in a personal, go out to lunch with kind of sense- people who are different.<br /><br />By not knowing people who are different, it is easy to set up a Straw Man based on the worst bits collected and bundled together.<br /><br />So a black man with no white friends beleives that white folks are closet klansmen wanting to bring back Jim Crow.<br /><br />A white man with no real black friends can see every young black man wearing a hoodie as a potential gang member waiting for some lame excuse to riot.<br /><br />Once you get to know people who are diffrent, you find that... they aren't so different after all. Many Muslems really DON"T want to live under Muslim Law, as many Baptist don't really live up to the full tenants of their Church. <br /><br />And every idealogy has the same problems with motivation as the other. You find the same kind of pew warmers, slakers, unmotivated yes men, hypocrits, and people who hold private doubts in the mosque as you do at any Baptist church.Joe in PNGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-19601718577646960092012-04-18T11:29:29.337-05:002012-04-18T11:29:29.337-05:00[continued]
Note that well: If you refuse Islam&#...[continued] <br />Note that well: If you refuse Islam's <i>dawa</i>, its call to become Muslim -- a call that was extended by bin Laden to the President of the United States, and which was not accepted, acts of Jihad, such as the September 11 attacks, are not aggressive but defensive.<br />Peter, I am sure that in your prison work you saw many men who thought like this. <br />It is my impression that Christianity stands against this thinking. Islam, on the other hand, has a strong trend of incorporating it.<br /><br />Back to the review:<br /><br />This formulation would appear to turn the concept of defense on its head. To the extent that a Muslim may proclaim Islam and proselytize, or Islam, as a faith, seeks to extend its invitation and reach—initiate its advance—but is unable to do so, then that represents an overt threat justifying—a defensive jihad. According to Brohi, this does not result in the “ordinary wars which mankind has been fighting for the sake of either revenge or for securing . . . more land or more booty . . . [this] striving must be [is] for the sake of God. <i>Wars in the theory of Islam are . . . to advance God’s purposes on earth, and invariably they are defensive in character.” In other words, everywhere the message of God and Islam is or can be hindered from expan- sion, resisted or opposed by some “obstruction” (a term not clearly defined) Islam is intrinsically entitled to defend its manifest destiny.</i><br />While his logic is controversial, Brohi is not unique in his extrapolation. His theory in fact reflects the argument of Rashid Rida, a conservative disciple of the Egyptian Muhammad Abduh. In 1913 Abduh published an article evaluating Islam’s early military campaigns and determined that Islam’s early neighbors “prevented the proclamation of truth” engendering the defense of Islam. <i>“Our religion is not like others that defend themselves . . . but our defense of our religion is the proclamation of truth and the removal of distortion and misrepresentation of it.”</i>Peter Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-2621551928368910322012-04-18T11:23:53.223-05:002012-04-18T11:23:53.223-05:00Any discussion of Islam should start with the fact...Any discussion of Islam should start with the fact that Islam is governed by a comprehensive cradle to grave legal system that includes what in other legal systems are civil and criminal law, as well as regulating the religious life of Muslims. By the way, "totalitarian" didn't use to be pejorative; it used to have a similar meaning to "holistic" and both were used positively. The direction that mainstream Islamic thought has taken lately, though, is totalitarian in the modern sense as well.<br />Islam has not yet undergone a Reformation (though there are those who say that the Wahhabi/Salafi resurgence in modern time is it) which, given the bloody history of the Reformation in Europe may be a good thing. Or not.<br /><br />Let's just consider one duty shared by Christians and Muslims: to proselytize. Peter, if you as a Christian call on me to become Christian too, what happens if I refuse? Do you have the right to attack me in self-defense on account of my refusal of your call? <br /><br />Because that's what an authority on war under Sharia states. In an article from the US Army's War College's <i>Parameters</i>, <a href="http://www.carlisle.army.mil/USAWC/Parameters/Articles/06winter/win-ess.pdf" rel="nofollow"> Myers reviews <i>The Quranic Concept of War</i></a><br />Here is an excerpt [emphases mine]:<br /><br />[Allah Bukhsh K. Brohi, the former Pakistani ambassador to India] recounts the classic dualisms of Islamic theology; that the world is a place of struggle between good and evil, between right and wrong, between Haq and Na-Haq (truth and untruth), and between halal and haram (legitimate and forbid- den). According to Brohi, it is the duty of man to opt for goodness and reject evil. Brohi appeals to the “greater jihad,” a post-classical jihad doctrine developed by the mystical Sufi order and other Shia scholars.<br />Brohi places jihad in the context of communal if not imperial obligation; both controversial formulations:<br />When a believer sees that someone is trying to obstruct another believer from traveling the road that leads to God, spirit of Jehad requires that such a man who is imposing obstacles should be prevented from doing so and the obstacles placed by him should also be removed, so that mankind may be freely able to negotiate its own path that leads to Heaven.” To do otherwise, “by not striving to clear or straighten the path we [Muslims] become passive spectators of the counter-initiatory forces imposing a blockade in the way of those who mean to keep their faith with God.["]<br />This viewpoint appears to reflect the classic, collective duty within jihad doctrine, to defend the Islamic community from threats—the concept of defensive jihad. Brohi is saying much more than that; however, he is attempting to delineate the duty—the proactive duty—to clear the path for Islam. It is necessary not only to defend the individual believer if he is being hindered in his faith, but also to remove the obstacles of those counter-initiatory forces hindering his Islamic development. This begs the question of what is actually meant by the initiatory forces. The answer is clear to Brohi; the force of initiative is Islam and its Muslim members. <i>“It is the duty of a believer to carry forward the Message of God and to bring it to notice of his fellow-men in handsome ways. But if someone attempts to obstruct him from doing so he is entitled as a matter of defense, to retaliate.”</i>Peter Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-42782304838314906972012-04-17T23:31:12.208-05:002012-04-17T23:31:12.208-05:00I would note that you and others have an interest ...I would note that you and others have an interest in keeping that nasty moral equivalence 'complicated'. Much easier to ignore arguments that use your words, facts and realities that way, and gives you a superior attitude, to boot!<br /><br />I will also note that facts are facts, and as such are not yours or mine. Considering some facts as yours shows a rather obvious prejudice on your part.<br />'In those articles, I advanced certain arguments, pointed out certain facts, illustrated certain realities: but some commentators chose to introduce different arguments, facts and realities, then responded to those instead of mine.'<br /><br />Shutting up now, as your promise to re-examine your attitudes, etc. looks to be wearing thin.tweellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164718561825615886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-85418473040596220152012-04-17T23:06:10.188-05:002012-04-17T23:06:10.188-05:00@tweell: Regrettably, you appear to have complete...@tweell: Regrettably, you appear to have completely misunderstood my meaning, and also appear to be confused about moral equivalence (which I've addressed at some length in this article). If even those seeking to <i>define</i> the concept can't agree, it's clearly a rather less concrete and objective reality than you'd like it to be.<br /><br />I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Perhaps later articles in the series will help to clarify the matter. I hope so.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10595089829300831372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-70899139485957202962012-04-17T21:56:04.447-05:002012-04-17T21:56:04.447-05:00Neat wordsmithing, but still not convincing, sorry...Neat wordsmithing, but still not convincing, sorry.<br /><br />You have not explained why Pot, meet Kettle is not moral equivalence. You have not explained why How is this more evil is not moral equivalence. In your earlier examples, you put one bad action against another, that is the essence of moral equivalence to the best of my understanding.<br /> <br />By your words (part 1), I should consider all former and current Catholic priests child molesters and treat them accordingly, for such was my experience at that age. This is what the media has broadcast, this is what I have known. However, I am an adult, responsible for my beliefs and actions, and understand that you and many others are not that way. I hold others responsible for their beliefs and actions, noting that if the silent majority does nothing, than they do indeed encourage evil to flourish.tweellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08164718561825615886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6244999628674918029.post-28861215089591046912012-04-17T20:10:52.924-05:002012-04-17T20:10:52.924-05:00Looking forward to tomorrow's post.Looking forward to tomorrow's post.Tom Bridgelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13098048586042365606noreply@blogger.com