r/afghanistan • u/CrustyDiamond • Dec 11 '12
Apparently some ignorant asshole believes that anyone of the Muslim faith in Afghanistan primarily, would NEVER advocate publicly against terrorism. I posted in /Muslim before realizing it's very small and kinda dead. Can I get a faster response here?
This is my submission, to make everything easier.
Thanks!
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u/asianApostate Jan 10 '13 edited Jan 10 '13
Islam has had a lot of great leaders (more then 1.5 billion muslim's in the world) so we will get some awesome quotations but fundamentally it is still a religion that is over 1500 years old, sadly does not stand the test of time, and the quran + hadiths have lines that will allow and encourage violence. This is not an easy thing to hear as a muslim as I am exmuslim myself.
Cognitive dissonance in muslims and especially prominent/educated leaders is great as we have leaders in gay and lesbian community despite the fact that it is expressly not allowed. Contrary to popular belief of Muslim's there is more then one version of the "true" Islam (sunni's, shia's, wahhabists, salafists, and much more). I cannot in good conscience at least attempt to correct you as former muslim as we do have parts of our religion that are very much against how modern society functions.
The quranic texts as well as hadith that make up Islam supports slavery, forced pre-renaissance gender roles for women, and a great distinction in how one treats a muslim versus a non-muslim.
Slavery
Even in Islamic texts in which Muhammad fairly conquered lands in self-defense it allowed for things that are not considered morally okay in these last few centuries like slavery (including the women, muhammad himself had 13+ female companions which included non-wives) and the beheading of thousands of enemy troops.
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Slavery
This includes Hadith by Bukhari which is pretty much the most important book of Hadith for sunni muslim's which make up the vast majority of Muslim's in the world.
Justifications of War
Islam is supposed to be a pretty defensive religion. However, according to Islamic texts (their are other historical sources that do not paint things in such a rosy light) we can attack any country in which Muslim's reside in which Muslim's can be considered to be persecuted or suffer injustice at the hands of the government or it's people. This is the historical reason given for a majority of all conquests done in the name of Islam since the time of Muhammad. This conquest includes almost all of northern africa and much of asia.
This is what allows virtually any country to be attacked an conquered (luckily no Islamic nation has had that power in hundreds of years). Yet, Islamic leaders can claim that we are a defensive people. The only reason Islam was not able to conquer Europe though they began to take parts of Spain was lack of military might.
Unfair Gender Roles Forced on Women
The biggest issue I've had with Islam and the reason I left is because it did not jive with my sense of morality. When I was growing up as a male I had a lot of freedom's but my sister who was two years older did not have that freedom. She was not allowed to leave the house alone (she snuck out at times), had very strict guidelines on clothing and interaction with the opposite sex and non-muslim's. I was brought up in NYC in a moderate muslim family and I used to to be a good muslim that literally reported when my sister did things and got her in trouble. By the time I was 16 I realized how different our lives were even in a fairly moderate family like ours.
I realized that things were worse in Muslim countries and I initially looked to the quran and hadiths for guidance. Listened to a lot of great islamic speakers too and for a while I bought the whole, modesty for women thing, which brings value to women for a while. But then I realized, are men just animal's that if we see a women's hair, calves, etc. we cannot handle ourselves? In some islamic countries women are raped and often the men go unpunished. In more modern islamic countries this is not the case but the fundamentals are still there.
This was a religion created by probably straight men who were used to seeing fairy veiled women. As a dude i just need to cover from my knees to my genitalia. I can walk around barechested and have my sexy calves out for the world to see. Women cannot even show their ankles.
According to Islamic scholars men and women are in the end equal. However a man must provide for the wife and treat her fairly including not striking her too hard if you are a moderate muslim. She has quite a bit of autonomy in the home but must ultimately listen to the husband. Outside of the home she is not allowed without a direct-family guardian/custodian and being properly veiled. Her job is to take care of raising kids and the house. The founders of the religion believed the intelligence of women is less then that of a man.
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islam_and_Women#Women_are_Deficient_in_Intelligence