Do You Want To Start Clapping???

Posted on April 21, 2006
Filed Under General Thoughts |

WARNING: There is no real structure to what I’m saying here in this post. I’m simply typing thoughts as they come to my head. Everything I state here is based on my own personal opinion. Sorry in advance if you get confused. I’m new to blogging and still in the process of refining my writing style.

We all know we got issues and faults to deal with. Nobody is perfect right? Not you, not me, not even America, the Jews or Muslims in general are perfect. Religion however, IS perfect but the way it’s practiced is not (Yeah, yeah, I know there are probably some shouting WHAT!!?? Islam is perfect?? Like it or not it is perfect, depending on the interpretation). And yes, yes I know a Muslim is happy with being a Muslim and a Jew is happy with being a Jew so how can a Muslim say Judaism is perfect? So wait, if I’m Muslim and I don’t want to be Jewish does that mean there’s something wrong with Judaism. No, not at all, maybe it doesn’t suit me but for that Jewish individual it is the perfect religion and that should be respected. I’m a Muslim, I’m very happy with it and I have no intention whatsoever of converting to any other religion be it Judaism or Christianity. Was that a hateful statement against two very decent religions? The answer is no, it wasn’t.

We are all born having different preferences but essentially we are all the same. If we disagree then let’s disagree in a spirit of true humanity. If every Jew, Christian and Muslim was a truly spiritual and religious person this world would be a better place. Don’t get me wrong I’m not here making negative remarks about Judaism, Christianity or Islam and saying they are bad religions. No, no I’m not. The point I intend on stressing and emphasizing is that, it is us humans that are flawed. We are flawed because we have the gift of choice and sometimes get the temptation to make the wrong decisions. Those wrong decisions are not a result of religious commandments. Never attribute the wrong and negative actions back to the religion of the “practicer”, for every negative action is a sin, and a sin in any religion is the result of not adhering to that religion itself. Islam is pure I believe, and it teaches us to endorse human rights (if same sex marriages are a human right then the hell with them, out of the window they fly in this case). Islam as it’s practiced now is more of a “sociopolitical” ideology as stated by many Muslim and Arab “reform” bloggers out there in the blogosphere. How can you implement the sociopolitical side of the religion correctly when you can’t even follow the spiritual side of it? Before we start practicing the sociopolitical part of the religion, we must put the “spirituality” side of it at the top of the list, for if we have government officials with corrupted souls, they will practice the sociopolitical part of Islam in accordance with their corrupted agendas and self-interests and that my friends is the first and greatest tragedy of all.

At the start I mentioned that nobody is perfect. I emphasize on “is” (now, present tense). I was taught to strive for perfection. I find it funny though since I think nobody can ever be perfect. Nothing worldly is perfect. That’s why life is called life because it’s not perfect. Many Muslims have sort of accepted their reality. They are frustrated by it but feel helpless to change it. They realize things will never be perfect so why bother. I believe this is the second problem. If we strive, we Muslims can change things. The West thinks democracy is the solution and I believe it is but not in its Western version. Believe it or not, a moderate and non-extremist interpretation of the Quran and Islam will lead towards a model very similar to that of Western democracy except with a few differences. I don’t believe a secular government can please the majority if implemented in Muslim countries. Many Muslims equate democracy and freedom with “Western” attitudes towards alcohol, homosexuality, drugs, prostitution, nudity etc. That is the reason they find it difficult to accept and are against it. Here is a poll showing the perceptions of Sudanese people towards democracy. Even I myself find it difficult to accept democracy in this form especially when it comes to issues such as homosexuality.

(Personal opinion: I don’t mind gays just as long as they don’t hit on me, if they want to be gay they can go ahead. I do sympathize with special cases such as those who are born hermaphrodites or have abnormal hormonal unbalance etc. and I think society shouldn’t look down on them. However I am 1000000% against same sex marriages. Married couples have the right to adopt and that’s why my opposition to this is so strong. I believe it is completely wrong for a child to be adopted and have to grow up with either Daddy&Daddy or Mommy&Mommy. It’s just not normal. I don’t harbor any hatred towards homosexuals but this is just a personal opinion on what I believe.)

The best Muslim country in my opinion with a great system of government is Malaysia. It embraces democracy but not in its Western concept. I advice those interested in the matter to explore more facts about the multi-religious/cultural nation of Malaysia further to get a proper understanding of what Islam Hadhari or moderate Islam is really all about. Here is Tun. Mahathir, Malaysia’s ex-prime Minster’s comment on Western democracy.

The Western concept of democracy does have a lot of good in it but there are some factors that make it unattractive to Muslims. The recent cartoon controversy just made democracy even more unattractive. While I do believe in freedom of speech, I also believe it shouldn’t be abused. I was very offended by the Danish cartoons and I’m also offended by the continuous anti-Semitic cartoons in the Muslim world. I am also offended by the fact that the pathetic KKK can still go out in processions and spread their hateful speeches. Those are things I don’t understand sometimes about America. Isn’t there something called hate crime or this is allowed because it’s “freedom” of speech. Democracy is about the majority but what if the majority is wrong and the minority is right? Here is an interesting short Malaysian article entitled “Is Democracy Islamic?” It is very thought provoking specially for a Muslim.

It is important to note that Islam in the current way it’s implemented is inaccurate (Malaysia is the most accurate in my opinion in its method of implementation). Look at Saudi Arabia, the country in which the holiest site of Islam is located. They don’t allow foreigners coming into the country to bring along their bibles and forbid them from building synagogues and churches. The Quran commands us to allow non-Muslims to follow their own religions and not force them to do otherwise. Clearly some Muslim countries claim to be Muslim when in fact they are not even following simple and basic Islamic commandments. Someone might ask why Saudi Arabia is doing this then. Simple… This is their policy for political reasons and not religious ones. Many people judging the issue emotionally will probably say “yeah, good for them, those damn infidels ain’t gonna mess our land with their so called holy buildings… they’re oppressing our brothers in Palestine so why the hell should we be nice and let them build their crap”. Muslims in general must set aside their hatred and prejudice towards the west and start thinking constructively. I do realize it is difficult to do that especially when images of dead/suffering Muslims from Iraq and Palestine are broadcasted almost daily all over the Muslim world on channels like Al-Jazeera. And yes I do realize that many times the dead Muslims shown in Iraq didn’t wind up dead because of American bombs but because of the Shiite and Sunni violence. If you ask me, I think Al-Jazeera should show the good about America once in a while. Hell they should even broadcast Oprah Winfrey too. American media should do the same with the Muslim world. For God’s sake stop making us look so evil. We Muslims as everyone else have a right to defend ourselves but the disgusting and sick tactics of suicide bombings targeting civilians are not the way to go. They are wrong and Muslims must stop supporting and/or sympathizing with terrorists. If some of you were wondering why the Quran contains verses about war and fighting off the non-believers, then I will clarify for you. Every nation has the right to defend itself. If someone comes to my house and tries to hurt my family, I shoot him in the head. Plain simple for self defense but me being pissed and going up to him and blowing him up is completely wrong. During the days of the Prophet, the verses were revealed because Muslims were under attack from the non-believers and didn’t know what to do. They didn’t know if going to war was okay and allowed in Islam. Therefore Allah Almighty revealed those verses and allowed them to defend themselves. Most importantly He Almighty has revealed that we should always resolve to diplomacy and let war be the last option. Not only that but many rules regarding war were laid down including that it be conducted only in self defense and that civilians NEVER be a target. Things have now gotten complicated with advancing technology and all this pre-emptive strike and “the best defense is an offence” technical talk. There’s no need to complicate such issues.

We Muslims must deal with misperceptions internally amongst ourselves and also externally to the West by reforming our mentalities and most importantly engaging much deeper in creative and critical thinking. That’s were the third problem lies. Many Muslims are fed information by the “ullamas”, told not to ask questions and then ordered to strictly follow with the utmost diligence. That’s just wrong. We need more Islamic preachers of the Amr Khalid type. If we are to climb out of the hole we buried ourselves in, we must engage in creative and critical thinking much more. Thinking is the most difficult job to do and that is why so few engage in it. Muslims must also stop the attitude of “go to mosque, be good Muslim, die, go to heaven and enjoy for all eternity”. That is one of the factors why we are generally economically deprived. We have to create a better world and contribute something to humanity as a whole. We must also shed away the general anti-Semitism. If Muslims managed to truly understand the Jewish faith from Jews themselves rather than from radical clerics, things would improve. Allah Almighty allows a Muslim man to marry a Christian or a Jewish wife so why so much hatred? Also until Israel stops its continuous harassment of innocent Palestinians, Muslims will continue to view Zionism as an evil movement. Hamas should also tone it down and cut the crap with targeting civilians. If you want to have a war then purely make it military VS military based and don’t use terrorist tactics. Don’t involve civilians or better still don’t start a war. Furthermore the West should also set aside its post 9/11 hatred for the actions or inactions of Muslims and stop painting us with the same brush. But then again hatred blinds logic and now we have nothing but hatred, hatred and more hatred. As such I’m not naïve to the fact that there will never be 100% peace on this planet. Sinister forces will always exist. That however should not deter us towards striving for perfection even though it may not be achieved. Let’s please set aside the prejudices and the labeling and try to reach out. Keep an open mind. Generalizations, stereotyping and labeling leave no options for improvements or peace. The blogosphere is expanding as you read this. Let us use it as a platform to help set the tone for the 21st century.

Before concluding let me again state,

1. It is us humans that are flawed. We are flawed because we have the gift of choice and sometimes get the temptation to make the wrong decisions. Those wrong decisions are not a result of religious commandments. Never and I mean never attribute the wrong and negative actions back to the religion of the “practicer”, for every negative action is a sin, and a sin in any religion is the result of not adhering to that religion itself.

2. Before we start practicing the sociopolitical part of the religion, we must put the “spirituality” side of it at the top of the list, for if we have government officials with corrupted souls, they will practice the sociopolitical part of Islam in accordance with their corrupted agendas and self-interests and that my friends is the first and greatest tragedy of all.

3. The West must realize that “Western” democracy is not that appealing to Muslims in general. We Muslims however must not completely reject it. Muslim countries should at least start implementing a similar model to that of Malaysia.

4. Muslims must engage themselves more in creative and critical thinking to avoid being “programmed robots”. When such thinking is conducted, it should be done with good intentions that benefit humanity as a whole

Lastly but most definitely not least

Jews & Westerners reading this… Please make some changes
Muslims & Arabs reading this… Please make some changes

It takes two hands to clap. Do you want to start clapping???

Comments

25 Responses to “Do You Want To Start Clapping???”

  1. Anonymous on April 22nd, 2006 6:05 am

    Drima,
    I agree and disagree with you.
    God is perfect. Religion is flawed but we as humans are basically unable to understand the divine, so our interpretation is bound to be flawed and that interpretation is religion.
    I disagree also that democracy in a western sense cannot exist (or should not exist) in the Muslim world. If God gives you freedom of choice, what man has the right to take that away from you? In order to truly be devout in your relationship with God, you have to have the choice not to be. If you are forced by human penalties to obey God, how is that in any way a testament to Him? It could be just fear of retribution.
    Sorry drima, I don’t agree with you. God gave us free will. No man has the right to deny you.
    We are all born free. We chose to imprison ourselves.
    t

  2. Prup (aka Jim Benton) on April 22nd, 2006 11:20 am

    Drina, I will get back to this at some length. You make a number of interesting points, many of which I will dispute — I’d do it now, but it is a matter of time.

    I do want to mention one minor point here though — and I wish you’d put this in a separate post so we could talk about it without distracting people from the more important points you make. I had the extremely GOOD fortune to be brought up in a lesbian household (in the ‘conservative’ 1950s — I’ll be 60 in June — in suburbia.) I would love to have the proper time and place to discuss this with you — maybe we can do it by e-mail and you can turn our colloquy into a separate post. But this is DENITIELY not the place, because you have much more important ideas to be discussed by myself and others. (I’d also appreciate permission to quote this as a cross post in my blog on Islam.)

    I’ll be discussing this part of my background — if I ever get the time and chance — on my other blog, “If it is it doesn’t matter”
    http://jimbentn.blogspot.com/
    but right now the blog listed below is the active one.

  3. foreign devil on April 22nd, 2006 11:30 am

    I agree G*d is perfect, but religions, which are the practice of worshipping, were devised by men and since men are imperfect, not only the interpretations can be flawed but where the teacher or imam or minister or rabbi has an ulterior motive or a loyalty to an earthy master or country’s ambitions, it can be a terrible misuse of the trust it’s follower handed into the care of it’s ministers. For that reason, we cannot categorically say that Islam is perfect since the way the way worship of G*d is practiced within Islam, excludes others of other faiths. There are too many reasons why Islam needs an internal revolution or renaissance to ever say it’s a ‘perfect’ religion. In fact, it’s 600 years younger than Christianity, for instance, and has many stories within its holy book the Koran, that are similar to those of the Holy Bible, that I personally am led to believe that old Mohammed in fact borrowed some of the parables and just changed them slightly, for his own set new religion.

  4. Prup (aka Jim Benton) on April 22nd, 2006 11:32 am

    I found I had to comment on a few things. I do not believe religion is perfect, any of them. (I am, in fact an atheist — and , no, this was NOT a result of my upbringing. One of my mothers was very sincerely religious — Roman Catholic — and the other was at least nominally so, and it was a GREAT dissapointment to Claire when i left the Church and discovered I had to be an atheist. Until she became too sick to, Claire accompanied me to weekly Mass.)

    I wholeheartedly agree with the need for critical thinking. I consider it the most important human mental attribute. The trouble with religious people using it though is that they find themselves using it on their religion, and this leads to problems. I am going to give a long quote here — I can’t link to it, because I have access to the work through a subscription to Questia. It is by an Anglican, and I am deliberately not mentioning where it appears just yet. Maybe in a future post — you’ve now forced me to put your site on my RSS.

    “The Christian reformation in the West (there was nothing remotely like it in the Eastern church, which, not coincidentally, provides a much closer analogy to Islamic conservatism) proceeded on the false assumption that knowlege of Scripture was ultimately compatible with human knowledge—discovery of the original meanings of texts, linguistic and philological study, historical investigation, and so on. Without tracing the way in which this assumption developed, the fragmented churches that exited the process of cultural, geographical, and denominational warfare between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries proved the assumption false. Europe would never again be Christendom, and the New World would emerge as an archetype of the bifurcations, rivalries, and half-way compromises that the failure of religious authority had made necessary in the Old. By the end of the nineteenth century, liberal Christian scholarship, with its inherent historical skepticism, which did not spare even the divinity of the founder nor the sacredness of sacred scripture, was verdict enough on the marriage between humanistic learning and divine knowledge, as it was promoted energetically by the early Christian reformers. From the end of the eighteenth century to the present day, Christianity was a recipient religion, which found itself either at war with humanistic learning (as among the evangelicals from Paley’s day onward) or, to use Berger’s term, an accommodationist faith, whose role in the world seemed to be to accept the truths that culture provided and to express them, whenever possible, in a Christian idiom.”
    –R. Joseph Hoffmann
    Westminster College, Oxford

  5. tommy on April 22nd, 2006 11:54 am

    Drima,

    You are completely wrong.

    Islam, Christianity and Judaism are all far from perfect - even in concept.

    Scientology is the only perfect religon. ;-)

  6. Prup (aka Jim Benton) on April 22nd, 2006 3:55 pm

    Drina:
    I notice you don’t list your e-mail address on your profile. This may be deliberate, but I think our discussion would be best carried out in that way, at least at first. I wanted to ask you again for permission to post your post on my blog — you will see that I have posted another that hardly agrees with me.

  7. Drima aka SudaneseThinker on April 22nd, 2006 9:44 pm

    Sorry people for my late reply. I’m having my finals soon for this semester so I’m kinda busy studying. Meanwhile I got tons of projects to submit.

    Now even though many of you disagree with me, I appreciate the fact that you are all doing it respectfuly.

    Jim, I will put my email address on this blog soon. Sorry I forgot to but for now it’s sudanesethinker@yahoo.com
    and yes you may defintely put a link to this post on your blog and use it if you would like. We can communicate through email or I can make a new post about same sex marriages.

    Tommy, dude let’s put aside the 3 divine religions but maaan Scientology??!! Here’s a link you should check out about it http://lermanet.com/
    I believe the man who came up with it is a con man.

    t, it’s clear we almost disagree on everything. I will get back to you though on some of the things you stated. I hope you did click on the links in this article and read them though. Also believe me democracy in its Western sense is unfavourable to many Muslims and not just Sudanese. Please checkout the poll link in the article and comment about it and also do a research about Malaysia. Hindus, Christians, Budhists, Muslims etc are all free to worship here and live in peace. It is a democratic system compatible with Islam. It’s not completely secular. I don’t believe the US is completely secular either. Read what’s written on your dollar bill. Even the president uses words such “we must defeat those evil terrorists”. i believe the words evil and good are based on religious references so it’s clear he is motivated also by religious reasons. And also the statement “God Bless America”. If US is completely secular why mention God. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Malaysia is the same but in this case it’s probably “Allah Bless Malaysia”. I don’t think it’s possible for any country to be 100% secular. Elements of religion will always be present.

    Sorry people for the article being too long. After my exams, I’m going to break it up into 3 or 4 shorter parts each with a specific scope. For not my blogging is going to get lighter. Plus I want to focus on getting as much feed back on this long post as i can. I hope some Muslims can participate in it. I wonder if sandmonkey and BP can give their opinions.

  8. tommy on April 23rd, 2006 3:36 am

    Oh, Drima I am not being serious.

    Scientology is kooky. Scientology is the perfect argument against those who want to enact blasphemy laws. I mean, do we really want to make it illegal to make fun of Scientology.

    And yes, L. Ron Hubbard was most definitely a con-artist - and worse.

  9. Um Haleema on April 23rd, 2006 7:08 am

    Here’s a glaring misconception that I am seeing. Democracy does not only protect the rights of the majority. Every person who sets foot in the United States has equal rights. They may not have the right to vote if they are not citizens but they still have rights. Where the majority rules is in voting but the leaders that are voted in still have to follow the Constitution which is where we get our rights. If we voted in a Muslim president tomorrow that would not mean that I would have to start following Islamic law.

  10. Drima aka ST on April 23rd, 2006 8:19 am

    Tommy thank God you were joking… Tom cruise is retarded =P haha

    um haleema,
    I understand what you have said but most Muslims don’t. They wouldn’t want to have bars and strip clubs in their towns just because others want them and have the right to. To them democracy brings too much freedom which in turn causes immorality…

    But at the end of the day when you look at the big picture you realize.. What’s moral to me is not moral to someone else and I guess that’s where the main concept of freedom comes in.

    I’m not going to lie to you, I’m very convinced about many things and firmly believe in them but when it comes to some stuff I guess I’m still searching for answers.

    Through blogging I hope to find those answers. So far it’s been a lovely learning process.

  11. halalhippie on April 23rd, 2006 2:38 pm

    Here’s a Dane applauding…much sanity in a big pile. As we have misconceptions about Islam in the West (need I say cartoons?) ppl in islamic countries are bound to have misconceptions about democracy. Strip clubs and bars didn’t pop up overnight. They grew in shady places just like seeds that have rain. In fact, here in DK we have soft-porn magazines on the shelves of every kiosk, but I’m not into porn, so I don’t notice them. Ppl from less “immoral” countries notice them when they visit.

    Democracy requires an effort and participation from every citizen, so I guess you can’t just replace an autochratic goverment with free elections (eg.Iraq) and expect all to be well.

    Why so much hate? Hate comes from fear, fear comes from lack of understanding. Fear makes ppl act before they think. Fear makes one see others in a distorted light. I made a rant about the hijab worn by (few) Danish Muslim women on my own blog. I’d appreciate some Muslim comments.

    - and I’d be grateful to discuss the cartoons as well, if you’re up to it: they have brought great shame to my country, and I wish to make some changes.

  12. Drima aka SudaneseThinker on April 23rd, 2006 3:22 pm

    halalhippie,
    great comment and thanx for reading my super long post… I agree with you and yes I would love to discuss the cartoons. I appreciate a good discussion with someone who doesn’t make angry sweeping statements and isn’t closed minded.

  13. Drima aka ST on April 23rd, 2006 3:29 pm

    “So I guess you can’t just replace an autochratic goverment with free elections (eg.Iraq) and expect all to be well.”

    That’s exactly what I meant and the West must understand that. Change isn’t going to happen over night.

    “Democracy requires an effort and participation from every citizen”

    That’s why I fear it will be a failure. Majority of Muslims view democracy negatively and won’t participate. Even if they do, there will always be ones forever against it and they would do what they can to stop it.

  14. Drima aka ST on April 23rd, 2006 3:32 pm

    halalhippie,
    “I made a rant about the hijab worn by (few) Danish Muslim women on my own blog. I’d appreciate some Muslim comments. ”

    you didn’t leave your blog address

  15. Anonymous on April 24th, 2006 1:57 am

    Drima i dont agree
    There is no god in this world.
    Human are dynamic.. there not required rules like religion to be our guidelines.
    We changes everytime….^^

  16. Anonymous on April 24th, 2006 1:59 am

    I DISagree with the previous comment.
    humans are not dynamic, we are static

  17. Anonymous on April 24th, 2006 1:59 am

    no we are not static, we are dynamic..
    see how we change..every day..means we are dynamic..like -deleted by blogger-

  18. Far North on April 24th, 2006 4:04 am

    http://halalhippie.blogspot.com

  19. Um Haleema on April 24th, 2006 10:52 am

    Drima,
    I believe the only reason that they think that too much freedom breeds immorality is because they are told that in order to keep them subservient to their corrupt governments. Morality does not come from laws or forms of government, it comes from parenting, education and maturity. Forced morality is not true morality. For an example just look at the behavior of Saudi men when they are out of their country. If the man down the street likes to go to the strip club in town (if there was one) it would have no affect on me what so ever so what right do I have to insist that he not be allowed to go there?

    I hope that you are able to get the answers to some of the stuff you are still searching for answers on. You may never get the answers but at least you will learn alot. Keep that mind open and all sorts of knowledge will come to you.

  20. Drima aka ST on April 24th, 2006 7:08 pm

    Um Haleema,
    very true the behaviour of many Saudi men is totaly the opposite of what they are supposed to be…

    Belive me if I had a choice to live in strip club infested Las Vegas or Talibanic Afghanistan, I would defintely choose Las Vegas not because I like strip clubs but because I like the freedom of practicing my religion in my own way… forced morality is not true morality as you said..

  21. halalhippie on April 25th, 2006 2:46 pm

    Um Haleema:”Forced morality is not true morality.” Couldn’t have said it better. I admire your openmindedness.

    Looks like ppl in Islamic countries only see the “juicy” parts of the West. Believe me, the towns where most ppl live are dull and comformist. Las Vegas is the extreme example.

    Ppl who are “immoral” by the local standards will always find a way to behave immorally. If there’re no bars, they’ll drink moonshine, if there’re no strip bars, they’ll dl porn on the net.

    Your comments on Muslim views on western democracy and freedom values are very enlightening. Looks like westerners think muslims need freedom, and muslims think westerneres need moral values. In my world view the two don’t rule each other out.

  22. Drima aka ST on April 25th, 2006 9:01 pm

    “Looks like westerners think muslims need freedom, and muslims think westerneres need moral values.”

    yup seems like it.

  23. Andrew Brehm on April 26th, 2006 1:41 am

    “Looks like westerners think muslims need freedom, and muslims think westerneres need moral values.”

    It’s only that we (the west) have moral values, just not the ones of Islam; but most Muslims do not have freedom.

  24. Drima aka ST on April 26th, 2006 11:39 am

    Herez the thing all humans get horny.

    “Bad” Muslims are everywhere and they drink, get stoned, screw prostitutes and indulge in immoral activities but they do it behind closed doors.

    In the West however it doesn’t have to be behind closed doors.

    When it comes to good moral values many are just universal amongst us all but others I guess are not. For example just check the divorce rate in the West and compare it to that in Arab and Muslim countries. Our family ties are also much stronger and it’s not a bad thing to be an adult and still live with your parents.

    Now I’m not necessarily saying you westerners are bad. I think it’s just culture and the above are some of the points always brought up my Muslims and Arabs when comparing their values to those of Western society.

  25. halalhippie on April 26th, 2006 4:08 pm

    Drima, thanks for commenting my hijab-rant…very enlightening.

    Now, your examples about divorce and family ties are very good examples. In the Scnadinavian countries we pay the highest taxes in the world, but in return we have a social “safety net”. One does not “depend” on a family and a spouse. Thus, a woman doesn’t have to put up with a violent husband, or a family that drives her bonkers. That’s not to say family ties are a bad thing or a divorce is mostly not trouble.

    But it wasn’t always so. A couple generations ago (before we got rich :-) things were pretty much like you describe.

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