Now if you are a regular reader or follower of this blog, you would know how much I abhor hypocrisy and hate hypocrites. I do not claim that I am not one myself (and I loathe myself for being hypocritical at times) but I do claim and know that I at least try not be a hypocrite or follow the hypocritical line.
As it so happens, not many in this country are capable of making amends. They preach one thing, do and follow quite another. So for instance, a debate with two fellow Facebookers really got my blood roiling. Firstly because what they were saying without substantiating their claims was absurd (at least that's the way it sounded to me); secondly they claimed to know much more about Islam than me (but that would've been OK because I'm not a theologist or an Islamic scholar, had they been one which they were not) and thirdly because they were sullying the name of my religion by attaching atrocious stuff to its commands.
To start of they claimed that the Taliban are the real Muslims and I quote, "Mullah Omar is the Ameer-ul-Momineen of all Muslims". You would imagine that would be it but then they claimed the killing of innocents is quite acceptable in Islam because there is always collateral damage in war. They also claimed that mere mortals like myself are the "dogs of the US" and we only know what the Jewish media feeds us; apparently to them it is quite OK to use Jewish media (Facebook et al.) to spread their own message.
I tried reasoning with them, repeatedly asking them questions that stated that is it OK for Muslims to kill innocent Muslims? They did not answer at first but rather rambled on and on about the US and how it has killed millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that's not what I asked I pointed out, and finally they said the Taliban don't blow up barber shops, girl schools, behead people, shoot people, or kill civilians. They only kill military personnel who are the "dogs of the US".
After debating with them for almost an hour one of them finally conceded that he was a hypocrite. How did he concede that? Well I told him since he believes in the cause of the Taliban (blowing people up), why doesn't he go to the army house and blow himself up in the face of the army chief. Obviously it emerged that it far easier to preach what you do behind a screen and keyboard in the safe confines of your home. Hypocrisy then was the winner in this case.
I do not care that some people are crazy enough to say we must fight the Americans. As it turns out there are far crazier stuff people come out with. People have twisted Islam so much that they find it next to impossible to see that what they say and preach is extremely illogical and Islam is anything but illogical. To give you an example from this very debate, I stated that I cannot believe that a religion who's name's literal meaning is submission to peace can preach violence. Ironically, the counter argument I got was that the meaning of Islam is the submission to Allah, not to peace. To clarify this folks, the word Islam comes from two root words: Istalama and Salam. Istalama means submission while Salam means peace, hence the literal meaning of Islam is submission to peace. Not submission to Allah which as you will find out is the ideology of Islam.
The irony is that these people have hijacked Islam and claim to know everything about it. They quote out of context Quranic verses and proclaim that Islam ordains violence against the infidels. Maybe so but Islam only ordains that in defensive terms; like when you are attacked by a foreign force; like when you are repeatedly provoked through aggressive means such as the Israeli indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. The only trouble is, I'm not a Palestinian and I can't help them because I have to put my own house (country) in order first!
The other problem with people like these is that they think all those who do not preach violence against the "dogs of the US" aka all the military personnel, political leaders and the civilians of Pakistan are the lovers of the US. They conveniently forget to mention that their siblings reside in the infidel countries, study their education and live a luxurious life in the infidel lands. They also forget that disagreement does not mean that one has taken a stance that supports the other side.
To make this point clear I would give my point of view vis-a-vis the USA: The USA is no angel, saint or pope. It has committed atrocities. It has committed unspeakable and unpardonable sins. I cannot and will not deny that. 9/11 was a US intelligence failure was it not? The Americans knew terrorists wanted to attack their homeland and still let it happen. In 2003 George Bush authorised and launched a genocide in Iraq and yet he walks scot free. But the only reason the US can do whatever it wants is because it is the world's most powerful country. It will serve its own interests. That is common sense. That is only logical. We also need to keep our interests supreme and intact. And one of the ways we can do that is by not launching a war against the US. Lets be honest. This country is full of hypocrites. Not the Muslims about whom we read in our history books and Allah does not love or help hypocrites. Hence if we fight the US, we will lose. Our country will be torn apart. But I suppose that's OK because these extremists believe that nationalism is a sin anyway. The only way to fight the influence of the US is to stand on your own two feet. When the Muslims were powerful in the pre-1000s, they were expanding. Now the US is powerful, hence it is expanding. Common sense, common logic.
We rely on the West's education, the West's language (English), the West's mode of communication (Facebook, Skype, Twitter, internet) and we pretend like we are the masters of all eternity. Actually I don't pretend that. They also quote newspapers and magazines to support their points but when people having a debate with them quote from the same literature they are termed "fasiqeen" because we have "unreliable and unverifiable" literature.
How does one argue with such people? How? Please feel free to enlighten me using the comments section below.
As it so happens, not many in this country are capable of making amends. They preach one thing, do and follow quite another. So for instance, a debate with two fellow Facebookers really got my blood roiling. Firstly because what they were saying without substantiating their claims was absurd (at least that's the way it sounded to me); secondly they claimed to know much more about Islam than me (but that would've been OK because I'm not a theologist or an Islamic scholar, had they been one which they were not) and thirdly because they were sullying the name of my religion by attaching atrocious stuff to its commands.
To start of they claimed that the Taliban are the real Muslims and I quote, "Mullah Omar is the Ameer-ul-Momineen of all Muslims". You would imagine that would be it but then they claimed the killing of innocents is quite acceptable in Islam because there is always collateral damage in war. They also claimed that mere mortals like myself are the "dogs of the US" and we only know what the Jewish media feeds us; apparently to them it is quite OK to use Jewish media (Facebook et al.) to spread their own message.
I tried reasoning with them, repeatedly asking them questions that stated that is it OK for Muslims to kill innocent Muslims? They did not answer at first but rather rambled on and on about the US and how it has killed millions of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that's not what I asked I pointed out, and finally they said the Taliban don't blow up barber shops, girl schools, behead people, shoot people, or kill civilians. They only kill military personnel who are the "dogs of the US".
After debating with them for almost an hour one of them finally conceded that he was a hypocrite. How did he concede that? Well I told him since he believes in the cause of the Taliban (blowing people up), why doesn't he go to the army house and blow himself up in the face of the army chief. Obviously it emerged that it far easier to preach what you do behind a screen and keyboard in the safe confines of your home. Hypocrisy then was the winner in this case.
I do not care that some people are crazy enough to say we must fight the Americans. As it turns out there are far crazier stuff people come out with. People have twisted Islam so much that they find it next to impossible to see that what they say and preach is extremely illogical and Islam is anything but illogical. To give you an example from this very debate, I stated that I cannot believe that a religion who's name's literal meaning is submission to peace can preach violence. Ironically, the counter argument I got was that the meaning of Islam is the submission to Allah, not to peace. To clarify this folks, the word Islam comes from two root words: Istalama and Salam. Istalama means submission while Salam means peace, hence the literal meaning of Islam is submission to peace. Not submission to Allah which as you will find out is the ideology of Islam.
The irony is that these people have hijacked Islam and claim to know everything about it. They quote out of context Quranic verses and proclaim that Islam ordains violence against the infidels. Maybe so but Islam only ordains that in defensive terms; like when you are attacked by a foreign force; like when you are repeatedly provoked through aggressive means such as the Israeli indiscriminate killing of Palestinians. The only trouble is, I'm not a Palestinian and I can't help them because I have to put my own house (country) in order first!
The other problem with people like these is that they think all those who do not preach violence against the "dogs of the US" aka all the military personnel, political leaders and the civilians of Pakistan are the lovers of the US. They conveniently forget to mention that their siblings reside in the infidel countries, study their education and live a luxurious life in the infidel lands. They also forget that disagreement does not mean that one has taken a stance that supports the other side.
To make this point clear I would give my point of view vis-a-vis the USA: The USA is no angel, saint or pope. It has committed atrocities. It has committed unspeakable and unpardonable sins. I cannot and will not deny that. 9/11 was a US intelligence failure was it not? The Americans knew terrorists wanted to attack their homeland and still let it happen. In 2003 George Bush authorised and launched a genocide in Iraq and yet he walks scot free. But the only reason the US can do whatever it wants is because it is the world's most powerful country. It will serve its own interests. That is common sense. That is only logical. We also need to keep our interests supreme and intact. And one of the ways we can do that is by not launching a war against the US. Lets be honest. This country is full of hypocrites. Not the Muslims about whom we read in our history books and Allah does not love or help hypocrites. Hence if we fight the US, we will lose. Our country will be torn apart. But I suppose that's OK because these extremists believe that nationalism is a sin anyway. The only way to fight the influence of the US is to stand on your own two feet. When the Muslims were powerful in the pre-1000s, they were expanding. Now the US is powerful, hence it is expanding. Common sense, common logic.
We rely on the West's education, the West's language (English), the West's mode of communication (Facebook, Skype, Twitter, internet) and we pretend like we are the masters of all eternity. Actually I don't pretend that. They also quote newspapers and magazines to support their points but when people having a debate with them quote from the same literature they are termed "fasiqeen" because we have "unreliable and unverifiable" literature.
How does one argue with such people? How? Please feel free to enlighten me using the comments section below.