I stand corrected
On 16 November, I wrote a post, Beyond Disgust, which offended at least one reader.
And today I received a private message from that reader that I share with you (below). In it, the reader takes me to task, rather gently, for my misperceptions re Islam and sharia law and for spreading same beyond the confines of my own mind (via my public post, Beyond Disgust). Yes, I know the author of the letter, but choose to grant anonymity to the person because he or she wrote to me via private letter not public post.
-- David M Gordon / The Deipnosophist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mr. Gordon,
Just days after smearing [unintentionally, I confidently and compassionately assume] Islam and sharia and its strict practitioners by connecting them to the reported killing of a young rape victim at the hands of Muslims whom Islam and its sharia law would actually consider as criminals if it is proven (with more than Amnesty and UN claims, thousands of news reports and bloggers repeating those claims, and no trial) that they did that, you have again unwittingly joined millions of other newsmakers and reality distorters in smearing Islam, its fundamentals, and those who follow them.
You should feel happy and secure to learn and know without doubt or reservation, that the fundamentals of Islam and the countless Muslims like me who follow Islam's fundamentals utterly reject and condemn the crimes of terror that have happened at the hands of currently unnamed individuals of a currently unidentified group (be they nominally Muslims, or otherwise, proven to be guilty or merely blamed and convicted without proof) killing over a hundred civilians in Mumbai. We also utterly reject and condemn the hurried, shameless response of politicians world-wide, calling to intensify their government-sponsored wars of known, named, and virtually unconditionally-praised uniformed soldiers and their commanders that have already killed countless (and uncounted) hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims who follow the fundamentals of Islam in numerous countries, people who are killed in direct response to terror actions like those in Mumbai and elsewhere, though they have absolutely no involvement whatsoever in such acts.
Why do you condemn one form of rogue terror and its unknown or alleged or known practitioners and you loudly morn its numbered innocent victims; yet you do not condemn the other form of resulting state-sponsored terror and its known practitioners and you remain deafeningly silent about its countless innocent victims? Why do you describe the killing of innocent people as an act of Islamic fundamentalism, of any sort, or as the action of Islamic fundamentalists, of any sort, when crystal clear and publicly available Islamic sources of Quran and Sunnah, the Muslim scholars who explain those sources, and the lay people who follow them all universally reject such criminal actions as unislamic and against Islamic principals?
"Extreme, radical Islamic fundamentalists", you say. These latest planned terror attacks are extreme and radical, indeed, though not nearly as radical or extreme as the disproportionate, barbaric, misdirected, more sophisticated and far more deadly state-sponsored and public-approved and -funded bombings and military invasions and occupations of entire Muslim populations in multiple countries. Neither forms of terror, however, are the work of people who follow and respect the fundamentals of Islam, those hundreds of millions world wide who have earned the honor of being rightly called Islamic fundamentalists. The security you feel in a world with almost 2 billion Muslims is proof of that.
Certainly, we Muslims ought to be better exemplars of Islamic fundamentals, and you non-Muslims ought to make more effort in learning about Islam and Muslims by speaking with us, in person. Increasingly, we live among you. And that will not, God-willing, change.
from a servant of Almighty Allah,
"A"
And today I received a private message from that reader that I share with you (below). In it, the reader takes me to task, rather gently, for my misperceptions re Islam and sharia law and for spreading same beyond the confines of my own mind (via my public post, Beyond Disgust). Yes, I know the author of the letter, but choose to grant anonymity to the person because he or she wrote to me via private letter not public post.
-- David M Gordon / The Deipnosophist
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Mr. Gordon,
Just days after smearing [unintentionally, I confidently and compassionately assume] Islam and sharia and its strict practitioners by connecting them to the reported killing of a young rape victim at the hands of Muslims whom Islam and its sharia law would actually consider as criminals if it is proven (with more than Amnesty and UN claims, thousands of news reports and bloggers repeating those claims, and no trial) that they did that, you have again unwittingly joined millions of other newsmakers and reality distorters in smearing Islam, its fundamentals, and those who follow them.
You should feel happy and secure to learn and know without doubt or reservation, that the fundamentals of Islam and the countless Muslims like me who follow Islam's fundamentals utterly reject and condemn the crimes of terror that have happened at the hands of currently unnamed individuals of a currently unidentified group (be they nominally Muslims, or otherwise, proven to be guilty or merely blamed and convicted without proof) killing over a hundred civilians in Mumbai. We also utterly reject and condemn the hurried, shameless response of politicians world-wide, calling to intensify their government-sponsored wars of known, named, and virtually unconditionally-praised uniformed soldiers and their commanders that have already killed countless (and uncounted) hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims who follow the fundamentals of Islam in numerous countries, people who are killed in direct response to terror actions like those in Mumbai and elsewhere, though they have absolutely no involvement whatsoever in such acts.
Why do you condemn one form of rogue terror and its unknown or alleged or known practitioners and you loudly morn its numbered innocent victims; yet you do not condemn the other form of resulting state-sponsored terror and its known practitioners and you remain deafeningly silent about its countless innocent victims? Why do you describe the killing of innocent people as an act of Islamic fundamentalism, of any sort, or as the action of Islamic fundamentalists, of any sort, when crystal clear and publicly available Islamic sources of Quran and Sunnah, the Muslim scholars who explain those sources, and the lay people who follow them all universally reject such criminal actions as unislamic and against Islamic principals?
"Extreme, radical Islamic fundamentalists", you say. These latest planned terror attacks are extreme and radical, indeed, though not nearly as radical or extreme as the disproportionate, barbaric, misdirected, more sophisticated and far more deadly state-sponsored and public-approved and -funded bombings and military invasions and occupations of entire Muslim populations in multiple countries. Neither forms of terror, however, are the work of people who follow and respect the fundamentals of Islam, those hundreds of millions world wide who have earned the honor of being rightly called Islamic fundamentalists. The security you feel in a world with almost 2 billion Muslims is proof of that.
Certainly, we Muslims ought to be better exemplars of Islamic fundamentals, and you non-Muslims ought to make more effort in learning about Islam and Muslims by speaking with us, in person. Increasingly, we live among you. And that will not, God-willing, change.
from a servant of Almighty Allah,
"A"
Labels: Humanities, Lessons, Life Lessons, Off topic, Open thread
posted by David M Gordon | 8:02 AM
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