Posted by
ApolloSpeaks on Thursday, October 27, 2011 10:21:31 AM
Samuel commenting on the piece that I wrote (see) about the recent triumph of Islamism in Tunisia's democratic elections accused me of "Islamo-hatred," of being a blind and bigoted hater of Moslems and Islam (something akin to racism). He attributes this sin to two things: (1) reading the "junk" written by influential anti-jihadists like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller; and (2) my lack of Moslem friends-it is true that I've never had Moslem friends. As a cure for my malady Sam suggests that I visit a local mosque and get to know "real living Moslems," instead of hating them according to some distorted unreal abstract notion (as planted in my mind by Spencer and Geller). His comment is as follows:
Apollo's Islamo-hatred
"......You are infected with the poison of Islamo-hatred. Your bigotry against Muslims is clouding your judgment. Some of the dearest people I know are Muslims. I can tell that you have no Muslim friends, or never really interacted with them. Get off your butt and out into the world. Instead of reading the junk written by Robert Spenser and Pamela Geller-you're a frequent commenter on their blogs I see-go to a local mosque and get to know real living Muslims. You might find the experience enlightening."
To this I reply:
First of all Sam my politically incorrect notions about Islam were developed in the 1980s long before the Islamo-realists Spencer and Geller published a single word on the subject. This was due mainly to Arab/Moslem hostility to Israel's existence, and the Islamic revolution in Iran-the hostage crisis was a real eye opener for me. Moreover, years before that, (in the early 1970s) I studied Sufism with a non-practicing, non-political Moslem who was a wonderfully good, wise and civilized man (see).
But tell me this Sam: do your dear, good Moslem friends believe in the equal rights of men and women, or in the equal rights of Moslems and non-Moslems? Do they accept the right of believers to question and criticize the Koran, or to leave the faith in peace and become apostates? Do they denounce the genocidal Jew hatred of Hamas, Hezbollah and radical Iran, and accept the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state? And do they denounce the crimes and atrocities of the prophet Mohammad, and reject political Islam and its ancient utopian dream of world domination by subversion and war?
In other words, do your dear, Moslem friends think that Islam is in need of reformation, and are they examples of reformed believers? Have they separated political Islam from religious Islam and privatized their faith caring nothing about the conversion and conquest of others? Or are they traditional Islamic supremacists with a political agenda; wolves in sheep's cloths who have duped you into believing that they are liberalized "moderates" (like Tunisia's Renaissance Party) because they're not Al Qaida or vicious killers, but have taken, instead, a clever, step by step, incremental, nonviolent approach to totalitarian rule?
I don't hate a single Moslem individual, Sam. What I do hate is TOTALITARIANISM be it secular or religious; be it Communism or Islam (as practiced by Islam's founder in Medina and believed in by millions of "moderates"). In short, I love the Moslem, but hate the supremacist faith-the medieval enemy of progress and freedom that keeps the Middle East in tragedy and chains. Sorry Sam. Visiting a mosque and befriending Moslems wouldn't change that.