While I do agree that such incidents shouldn't happen, but I also surely hope that having lived in the West and learned such nice terms like bigotry, you make a point of raising awareness levels when you go back home during holidays. Most Islamic countries need serious education on how to treat minorities. Wouldn't be very fair if the remaining world was purged of bigotry and it only thrived in the Islamic world, would it?
Sure, I find weird you assume that I've never taken up that issue among ignorant Pakistanis. I have posts on this very forum where I've spoken out for minorities, religious sects, other religions or ethnic. Some other members may have seen them.
Again. .completely valid points ...but lets assume you raise objections in a muslim country or call for transformation or call for a reform of Islamic practises (which one would correctly assume is quite essential) you would be named heretic, blasphemous and end up being punished...so there is very very little scope for reformation or change.
As you pointed out in your last para and what I reiterated - you understood tolerance, secularism and liberalism in a non muslim environment...wouldn't have been possible in a muslim country..because Islam doesn't have that space...even if it does limitedly..It does out of obligation to exist with the non muslim world.
Islamic violence for the whole part is currently war with hundreds getting killed daily at the moment...compared to other extreme religious right wingers being more rhetorical or ideological or islamophobic with some hints of violence...not to the grand scale and level thats happening in Islamic sectarianism.
And..many others don't understand it..
Other religious transformations happened because of the protests and activations by the people from the same religious group.
Islam doesn't offer that bandwidth for liberal or forward thinking Muslims to change their leaders or preachers or bring in modernisation or reform, because opposition to change is also inbuilt.
People are confused and bewildered..and I for one don't fault them for heir lack of understanding.
This is an odd topic. You're partly right, but take the US for example, if you asked most Christian Americans whether they support the laws of the Bible many would say yes, or simply ask them if they follow the Bible. Does that mean that they would support the punishments of the Bible and judgement systems to be made into law in their country? Nope.
There are many laws of the Bible plenty of Christians chose to ignore. No reform came about as such, only liberalism in wider society, democracy and civil liberties, entirely political changes.
Now if you were to declare that the laws of the Bible ought to be changed or Christianity reformed, no doubt people will call you a heretic and all sorts.
It's similar with Islam. Only it is worse on our side because of the higher numbers of extremists and literalists. We also aren't nearly as developed as even the US, nor as liberal, the US has had some 200+ years of steady evolution, expansion of civil rights, economic development, education and their own societal enlightenment. We Muslim nations are hardly half a century past Colonial rule, we still suffer from sectarian conflicts as a result of the colonial mess, we've had non-stop war, and hardly any economic development, no enlightenment.
So, reforming Islam is not the issue here. Take Afghanistan for example, it was 10 years of occupation, total near 100% brain drain, all politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, cultured intellectuals fled, entire generations grew up without any education or opportunities in a war environment. Then came the radicalisation through various means, some of it foreign and through Pakistan, the US, Saudi Arabia.
My point is, the lack of room for reform of Islam, did not cause the Taliban, hell on earth caused by politics left them vulnerable to this sort of thing, and all it took was a bit of sustained effort by some powers to make use of that situation in radicalising the country. Again, political circumstances we're talking about here, not Islam. In fact, I would be so bold to say that had Christianity have been in place of Islam in Afghanistan in 1979, we would see the Christian taliban today, if all political factors remained unchanged
ceteris paribus.
They do that for the same reason their citizens live in the West. Whether it's an individual or an entire nation, one must make his own bread or bend his knee to the man who bakes it for him. All these topics inevitably come back to issues entirely internal to the Islamic world that have nothing to do with the West.
Please tell us what planet you've been living on these last 30-40 years, clearly signals from earth are hard to come by up there?
