This is the third of a series of four posts I will be doing entitled THE MIDDLE EAST AND US. The following posts will be uploaded over the coming weeks.
Part 1 is found at this link https://drstuartrobinson.com/2014/09/10/the-middle-and-us-part-1/
and Part 2 can be found at https://drstuartrobinson.com/2014/09/16/the-middle-east-and-us-part-2-northern-syria-and-iraq/
or by searching my home page.
THE MIDDLE EAST AND US—PART 3
Why is this happening?
Firstly there is the teaching of Islam. Muslims are not our enemies. Like people anywhere they hold many different opinions. The real threat is Islam itself. It’s teaching is contained in:
The Quran, which is claimed to be direct revelation from Allah through its Prophet Muhammed
The Traditions (Hadith) of which there are many thousands. These tell us what Islam’s Prophet said and did.
The Life of Mohammed (Sirat Rasul Allah) by Ibn Ishaq written a century after Mohammed’s death (632CE).
Codified collections of material that constitute Sharia Law.
Whatever is found in these volumes validates or authenticates Muslim belief and practice. There seems to be nothing in the current revivalist upsurge of Islam around the world the example of which and the motivation for which are not first sourced in these books. Variant Interpretations of this body of literature sacred to Islam, were closed a millennium ago when Muslims turned away from the processes of philosophy and rational thought and took refuge in dogma. One of Islam’s greatest mediaeval scholars, al Ghazali, declared the gate of ijtihad was closed and “since then Sunni Islam has adopted the official position that no new interpretations of the law can be entertained”.[i] Therefore reform of Islam becomes mostly a Westernized vain hope.
So, it is taught that Muslims are the best people on earth, that they will rule the whole world, that they are winners and all others are losers (Q24:52;3:85;39:65) and that once Islam has conquered a country, it is theirs forever. When these aspirations are frustrated, reformers with revolutionary zeal arise and declare that Muslim people have become nominal and apostate. Allah’s will is thwarted. Regaining his blessing will only happen if all return to the basics, to resume jihad against the infidels and against Muslim rulers who have compromised the true Way, the Sunnah.
The siren call to reform Islam by returning to its earliest practices, becomes a compelling solution to the question that bedevils all Muslim societies, “How should we live?”
The former Kuwaiti minister of information, Saad bin Tafla al Ajami, sums up what is happening thus: “The truth that we cannot deny is: ISIS learned from our schools, prayed in our mosques, listened to our media and our religious platforms, read from our books and references, and followed fatwas (religious edicts) we produced”.[ii] Precisely so.
No Muslim wants to criticize another Muslim who longs to return to Islam as practiced and exemplified by Mohammed. This is so especially if they are in a minority in a non-Muslim country. Thus when the New York Towers were destroyed, there was muted reaction by Muslims in the West. But in many Muslim majority cities there was dancing in the streets.
The second major reason revivalist Islam is running rampant in the Middle East and increasingly behaving as it does in the West is Western Democracy.
Western Democracy
Nearly all politicians want to retain personal power more than anything else. In a democracy winning votes does this. Votes are won by giving people what they want.
In the case of Australia, reportedly after careful investigation, the Hawke government’s Department of Immigration issued a deportation order for anti-Semitic activities by Sheik Taj El Din Hamid Hilaly. But he lived in Lakemba, a suburb of Sydney, where there were lots of votes by Muslims. So the Hawke government overturned its own edict. Grand Mufti leader of Muslims in Australia, Imam Hilaly would later reportedly describe the New York atrocity as “God’s work against infidels”.
In the 20 Federal Parliamentary seats in western Sydney, all have significant Muslim populations. The Labor party holds 19 of these. When the former Foreign Minister Bob Carr reportedly spent an hour with Prime Minister Gillard emphasizing the electoral importance of the Muslim vote, the Gillard government dropped support for Israel in the United Nations.[iii]
The Abbot government in August 2014 under pressure from the Muslim community and others dropped its intention to change section 18(c) of the Federal Racial Discrimination Act. It was hoping that in so doing it would gain Muslim support for its proposal to enact tougher anti-terrorism laws. Muslims leaders approved the first action but opposed the second.
Democratically elected governments seldom do anything that may risk votes at the next election.
An election in the autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain is due in 2014. 465,000 Muslims live in that region. Their leaders report that the government, the Convergence and Union Party, has promised permission to build the third largest mosque in the world financed from Qatar if the Muslims vote for them. The mosque’s minaret is planned to tower 300 metres to overshadow symbolically the spires of the Sagardia Familia Roman Catholic cathedral by 130 metres. In one of the mosques in that region, Abdelwahab Houzi preached in support of the concept saying that it would represent a significant step in Muslims accumulating power with a view to implementing Sharia Law.[iv]
Secular politicians disallow theology in public debate. World-renowned secularist sociologist Peter Berger recently said, “Those who neglect religion in their analyses of contemporary affairs do so at great peril.”[v]
Part four of this series will be uploaded next week.
If you are interested in reading more my books on this subject and more are available for purchase at https://drstuartrobinson.com/books/
[i] Robert A. Reilly, The Closing of the Muslim Mind. ISI Books, Wilmington, Delaware, 2011, x-xi.
[ii] The Clarion Project (Radicalislam.org). Issue 128. August 21 2014 (viewed August 22 2014].
[iii] Andrew Bolt, We’re muzzled, but bigots rant. Herald Sun, August 17 2014, 13.
[iv] Soeren Kern, http://www.clarionproject.org/print/analysis/barcelona-mega-mosque-promised-separatists-votes (viewed August 17 2014).
[v] Bernard Lane, Academic looks for theoretical salvation. The Australian, August 27 2014, 28.
If you want to learn more click onto the link below and listen in. Even better, buy a copy of my latest book, “the Hidden Half—Women and Islam”. Go to the “Books” section on this site to make your purchase.
Dr Stuart Robinson 
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