As of late I have come to feel that the religion of Islam is ultimately very dangerous in an usually well-meaning way.
While it is very plain that most Muslims are peaceful, well-meaning, very honest people, it is just as obvious that Muslim cultures just aren't well equiped to deal with questioning of the Quran and of tradition.
It is almost embarrassing at times, when one realizes that at least some Muslims sincerely do believe that deep down we are in awe of the Quran, in denial of our supposed deep knowledge that there is a creator God, in flippant or proud defiance of the divine disapproval of homosexuality.
There is a whole lot of belief floating up there, and far too little acceptance of things as they are.
In a way it is much like passive-aggressive manipulation.
When a Muslim fails to accept that there are indeed misguided theists and well-meaning atheists, that no one needs to justify themselves to the Quran or to God, it is his or her own problem... except that it may very easily become someone else's, even everyone else's problem.
People have needs and expectations. They need land to live in, political structures to make decisions on their behalf, mutual cooperation in order to have a measure of stability and security.
It is a sublime yet rather fragile weave of mutual cooperation, all too easily perverted, neglected or corrupted, as we all can tell. And it is particularly vulnerable to people with a sincere yet fragile belief that forces others to become either their subjects or their challengers.
Which, I have come to realize, is all too often exactly the role that Muslims impose upon themselves, apparently because for the most part they have never really learned other ways of living, and may well have been raised into an instinctive rejection of even considering anything else.
Dealing constructively with such a situation is possible, yet unavoidably challenging. We must walk a rather narrow path that exists in the intersection of the firm decision to be respectful of people who usually mean well and are nearly always just taken by fear of change when they do not and the solid acknowledgement that people are not always reasonable and may well do things that they would repent doing if they knew better.
In short, we must learn to respect them while at the same time refusing the continued, insistent, often sincerely unconscious invitations for us to submit to their self-imposed needs and expectations, from which they are basically unable of ever releasing us.
We must learn to be at ease challenging them quite consistently, quite fiercely in fact - because they are not truly equipped to accept anything more conciliatory without perceiving it as a prelude to subjugation. They seem to rarely ever learn any better. They are literally bred to believe that deep down we need or want to take refuge in the wisdom of the Quran and the grace of God, our own protests being supposedly evidence of how much patience they must have towards us, not of what we truly want or need.
It is very difficult to counter such a state of mind - which may well explain why Islam is such a demographic success despite what is, frankly, a rather disastrous theology and doctrine, far too often fully occupied with efforts to deny its own branches and sister faiths to make much if any advance in actual relevant religious matters such as nurturing brotherhood and other moral virtues.
But I digress. How should we deal with Muslims then? To the best of my knowledge, by exercising genuine respect and caring. It is very important not to attempt to deceive Muslims. There is very little hope of tricking Muslims out of their tendency of somewhat innocently perceive non-Muslims as lesser people, and it would (and historically was) very destructive to make such an attempt.
We must make every sincere effort to truly earn their respect and keep deserving it, even while making it abundantly clear that we are not Muslims-in-the-making, and in many cases are all too certain that we could never be. We must, as a matter of fact, leave them no choice but to respect us despite our often deep disagreements. We must suffer on their stead, take trouble for their well being, bleed for them, hunger for them, die for them if it comes to that. We must not only be certain that they are wrong in hoping for our collective need to ultimately submit to the Quran's authority, but actually win them over, if not to agreement, at least to genuine, earned respect.
True respect, that is. The one that arises not of cheap agreement of words, but often of showing the value of deeds over disagreements on esoterical matters of lesser importance such as, say, how many gods there are or fail to exist, who their prophets might be, which sexual ethics they might expect of people, how many hells do exist and how one gets assigned to them. All of those are petty distractions unworthy of anyone's attention. We should waste no time with such nuisances and care instead about true religion, true civilization, true human consideration. Once that is well established we might return to those matters if there is anything in there for us - which is not very likely at all, in my opinion.
Attaining such a difficult yet deeply rewarding feat, in and of itself, goes a long way towards lessening many of the dangers associated with Islam, and should be rewarding every step of the way.
It saddens me that instead we seem to be sliding gradually yet surely towards badly hidden hopes of scaring, overpowering, surviving or just blasting out of existence those who we have such a hard time dealing with.
That led to tragedy pretty much every single time in human history, and it is not at all likely to bring better results any time in the future.
While it is very plain that most Muslims are peaceful, well-meaning, very honest people, it is just as obvious that Muslim cultures just aren't well equiped to deal with questioning of the Quran and of tradition.
It is almost embarrassing at times, when one realizes that at least some Muslims sincerely do believe that deep down we are in awe of the Quran, in denial of our supposed deep knowledge that there is a creator God, in flippant or proud defiance of the divine disapproval of homosexuality.
There is a whole lot of belief floating up there, and far too little acceptance of things as they are.
In a way it is much like passive-aggressive manipulation.
When a Muslim fails to accept that there are indeed misguided theists and well-meaning atheists, that no one needs to justify themselves to the Quran or to God, it is his or her own problem... except that it may very easily become someone else's, even everyone else's problem.
People have needs and expectations. They need land to live in, political structures to make decisions on their behalf, mutual cooperation in order to have a measure of stability and security.
It is a sublime yet rather fragile weave of mutual cooperation, all too easily perverted, neglected or corrupted, as we all can tell. And it is particularly vulnerable to people with a sincere yet fragile belief that forces others to become either their subjects or their challengers.
Which, I have come to realize, is all too often exactly the role that Muslims impose upon themselves, apparently because for the most part they have never really learned other ways of living, and may well have been raised into an instinctive rejection of even considering anything else.
Dealing constructively with such a situation is possible, yet unavoidably challenging. We must walk a rather narrow path that exists in the intersection of the firm decision to be respectful of people who usually mean well and are nearly always just taken by fear of change when they do not and the solid acknowledgement that people are not always reasonable and may well do things that they would repent doing if they knew better.
In short, we must learn to respect them while at the same time refusing the continued, insistent, often sincerely unconscious invitations for us to submit to their self-imposed needs and expectations, from which they are basically unable of ever releasing us.
We must learn to be at ease challenging them quite consistently, quite fiercely in fact - because they are not truly equipped to accept anything more conciliatory without perceiving it as a prelude to subjugation. They seem to rarely ever learn any better. They are literally bred to believe that deep down we need or want to take refuge in the wisdom of the Quran and the grace of God, our own protests being supposedly evidence of how much patience they must have towards us, not of what we truly want or need.
It is very difficult to counter such a state of mind - which may well explain why Islam is such a demographic success despite what is, frankly, a rather disastrous theology and doctrine, far too often fully occupied with efforts to deny its own branches and sister faiths to make much if any advance in actual relevant religious matters such as nurturing brotherhood and other moral virtues.
But I digress. How should we deal with Muslims then? To the best of my knowledge, by exercising genuine respect and caring. It is very important not to attempt to deceive Muslims. There is very little hope of tricking Muslims out of their tendency of somewhat innocently perceive non-Muslims as lesser people, and it would (and historically was) very destructive to make such an attempt.
We must make every sincere effort to truly earn their respect and keep deserving it, even while making it abundantly clear that we are not Muslims-in-the-making, and in many cases are all too certain that we could never be. We must, as a matter of fact, leave them no choice but to respect us despite our often deep disagreements. We must suffer on their stead, take trouble for their well being, bleed for them, hunger for them, die for them if it comes to that. We must not only be certain that they are wrong in hoping for our collective need to ultimately submit to the Quran's authority, but actually win them over, if not to agreement, at least to genuine, earned respect.
True respect, that is. The one that arises not of cheap agreement of words, but often of showing the value of deeds over disagreements on esoterical matters of lesser importance such as, say, how many gods there are or fail to exist, who their prophets might be, which sexual ethics they might expect of people, how many hells do exist and how one gets assigned to them. All of those are petty distractions unworthy of anyone's attention. We should waste no time with such nuisances and care instead about true religion, true civilization, true human consideration. Once that is well established we might return to those matters if there is anything in there for us - which is not very likely at all, in my opinion.
Attaining such a difficult yet deeply rewarding feat, in and of itself, goes a long way towards lessening many of the dangers associated with Islam, and should be rewarding every step of the way.
It saddens me that instead we seem to be sliding gradually yet surely towards badly hidden hopes of scaring, overpowering, surviving or just blasting out of existence those who we have such a hard time dealing with.
That led to tragedy pretty much every single time in human history, and it is not at all likely to bring better results any time in the future.
