This is a Canadian Muslim preacher clearly saying that apostasy is punishable by death in Islam:
When are more people, especially the more die-hard apologists for Islam on the left, going to acknowledge that people like this imam are far from being a tiny, fringe minority among some significant Muslim communities and that something needs to be done—not necessarily with respect to immigration laws but at least with respect to the way discourse about Islam is handled?
This is not an imam suffering from poverty in a third-world country saying this; he's in Canada, enjoying liberal freedoms in a first-world country. The idea that such hateful beliefs necessarily stem from poverty or life in countries with poor education crumbles in the face of things like this imam's statements.
One of the things that I find most disturbing about the popularity of this belief in some Muslim communities is that I don't hear nearly as much said about it from the left as I hear about Trump, Milo Yiannopoulos, etc. Take the very worst thing Trump has said and ask yourself this: is saying that people who leave Islam should be killed much or any better than said belief? This is basically like saying that people who, say, denounce Republican views should be put to death. How would that go over if a Republican came right out and said it?
Worse yet, when people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, etc., do speak about things like these and criticize them, someone on the left always dismisses them as "Islamophobic." I've posted on the forum before about the SPLC's classification of Ayaan Hirsi and Maajid Nawaz as "anti-Muslim extremists."
This whole situation is beyond unfortunate. I'm not sure what could be done about it at this point. Trump and the right wing certainly don't have the answer with their current hyperbole about "terrorist threats" and banning immigration from certain countries, but the left doesn't seem to have the answer either, at least not at this juncture.
Terrorists are indeed an extremely small minority among Muslim communities. People with fundamentally dangerous, harmful beliefs like this imam aren't, however, as the polls I linked indicate, and it seems to me that either their existence will be used to scapegoat moderate Muslims (such as by banning their immigration to the U.S.) or it will be slighted and brushed aside by apologists until the problem festers due to the lack of clear, realistic debate about such beliefs.
When are more people, especially the more die-hard apologists for Islam on the left, going to acknowledge that people like this imam are far from being a tiny, fringe minority among some significant Muslim communities and that something needs to be done—not necessarily with respect to immigration laws but at least with respect to the way discourse about Islam is handled?
This is not an imam suffering from poverty in a third-world country saying this; he's in Canada, enjoying liberal freedoms in a first-world country. The idea that such hateful beliefs necessarily stem from poverty or life in countries with poor education crumbles in the face of things like this imam's statements.
One of the things that I find most disturbing about the popularity of this belief in some Muslim communities is that I don't hear nearly as much said about it from the left as I hear about Trump, Milo Yiannopoulos, etc. Take the very worst thing Trump has said and ask yourself this: is saying that people who leave Islam should be killed much or any better than said belief? This is basically like saying that people who, say, denounce Republican views should be put to death. How would that go over if a Republican came right out and said it?
Worse yet, when people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, etc., do speak about things like these and criticize them, someone on the left always dismisses them as "Islamophobic." I've posted on the forum before about the SPLC's classification of Ayaan Hirsi and Maajid Nawaz as "anti-Muslim extremists."
This whole situation is beyond unfortunate. I'm not sure what could be done about it at this point. Trump and the right wing certainly don't have the answer with their current hyperbole about "terrorist threats" and banning immigration from certain countries, but the left doesn't seem to have the answer either, at least not at this juncture.
Terrorists are indeed an extremely small minority among Muslim communities. People with fundamentally dangerous, harmful beliefs like this imam aren't, however, as the polls I linked indicate, and it seems to me that either their existence will be used to scapegoat moderate Muslims (such as by banning their immigration to the U.S.) or it will be slighted and brushed aside by apologists until the problem festers due to the lack of clear, realistic debate about such beliefs.
