Salams Sisters
Crescent I really enjoyed your last post. Especially about the bit about the middle eastern dictators being like violent abusive men towards their wives. It really shocks me sometimes how the likes of Gaddafi and Assad are prepared to literally destroy their whole country to maintain their power. It makes you think they must absolutely loathe or have no compassion for their own people. I always thought Assad missed a chance to bow out gracefully when Qatar offered him and his family asylum. He could have stolen his billions and still lived the wealthy lifestyle of a leader and his people would have been spared all this suffering. But these secularist leaders are megalomaniac psychos.
Cote back to your point about segregation and oppression of minorities. Of course we are not supporting that. No one wants a Taliban style government. Having lived as a minority in Europe I deeply feel sad when I see minorities in other countries being oppressed regardless of religion. ALso as a woman of course I dont want a government to enact laws that will be discriminatory towards me. However why is there an assumption that an Islamic government will do that? The problem is that you are so brainwashed in the West to believe that Islam is a religion that is intolerant towards minorities and oppressive to women so you automatically assume thats whats going to happen. Saudi and Iran are just two countries in the Muslim world. Why do you take them as examples of what Islam produces and not somewhere like Qatar or Malaysia? You could say that a lot of oppression towards these groups goes on in Muslims countries and I would agree. However it doesn't occur exclusively in Muslim countries. Other countries have discriminatory practices towards women. Take for example India that has been in the news lately. As for minorities being oppressed what about the muslim minorities in countries such as Burma, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia who are being subjected to terrible crimes and oppression. Hardly a peep in the media and certainly no accusations of Buddhism and Christianity being religions that oppress minorities (instead there is almost an attitude of these muslims deserve it even though they are peaceful minorities because of the actions of their brethren). Neither has Hinduism been blamed for the plight of women in India.
However Islam is regularly blamed by the West for the oppressive actions of Muslims towards minorities and women even when Muslims are acting in complete contradiction to what our religion actually teaches us. Take for example just this one hadith.
“Beware! Whoever is cruel and hard on a non-Muslim minority, curtails their rights, burdens them with more than they can bear, or takes anything from them against their free will; I (Prophet Muhammad) will complain against the person on the Day of Judgment.” (Abu Dawud)
Also look to the actions of the first caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr who in a letter to christian subjects in a land the muslims had conquered called Najran, outlines their rights.
‘In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful. This is the written statement of God’s slave Abu Bakr, the successor of Muhammad,
the Prophet and Messenger of God. He affirms for you the rights of a protected neighbor, in yourselves, your lands, your religious community, your wealth, retainers, and servants, those of you who are present or abroad, your bishops and monks, and monasteries, and all that you own, be it great or small. You shall not be deprived of any of it, and shall have full control over it…’
Does that sound like a religion that encourages oppression of minorities? There are many more examples I could find if I had more time. In fact this accusation of intolerance is only a recent thing anyway. The British historian, H.G. Wells, wrote the following about Muslim societies: ‘They established great traditions of just tolerance. They inspire people with a spirit of generosity and tolerance, and are humanitarian and practical. They created a humane community in which it was rare to see cruelty and social injustice, unlike any community that came before it.’
How can that be denied when centuries before the West you find Bayt Al Hikmah (the House of Wisdom) was established in Baghdad in the 9th century where christians, jews and muslims would work together to translate works of famous Greek and Roman philosophers such as Aristotle and worked together to advance on their knowledge. Or in your native Turkey we find that they gave asylum to 150,000 Spanish Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition to go and live under the Muslim rule of the Ottoman Empire. During the Classical Ottoman period (1300–1600), the Jews, together with most other communities of the empire, enjoyed a certain level of prosperity. Compared with other Ottoman subjects, jews were the predominant power in commerce and trade as well in diplomacy and other high office. Mehmed II's minister of Finance, his physician and Murad II physician were all jews. Abraham de Castro, the master of the mint in Egypt was also a jew. Did any muslims or jews hold any similar positions under European rule in that time period (or I would say with regards to Muslims in Europe today).
I dont have time to mention how when Islam was established that one of its greatest achievements was to improve the situation of women in the Middle East and one of the major reasons why he was opposed was because the Prophet Muhammed PBUH fought for the rights of women. However Im sure its been touched on before.
I dont really want to keep banging on and on with regards to this topic but the final thing I want to say is that there is a verse in the Quran that always comes to my mind when I watch the news and see what is going on in the news.
"Truth stands out clear from error" Holy Quran; Chapter 2, verse 256.