I wrote a blog a few days ago noting that most American Moslems want peace, but there may be hundreds of thousands of who think suicide bombing is often justified. We should look into it, not panic. After all, we’ve had very few incidents in the US and most of the millions of Moslems said suicide bombing is not justified.
I read this month-old article that Islam is a Religion of Violence, in which Ayaan Hirsi Ali distinguished three kinds of Moslems.
Moslems of Peace
One kind are reformers, wanting to separate Islam’s moral precepts from politics and adapt Islam to the modern world. The second group she calls Medina Moslems. They follow Mohammed’s teachings from the early days in Medina, when he had few followers and advocated for peace and charity.
Moslems of War
The third kind are Mecca Moslems. In Mecca, Mohammed adopted Jihad. He won battles and gained hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands of followers and ushered in the golden era of Islam. Something like a third of the Koran is devoted to violence and Jihad.
And this you-tube video shows that a third of the Koran is devoted to violence and Jihad, to killing non-Moslems. How can Moslems seek peace, when their holy book is full of these kinds of teachings?
Mohammed lived in a violent, lawless time. It was ruled by tribes, petty dictators and thugs. Rape and kidnapping were commonplace. Oppression was common. Fighting to impose order was a good idea! And creating a strict moral code like Sharia law was also a good idea, to counter the culture that said lawlessness, rape and sin were good. In this light, the Mohammed of Mecca did great and was justified.
A Peaceful Islam is Suitable to our Modern World
Today, we live in a largely lawful world. Most people live in societies where violence, theft, rape and other sins are illegal. If Mohammed were alive today, in most places he’d be the Mohammed of Medina, a man of peace and wisdom.
What’s Needed Now?
Not everyone is moral. We have large corporations that lie to people, like the oil companies about climate change. We have corporations like Nestle that deprive people of drinking water. We have corporations like Walmart that have forced thousands of stores out of business by paying people substandard wages. And some corporations bully people, like Monsanto, forcing farmers to use their seeds. While these companies seem immoral, at least they are law-abiding. Mohammed would rally us to protest them and pass laws to remedy their injustices, but he wouldn’t advocate violence.
And we have America. While being mostly law-abiding, the Bush administration destabilized the middle east and tortured people in prison. And before that, we overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran and installed our own. And then we looked the other way when our man in Iraq, Saddam Hussein, declared war on Iran which cost them a million lives over the course of eight years.
Humanity has a ways to go in making a just world. But we’re getting closer. Today, Jihad and Sharia law are a step backward, not a step forward.
And most Moslems today realize this. In Mohammed’s day, the world needed to become lawful before it could become moral. The Mohammed of Mecca was required. A few days ago, 1.5 million Moslems signed an anti-terrorism fatwa in India. Today, it’s the Mohammed of Medina that more and more Moslems are following.
