Criticizing Islam

Ahmadi Muslims are at the forefront of the fight against radicalization.
Image Courtesy The Guardian Website

In his article in the Times entitled ‘Stand up for the right to criticize Islam’ Matt Ridley writes that there is a spectrum of religious beliefs, from spiritual to the violent extreme.  Ridley, himself a humanist, is skeptical even of the power of a moderate form of religion to bring about social justice and peace.

Ridley takes issue with PM May’s statement that terrorist acts are a ‘perversion of the great faith of Islam’. He thinks that Khalid Masood was follower of a version of Islam (not a perversion) and we must accept that as a fact. The religion of Islam must be criticized for its faults.

He then cites the oppression of women, homosexuals and suppression of science by religions (primarily Islam) to prove that religion has nothing good to offer to the society, and such practises do not deserve any respect.

I agree wholeheartedly. Well said Mr. Ridley!  If this is Islam, then I, a practicing Muslim myself will stand with you and criticize it.

But the question is; to whom should we address this criticism? God?  Prophet Muhammad? Saudi Royals? Irani Ayatollahs? Your neighbour who happens to be a Muslim?

I personally would address it to the clerics who have for generations misrepresented the scriptures, providing various violent political movements with religious sanctions to commit atrocities. As I am a Muslim who reads and understands the Quran, I will also take a position based on knowledge, not prejudice.  I know for a fact that this violent interpretation represents a fictitious faith born out of malice, human misery and selfish desires of the clergy. It is not Islam.

Mr. Ridley himself agrees.  He says, ‘The one thing they (terrorists) have in common is that they had been radicalized by religious preachers claiming to interpret the Koran.’

As my criticism has a clear target, Ridley like many others has erred in finding the right language, tone or even logic to address the issue of Islamist violent extremism.  In many cases, there is a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the facts in favour of a deeply cynical and malevolent narrative against Islam.

This is largely due to their lack of knowledge about Islam and partly due to the traditional European indoctrination against Islam. Islam has always been a ‘pretend’ religion which had nothing new to offer to the world as Pope Benedict let slip a few years ago. All the classical European historic texts take the standard stance that Prophet Muhammad was an impostor, and Muslims were a conquering force which threatened Europe for centuries. That reptilian fear reflex has been embedded so deep in the European psyche that even the atheist scholars of today can’t help this knee jerk reaction.

Take for example Mr. Ridley mentioning over 400 acid attacks in Britain. He thinks that it has something to do with sharia-enabled men disfiguring women all across the country.  The fact is that this heinous practice was a British invention, exported to other parts of the world, including the Indian subcontinent.  Most victims come from Colombia and India. But unfortunately, people have associated it with Islam. Was this an easy mistake to make? Perhaps you will think twice before calling FGM an Islamic practice. Or perhaps not!

 It is more convenient to support bigotry with fake facts these days. What about those 400 or so acid attack victims you may ask? These were mostly gang related incidents and majority of them were men. Acid attacks and FGM, just like terrorism, have nothing to do with Islam. It is all about politics, sexual and territorial, as well as that of identity. 

When it comes to people seeking the license to mock religions and their founders, Islam becomes the obvious focus of attention.  People are being killed around the Islamic world for criticizing Islam. This is also another gross perversion of Islamic teachings. It is the clerics who perpetuate these ideas, and there is no evidence, none whatsoever in the Quran to support such barbaric acts. I, like millions of my Ahmadiyya Muslim brothers and sisters around the world, criticize these clerics and their followers with proofs, arguments and with grace.  For us, Islam is free from all blame just as the God that we worship and the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) that we love and follow.

My sincere advice to Mr. Ridley and his fellow commentators is to join us in our 125 year old campaign to reform Muslims by understanding Islam and initiating a dialogue with those we disagree. Ridicule, fake facts and divisive Islamophobic propaganda is not the solution.

Peshawar Massacre: Who will avenge our children, and how?

In Peshawar, the Army Public School must have been a prestigious institution. A place in the school will ensure good education fit for middle-class children. Today the school was attacked by seven Taliban terrorists who probably never saw the inside of a proper school. They went around asking who were the children of Army personnel and shot them dead. This must have been tiresome and slow as many children were not from  military families. Then, they killed indiscriminately.
 

In anger and desperation, I followed the twitter feed and various websites for more details. With each update, the count increased, my heart sank lower and lower.

 

I  remembered today a retired Christian officer from Pakistan Army and two civilians who I met a long time ago. He was a proud cavalry man if I remember correctly, the two civilians were much more intriguing.
 

In the early-1990s, in my college days I had the opportunity to spend some days in a Pakistan Army guest house in Rawalpindi. It was adjacent to the 'Artillary Mess' which offered lounging and dining for the officers. Here I met Major Anthony. He must have been in his late 60s then. He told me the stories of his younger days, when he used to study at Gordon College, run by the Christian missionaries in Rawalpindi. He used to be a long distance runner in his college days. The college was famous for its sporting and academic excellence. He remembered fondly how the students finally persuaded an ageing professor to get married. They found him a match, another teacher from Lahore. They celebrated the marriage in style. The whole college went to Lahore and brought Mrs Professor back in the best wedding precession he Anthony ever took part in.
 

'Those were the good old days'. He used to say.

 

He never mentioned the nationalization of the college in the 70s and its inevitable decline. Anthony also remembered vividly his great luck, when as a young officer in the Army, he was appointed as the protocol officer to the visiting Queen Elizabeth during the Ayub Khan dictatorship.

 

'Those were the good old days', he would say.

 

Then his conversation would move to how he lives his retired life in peace and how his wife is still enamoured with the Royal family and collects all the memorabilia she can get her hands on.
 

I remember him well, because I never met anyone like him since. I met other Pakistani Christians, mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds. And I felt ashamed to see their plight. Post-Islamization era Pakistan is no place for minorities. No respect, no life.


In the same Army mess, I once saw two young men. Confident, educated and civilians. One day, they dropped by for a cup of tea with a friend, and they found me in the sitting room watching TV. Greetings were exchanged. They wore shalwar qameez and waist-coats and had beards. I knew the type from my personal experience. Middle class, religious types. 'Jamaat-e-Islami' types. I sat with them while they chatted away with their friend. One of them mentioned the conspiracies being hatched against the Ummah by the Jews. It was a common excuse for all the misfortunes of Pakistan.

One of the bearded gentlemen mentioned the Protocol of the elders of Zion. 'They (Jews)  buy out all the copies of the book as soon as it is published'. I had heard of the book and must have read about its content by that age, but never took it too seriously. But this man was making his argument with such force that I still remember the whole meeting. Both of the visitors believed in a global conspiracy, Pakistan being its prime target. They left after tea. Their friend who remained behind mentioned that both his friends were in ISI, the Inter Services Intelligence agency.
 

There was a Pakistan where Major Anthony thrived, made a life and retired with honour and dignity. And then there was a Pakistan of conspiracy theorists, religious zealots who fantasized themselves to be playing a great game.

And these middle-class Jamaatia types had now a foothold in Pakistani deep state. ISI was swamped by such ideological zealots, both uniformed and civilians. Zia era Islamization had a profound impact on the composition of the ranks in Pakistan Army. Megalomaniacs like ISI's DG, Gen. Hameed Gull inherited the hubris of Afghan 'Jihad' victory and created a monster which no one could tame, even the ISI.

As a college and university student, I witnessed the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and its slow creep into Pakistan from the frontier region. Like a damp patch on a wall, it keeps growing, gathering mould. Taliban  were now accepted as genuine and rightful rulers of Afghanistan. ISI had its allies providing the much needed strategic depth against India, while they kept mutilating and maiming the minds of a whole generation of Afghans and Pakistanis.

The generals who resisted a coup during the successive, spineless democratic governments had kept a strong control on all the things that mattered to them. They nurtured a poisoned generation which fought a proxy war in Kashmir. I knew another middle-class Jamaatia-type in university who trained for Jihad over the summer holiday and was killed while crossing the line of control in Kashmir. I knew many more who didn't want to go, but were happy to glorify those 'brothers' who went and became martyrs.

There are Jamaatia types and then there are the Taliban types. Jamaatias are middle-class, educated, from the urban centers of Punjab and KPK. They are happy to facilitate the lesser classes to pick up the gun and fight for whichever Jihad is underway at the time, the Taliban types; from the tribal belt or rural Punjab. They are the side product of a village welfare system, where the Madrassah takes on the surplus child from a poor family. The child eats leftovers, gets abused and radicalized.

The same abused, radicalized children grew up, and in the name of a fantasy cause, murdered over a hundred middle-class children in cold blood in Peshawar yesterday.

Pakistan seems to have woken up after this massacre. Only a year ago, the same city saw over 120 Christian worshippers killed in a similar attack on All Saints Church. But no one cares for them. No revenge for the Christians. Almost 100 Ahmadis perished in Lahore in 2010, and it went unpunished even when one of the assailants was handed over to the police.

There will be revenge for the children, for right or wrong reason. This will bring an end to the Taliban fundamentalist at least in the tribal areas for now.

But who will punish the middle-class Jamaati types who have caused this mess in the first place?

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Follow me @lutfislam 

On The Real War Front Against Islamist Extremism

What do you imagine the front line against Islamist extremism looks like?

Will this war fix anything? Image courtesy Stars and Stripes.

Does it comprise of  NATO led troops, security agencies and hired guns fighting against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan?

Or is it the Iraqi and Kurdish military forces retreating against the
rising tide of the Salafist terrorists in the Middle-East?

Is it the unmanned drones raining fire upon the militant hideouts in tribal Pakistan or in far-flung areas of the Yemen? Or is it yet another battlefield getting ready in Sub-Saharan Africa?

What if I told you that none of the above have anything to do with fighting extremism. These wars have everything to do with the world economy and its dependence on oil and arms trade.

But the righteous soldiers who fight the real war are not armed with any weapons. Most of them haven't committed a single violent act in their lives. And another thing, bad guys don't die in this war. Good guys do.

Three of its latest casualties were a 60 years old lady, a 7 years old girl and an 8 months old baby. They all died fighting the good fight against a blood thirsty mob in a city called Gujranwala, in Pakistan. The mob, charged in religious frenzy, angered by the false accusation of blasphemy torched the houses of Ahmadi Muslims and in the process, killed three of them.

The War has been on for over a hundred years. Since then, the world has seen cycles of pointless destruction the latest of which is being conducted in the guise of 'war on terror'. This senseless violence is bringing us closer to a nuclear apocalypse.

The only way to save the world is to join the real struggle. The quest for Absolute Justice. The real Jihad to reform ourselves to change the world around us, one person at a time. I know it is cliched and perhaps too boring for those who wish to see the good triumph against evil in a fairytale fashion.

But for those who join the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community find themselves pitched against all forms of adversity on a daily basis.


From Abdul Lateef, who stood buried waist deep in a Kabul square in 1902, telling his executors that he will never renounce his belief in the Living God; to 7 year old Hira Tabassum, who recited the Kalima while she choked to death in the toxic smoke of her burning home in Gujranwala, hundreds have laid down their lives for this cause.

The Gujranwala mob: Dancing and celebrating after murdering two little girls and their grandmother. Courtesy: Dawn.com

Ahmadiyya Muslims believe in true Islamic teachings of freedom of concience, thought and speech. They understand Quran and the Islamic tradition through the prophetic guidance of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the Divinely Guided Imam Mahdi who will reform the world.



Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian.



Through his claims and extensive writings, Hazrat Ahmad declared Jihad on the false beliefs and doctrines which had caused mankind to forget God and to follow their own vain desires.



He also announced that the false notion of violent Jihad has no place in Islam. Surely enough, religious leaders from various faith groups started opposing him. Soon, this opposition turned into hatred and widespread persecution followed.

The first and foremost indicator of militant, extremist Islamist activity is 'Takfir', the declaration of a person, group or community to be lesser humans, worthy of persecution and even death.



Ahmadis were perhaps the first victims of a global Takfiri movement facilitated and funded by those who think that they have monopoly over Islam.

After 125 years of valiant and constant struggle, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is now established in almost all countries of the world. It is the fastest spreading Islamic sect in the world and is gaining adherents from all nations of the world, including the Arabic speaking communities.

It may not be so apparent, but the war against bigotry and injustice is being won, one person at a time. Those who are too eager to partake in the violent wars are destined to be forgotten by history.

Each year an English country town, Alton, Hampshire receives over 30,000 delegates who attend the three day Jalsa Salana.. It is the annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which becomes the spiritual focal point for the millions around the world.

Over 30,000 delegates, men, women and children attend the 3 day event every year.

When some misguided Muslim youths raise black banners in London while demonstrating for Gaza, news media is quick to point out the creeping Islamist agenda among the mainstream British Muslims. The black banner of Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam has been flying over  the UK Jalsa Salana for almost half a century. This banner represents the peaceful, spiritual and unifying message of Islam.

Liwa-e-Ahmadiyyat, the black flag of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community flies over the Jalsa Salana.

The Khalifatul Masih, fifth successor of the Promised Messiah takes the pledge of allegiance from the thousands who join the community. Existing members also renew their ba'iyah (pledge). The pledge binds each of them to promise their lives for the cause of God and the Jihad for the soul of Islam until the final victory.

Ahmadi Muslim delegates at Jalsa Salana waiting for the Khalifatul Masih to pledge their allegiance

If you want to see the real front line of the real 'War' against terrorism, extremism and injustice.. Come visit Jalsa Salana UK.



Our weapon of choice: Books.



Follow the event on twitter @JalsaUK

On TV on www.mta.tv or sky channel 787

I was on BBC 3 Counties Radio's JVS show on Friday, discussing ISIS, Timothy Furnish and the causes of extremism https://t.co/wydqhyOrag

— Lutf (@Lutfislam) August 25, 2014

Error of their ways; Where Muslims have gone wrong.

Promised Messiah, and Imam Mahdi, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (a.s) writes;

"It is a remarkable coincidence that Christians erred with respect to the rights of God, while Muslims erred with respect to the rights of human beings. That is, the Christian faith raised a humble man to Godhood, thereby compromising the obligations due to the All-Powerful, All-Sustaining Being Who has no equal in heaven or earth. But Muslims violated human rights by unjustly raising the sword and calling it jihad. In short, Christians adopted one path of violating rights, and Muslims adopted the other. Unfortunately for this era, both of these groups consider their own transgressions to be desirable. Each therefore emphasizes its own doctrine, certain that this alone is the straight path and best way to Paradise. Although violation of God’s rights is the greatest of sins, it is not my intention here to discuss this dangerous offense of which the Christian people are guilty but rather to make Muslims aware of the transgressions that they are committing against their fellow human beings.

It should be remembered that today’s Islamic scholars (who are called maulavis) completely misunderstand jihad and misrepresent it to the general public. The public’s violent instincts are inflamed as a result and they are stripped of all noble human virtues. This is in fact what has happened. I know for certain that maulavis who persist in propagating these blood-spattered doctrines are in fact responsible for murders committed by ignorant, egotistical people who know nothing of why Islam was forced to fight battles in its early history."

British Government and Jihad, Published more than 100 years ago.