How many times have we heard from pity seeking, professional victim muslims that "moderate Islam" doesn't condone terrorism and that any connection made between violence and islam is a result of "islamophobia" because, after all, islam is a religion of peace.
This is of course the party line when they are defending their religion publicly. But what do they say when they are afforded anonymity? They say quite the opposite. A recent YouGov poll for the Centre for Social Cohesion found that almost a third of British muslim students believed killing in the name of islam could be justified. That is 33% of muslim students, Living and studying in Britain, a country most of them were born and raised in, Believe killing for their invisible sky daddy could be justified. These aren't people living in caves, They aren't nomadic desert dwellers cut off from civilisation, They are British citizens.
The poll has received criticism from Britain's largest muslims student body, But that is to be expected. Any time anybody uses a muslims own words to expose how inherently violent and bloodthirsty islam is it is going to receive criticism. They never refute the results found though, They only criticise that someone had the cheek to investigate the truth and the audacity to expose it.
Of course, this isn't the first time the fanaticism of British muslims has been exposed. Earlier in 2006 a survey found that 40% of British muslims wanted sharia law introduce. This is a law which hands out the death penalty for the crimes of adultery and homosexuality, amputations for the crime of theft, and flogging for fornication or public intoxication.
So i ask you, How moderate is moderate islam really? Believing that moderate islam could exist is as ludicrous as believing moderate Nazism could exist.
I agree by and large, but I think a healthy skepticism over the quality of the poll wouldn't be bad. Results could have been severely skewed by the simplest thing, such as the person conducting the poll.
ReplyDeleteWith the Sharia law poll, for example, I've had it from a number of people who took part in it that they were questioned by a fellow Muslim. No person who wants to identify themselves as a Muslim would say that they were opposed to some form of Sharia law, even if they're happy with the more secular system we have in place today. Pressure to maintain your reputation as a 'good Muslim' is just one factor of course, but you get the idea.
I will say however that I'll never forget what my ex-Muslim friend said to me: "in Christianity, the literalists are the fringe elements, but in Islam total devotion to the text is the mainstream"
Even assuming the poll is accurate, it doesn't show that moderate Islam doesn't exist; it just shows that in Islam, the extremists are not vastly outnumbered by the moderates the way they are in Christianity.
ReplyDeleteLike my issue with Christianity in general, it is the minority of the religion that is the loudest and most fanatical. The majority is silent and does nothing while the minority hijacks the religion. This is typical of American Christianity. I can see the argument holding up in Islam as well.
ReplyDelete@db: The problem with Islam is that, according to this poll, it's not an issue of the crazy 10% being louder than the sane 90%. The poll says that in Islam, the crazies make up 40-50% of the population! It's not that the majority is just quiet, it's that they're barely the majority at all! This is rather depressing, and I don't really want to believe it, so I'm waiting for someone to repeat the survey and confirm the result. Polling people is tricky; maybe they screwed it up and it's not actually as bad as all that.
ReplyDeletewell, dont agree
ReplyDeletei m a muslim, born in a muslim family and will probably end a muslim. I m totally against war and, if you ask the peopl in the community in live with, 98% i promise will say killnig is against humanity .... or ... perhaps the problem is thta we r not real muslims, r we?!!!!
Unfortunately Farzaneh you have just made that 98% statistic up. The statistics in this blog post are from actual polls and the result of asking actual people.
ReplyDeleteA poll says so, so it must be true, right?
ReplyDeleteAssociation fallacy, somebody get this atheist a dictionary.
another religious nut who tries to use logical fallacies as a debate tactic without knowing what they mean. If you want to bury your head in the sand and deny reality, that's fine. But to claim surveys are flawed just because they contradict your belief is intellectual dishonesty.
ReplyDeleteAny bullshit is immune from contradiction if we are allowed to ignore evidence
Pols aren't always true (proven fact). Usually people who do polls pre-select who they ask.
ReplyDeleteIt must be comforting to lack integrity and intellectual honesty so much that you are capable of just ignoring any evidence that contradicts your preconceived worldview. Of course it does make you an ignorant cretin, But id imagine you are a comfortable ignorant cretin.
ReplyDeleteMatt, you are being foolish. Polls aren't a) the be all and end all proof of people's thoughts b) always accurate. There have been many polls that I have not participated in where I thought: "well, they didn't ask me this question, so it isn't totally accurate." Nor did they ask any of my friends, or my friends' friends. There are plenty of moderate Islamic people that I know personally who are pacifists. They hate war in all its forms. To use blanket statements is just foolish of you matt.
ReplyDeleteI still wonder why you hate religion (or at least religious people) so much. You seem to be more against the idiots who use religion as a way to further ignorance and hate, rather than the actual religion itself. Or maybe you act like such an asshole because you think you are very powerful with your little blog and your anonymity. Or, is this possibly a blog like sony defense force. Where it pretends to be super serious, yet is satire. I think it is a combination of choices a and b.
Is moderate Islam a deceptive construct?
ReplyDeleteI'm an atheist, but I think that Islam gets a pretty bad rap compared to Christianity. I've traveled the world, and I have to say that my favourite people are the Muslims. They've been so unbelievably kind to me in my travels.
ReplyDeleteNow, as for this article about 33% believing killing can be justified for Islam, do you think that would be much different from what a poll of Christians would say? Think about all of the times they've thought it necessary to kill throughout history, all the way up to the modern Iraq war. I'm sure many Christians would argue that there is a time when you need to kill in the name of religion.
Ask this question, "Your religious homeland is being invaded by an outside group bent on the destruction of your faith. Is killing justified?" Bet you that at least 60% of Christians would agree. Perhaps that what the Muslims are thinking here.
As for sharia law, what percent of Americans want Biblical law? Isn't it about 50%, all of those who voted for Bush 2 times? They'd be out stoning adulterers, too, if they got their way.
We need to hate all religions equally, and stop picking on Islam.