Sam Harris Is Wrong Says An Ex Muslim

Ali Sina, a man whose work I’ve followed for many years, has thrown his opinion on the Sam Harris Ben Afflek fight into the ring. Dave had a little dig into the facts they quoted and was pretty clear that Sam Harris and Bill Maher were correct in saying that there are more than few Muslims who hold extreme views.

Where it all gets sticky, however, is Sam’s statement that Islam is “the mother-load of bad ideas”.

And here’s the start of what Ali Sina has to say:

The debate between Sam Harris and Ben Affleck on Bill Maher’s Show generated a lot of controversy.

Harris said Islam is the mother-load of bad ideas and Ben Affleck retorted it is an ugly thing to say, it is racist. Of course Islam is not a race, but it helps to shout racist if you run out of arguments.

Islam is an idea and no idea, whether good or bad is above criticism. Good ideas welcome criticism. Bad ideas want to silence them because they have no defense against them.

Affleck is wrong. That does not mean Harris is right. Harris contended, “Hundreds of millions of Muslims are nominal Muslims, who don’t take their faith seriously, who don’t want to kill apostates, who are horrified by ISIS and we need to defend these people, prop them up and let them reform their faith.”

Reforming Islam, the way he envisions it is an illusion. His error drives from the fact that he equates Islam to Christianity and concludes that since Christianity was once upon a time a violent religion and then reformed, Islam can do the same.

Even though at one time the religion associated with Jesus had become violent and intolerant, there is nothing violent and intolerant in his teachings. The crusades were the response of the Christendom to jihad and the inquisition was the copycat of mihnah, a practice started by Caliph Ma’mun, which means inquisition. They have no basis in the teaching of Christ.

The Christian reformation aimed to get rid of un-Christian practices. They suggested that the Bible should be read literally and its allegorical interpretations should be rejected. An analogous reformation also took place in Islam. It is called Salafism.

Muhammad reiterated repeatedly that he is the best salaf, the best example to follow and after him, his companions are the best model for Muslims to emulate.

He raided villages and towns, massacred unarmed men, beheaded his captives, raped their women and sold them as slaves. His successors, the so called rightly guided Caliphs and their successors did the same. These are the very things the Wahhabis advocate and ISIS is doing.

ISIS is the true embodiment of Islamic reformation. Is this what Sam Harris has in mind? No, he is talking about people like Maajed Nawaaz, Irshad Manji and Zuhdi Yasser.

This is an immensely troubling viewpoint. Unfortunately I haven’t seen anyone argue conclusively against it. I too resisted these ideas when I first started looking at them more than ten years ago but everything that’s happened in the world since has reinforced this point of view. Turkey has slid further back toward the 7th century, much of the entire Arab world is in turmoil and groups like IS have arisen to do exactly what Muhammad did.

You should read all of Ali’s piece, but if you don’t, here are his conclusions. I agree with him: a film showing the Muslim authorised, approved and R-Rated version of the life of their prophet would open the eyes of many people, especially many Muslims.

Islam is what is. It can’t be molded. It can’t be reformed. It is rigid like fossil. You can’t reshape it, but you can break it. I have shattered the faith of thousands of Muslims. If I could reach all Muslims I could destroy this faith. Truth liberates.

There is a way. We need a biopic of Muhammad that depicts his savory life tastefully that can then be downloaded, even in Mecca, and can be seen by hundreds of millions of people. A truthful movie about Muhammad can change the course of history.

Islam is either from God or it isn’t. If it is then we have to accept it because that is what the Quran says. If we don’t, we should not complain when Muslims kill us. They are following the religion we acknowledged to be true. If Islam is not true, we better tell it fearlessly. Stop tiptoeing around it lest you offend Muslims’ sensitivity. Take side. Be either hot or cold for as tepid you are only good for a spit.

Truth hurts the petal delicate sensitivity of Muslims, but lies kill. Thousands are killed every day to uphold a lie. If this is not insanity what is?

I’ll end with two videos. The first is a song by Paulo Nutini – Iron Sky. I can’t stop listening to it. It’s got a message that could be directed at people suffering under the yoke of totalitarian Islam. And it contains within it a great speech about freedom. One of the great speeches about freedom. Made even more astonishing by the fact it was written and delivered not by a great leader but by a clown, a comedian and an actor. Charlie Chaplin. That’s the second clip.

http://youtu.be/-KqPg6jqMDI

 

 

6 thoughts on “Sam Harris Is Wrong Says An Ex Muslim”

  1. Norman_In_New_York

    I’m afraid that it would take the kind of attitude adjustment that the U.S. and its allies administered to Germany and Japan to reform Islam. A thoughtful article by David Goldman (Spengler) in PJ Media described attempts by Christianity (and by extension, Islam) to appropriate the concept of the Chosen People from the Jews and substitute their own. This was true of England under the Tudors, Russia under Ivan the Terrible and France under Cardinal Richelieu, while more recently, Germany under Hitler thought of itself as a master race rather than a chosen people, but the idea was the same. Likewise, Islam put forth the boast that its believers are the chosen people. All the attempts to supersede Jews failed and both Europe and the Muslim world are in serious civilizational and cultural decline. The difference, and it is a big one, is that the chosenness of the Jews comes with heavy responsibilities to set a moral example to the world and to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. When we failed to meet these responsibilities, we suffered greatly. These imitations of chosenness came with no responsibilities, which is why these people have faltered.

    I personally know Muslims here in New York who are as decent as people come. They have, as far as I can tell, assimilated as Americans. But I have no quarrel with them. If a conclave of imams were to declare that certain violent parts of the Koran and Hadiths were strictly historical and to be taken allegorically without any strict and literal interpretation, then Islam would take its place as a great religion.

    1. “the chosenness of the Jews comes with heavy responsibilities to set a moral example to the world and to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God”

      And that has happened? Do Jews have done?

      1. Norman_In_New_York

        While we are only human, in many cases it has happened. For example, the civilian death toll in Gaza would have been far higher and the destruction would have been much greater if the IDF had behaved like ISIS.

  2. I don’t understand the particular focus on Muslims. Radical Islam is a HUGE problem, one that cannot be trivialized as a mere fringe sect, but Christianity as an ideology is far worse. At least Muslims are monotheists, while Christianity is purely paganism. For f*cks sake, Christians think they will become Gods (Paul’s epistles), how messed up is that? Christians have more blood on their hands than Muslims by orders of magnitude. The only reason some Christians support Jews now (albeit in a patronizing, smug you’ll-still-go-to-hell-if-you-don’t-convert kind of way), that’s only because they’ve realized that the Church CANNOT be the new Israel, given Israel’s incredible restoration. Before that Jews were seen as uniquely hated and cursed by G-d, condemned to wander the Earth forever. While Jews were tortured, persecuted, and expelled from both Catholic and Protestant lands, the Muslims were far more humane. Sure, we were second class, but we could count on not being burnt at the stake for blood libels. The Catholic world spoke out when the Nazis euthanized the mentally disabled, but had no similar qualms about the extermination of the Jewish people. Jews in Muslim countries like Algeria were largely spared in the Holocaust due to the intervention of the local population. Antisemitism in the Muslim world today is a huge problem, yes, but it’s largely derived from Arab Anti-Zionist nationalism and canards borrowed from Christian Europe. Both Muslim terrorists and Christians want you to convert or die, Christians are just more patient.

    Christianity and how f*cked up it is:
    http :// ebionite. org/

    Islam is comparitively innocuous:
    http ://www. judaism -islam. com / the-islamic-view-of-judaism/

    1. You don’t read too well do you? The point is Christians and Jews have reformed away from violence in the name of religion while Islam is reforming precisely in the opposite direction.

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