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Confusion of fanaticism with authenticity

Submitted by Reuven Kovacs, Jul 1, 2015 16:34

Orthodox Judaism is not fanatical, it is authentic Torah Judaism, and Orthodox Jews love and revere women, and respect all of humanity. Wife abuse is universally condemned in authentic Judaism. Abigail, you don't make the world better by repeating lies.

 

Faith is the problem

Submitted by Edward Cline, Jul 1, 2015 05:05

I wrote this critique of faith and of Hirsi's March 20th Wall Street Journal column of the same name, "Why Islam Needs a Reformation," at http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2015/04/can-faith-be-reformed.html There is a link in my column to the WSJ article. I agree with Abigail Esman that Hirsi is naive to think that Islam can be reformed. It is essentially a nihilistic religion and political ideology. Were there a single redeeming element in Islam, a "reformation" might be possible. But unlike the Christian faith, which stresses the salvation of an individual's soul, Islamt erases all individual value in its demand for total abnegation of the individual. But overall the problem with Hirsi's expectation lies in the very notion of "faith." Faith, I argue, is the unreserved belief in something without evidence or proof. In this context, the faith is in the existence of an Allah, the Christian God, Jehovah, space aliens, jins, devils, leprechauns who move invisibly among us. When men can divest themselves of the necessity of faith, and live by the evidence of their senses and reason, then faith will no longer be needed. Faith in the unprovable has caused incalculable misery in man's history, and has been the cause of the slaughter of uncounted millions over time.

 

Islam is being reformed, and the result is called ISIS

Submitted by Topnife, Jun 30, 2015 19:57

Ayaan Hirsi Ali seems to be a brilliant and admirably courageous woman, risking her life daily to challenge the idiotically fanciful notion of Islam being a "Religion of Peace", a concept only achievable in the perfect vacuum of a liberal mind.

I am surprised that Ali might characterize the Qu'ran as "just a book", when the basic tenet of Islam holds that it is actually a true copy of a document written by Allah, the original copy being kept in heaven, out of the reach of human revision. Hence, no man has the power or ability to alter it, and unlike the Judeo-Christian bible, it is not human words inspired by God, but is the actual words of their god, Allah.

Muslim apologists cleverly quote the gentle and charitable words of the Meccan portion of the Qu'ran to dupe eager western minds with words of charity and peace, while duplicitously failing to mention that most of these words of peace were "abrogated" by later verses of the Medinan Qu'ran, replaced with commands to make war on and to destroy the infidels, and to oppress Christians and Jews ("apes and pigs") to force their submission to Allah's followers.

We Westerners eagerly pray for the "reformation" of Islam, dreaming of a transformation into a warm and loving community. The Christian Reformation was a revolt against the secularization of the Church, the sale of indulgences, and politicization of the clergy, with a demand for a return to the primary role of the scriptures. Analogously, the Islamic Reformation is vigorously underway already, and the result is the devout and scrupulously observant organization that we know as ISIS.

 

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