Why Don't More Muslims Speak Out Against Islamic Extremism?
Photo: Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, critic of
Imams' support of female genital mutilation
People often wonder: "Where are the Islamic 'moderates'?" Why don't the "moderate" Muslims speak out against the extremists? One reason may be what happens when they do.
When Muslims actually do speak out against Islamic extremism, they receive death threats-- and, in many cases they are actually physically attacked by Muslim fundamentalists.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was a devout Muslim, born in Somalia. As such, as young girl, she was forced to undergo the cruel practice of "female genital mutilation". She eventually emigrated to the Netherlands, and left Islam.
She is an outspoken critic of Islamic extremism (and had a good platform for expressing her views as she was elected to the Dutch parliament). She teamed up with Theo van Gogh to make Submission, a short film critical of the Islamic abuse of women.
Van Gogh was brutally murdered, and Hirsi Ali is still under constant guard due to the death threats she has received.
Unfortunately, these are not unusual examples. It seems that whenever Muslims speak out against the extremism so prevalent in their religion they become subject to the threat of violence. The Danish cartoonists who published the "Mohammed cartoons" all had to go into hiding. (In the riots and embassy burnings following the publication of the cartoon, over 140 people were murdered-- all over some relatively mild cartoons satirizing Mohammed!)
Kadra is the latest victim of this ongoing violence against critics of Islamic extremism:
Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on ThursdayFor more about FGM ("female circumcision", or "female genital mutilation"), some fascinating information about the life of Ayaan Hirsi Ali , and a video interview of a panel discussion about Islam with Hirsi Ali, Bill Maher and others, click here.
Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports.
"I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran," Kadra told VG.
Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted.
Kadra's role in a 2000 hidden camera TV documentary revealing the positive attitude of Muslim leaders to female circumcision had a massive impact on Norway, and sparked new legislation. (complete article)
Labels: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bill Maher, FGM, Islam, Kadra, Koran, moderates, Mohammed cartoons, multiculturalism, Norway, persecution, religion, Somalia, women's rights
posted by Sassy Gurl at
12:51 PM
2 Comments:
I think it's very important that people know that FGM has nothing to do with the Islamic religion. It is merely an old tradition that happened to originate in only some of the countries that are predominantly muslim. I have strong reasons to believe that it is an African tradition, since it's found only in African countries (only a few of these are actually predominantly muslim countries, they are Eqypt, Sudan, and Somalia).
I'm originally from Sudan. The FGM tradition has now been abandoned in most families as opposed to only educated families in the past. I think Islam, combined with education, has saved many Sudanese generations from going the FGM procedure.
When we were little (under 10 years old), my grandmother insisted to get me and my sister circumsized. My parents never let her do it. My dad had a stronger opinion on this than my mom. Eldery people tend to think that girls who do not get circumcized are more likely to commit adultry because they can actually enjoy sexual intercourse (which is ignorant, but they were ignorant people, so...).
Back to my story. My grandmother once made a big deal of my sister and I being uncircumcised. Elder women kept criticizing us in front of people and we were just kids! This has influenced us and made us feel like we're somehow deviant. My father feared that this would affect us. So when he was in Saudi Arabia for pilgrim (Hajj), he went to see one of the famous Sheikhs (or religious figures) there and asked him about FGM. The sheikh told him that this is wrong and cruel and therefore goes against our islamic values. He told him only boys circumcision is required in Islam. The sheikh told my dad that if FGM was part of Islam then Mohamed PBUH would have been the first to do it and there would be citings of it in his practices. However, only boys were circumcised during that time and Mohamed PBUH was believed to be born circumcised. My dad came back with books and read them to us. Thanks to him, I've grown confident of myself and proud of the fact that my parents were educated and sophisticated, and RELIGIOUS enough to prevent us from such a horrible procedure.
Some people are paid by Jews or bad Christians to speak against Islam to fuel Muslim hatred to further their hate agenda. They are given a nice platform. Some people hate their families and so lash out by spreading hate. Some people are just bad seeds. Ignorance, such as we see with this blog exposes the real enemy to peace.
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