I received a response from the lady I replied to in my previous post Abuse of Sacred Symbols Hi Masud, I love this explanation. It has provoked a lot of thought about my own faith. I do agree that the name of GOd is sacred and I do agree that in our world the respect for the sacred is declining rapidly. Your letter has made me examine the places in my heart that is not treating my relationship with my…
I wrote this in response to someone’s Facebook wall post that said: “‘I’m NOT a Shi’ite, I’m NOT a Sufi, I’m NOT a Ahmedi, I’m NOT a Shafi-ee, I’m NOT a Hanbali, I’m NOT a Hanafi or I’m NOT a Maliki. I AM WHAT THE QUR’AN ASKED ME TO BE!.”‘ My response turned out longer than expected, and probably even longer if I spent more time writing it….
If you have seen the film American History X, you’ll be struck at the similarities between white supremacist demagoguery and that of “Muslim” extremist demagoguery. The psychology of extremism transcends religion; fundamentally it is about hatred of the “other”. The ingredients to motivating youngsters to extremism are universal. Take some disenfranchised youth, give them an “enemy” to blame for their problems and predicament. Add to that some twisted logic, back it up by selective statistics, de-contextualused scripture or some myths…