Islam & “Racism” Those openly critical of Islam are sometimes dubiously slurred as racists, regardless of what their true views on race may be. In fact, Islam is not a race. Islam has nothing at all to do with genetics, nor is it an innate characteristic. It is an ideology – a voluntarily-held set of beliefs about individual behavior & the rules of society. People choose their beliefs; they do not choose their race Therefore Muslims are not a race of people. In fact, there are Muslims of all races. Hence, criticizing Islam is not racism. There is no such thing as "anti-Muslim racism" any more than there is "anti-Christian racism," "anti-Methodist racism," or "anti-Capitalist racism." So why would anyone claim differently? It is because the battle over Islam is being fought in the West, the only arena in which this religion can still be critically debated. It is also here that repugnance toward racism is strong & nearly universal. As politicians well know, if one can successfully paint the opposition as “racist,” then the battle for public opinion is all but decided. From high-risk mortgages to illegal immigration, fear of the race card is one of the strongest influences on public policy. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to defend Islam on its own merits - which is why Muslim societies usually rely on threat of violence to suppress intellectual critique of Islam & the freedom of other religion to fairly compete. According to its own texts, Islam was founded in terror, & its political & social code is deeply incompatible with Western liberal values. Frustrated advocates of Islam’s advance are therefore prone to taking the crude & easy path of trying to squash debate by mislabeling criticism of their religion as racism. Having to sling the worst of all slurs to compensate for deficiency of fact & logic is bad enough, but in this case there is terrible irony in that what is being defended in such cheap fashion is an ideology that is overtly supremacist in nature. In fact, those Muslims who do want to rely on the race card are not thinking very far ahead. On the surface it would seem that if Islam really were a race, or Muslims a race of people, then any criticism of the common tie which unites them - in this case the religion of Islam – could be dismissed out of hand as racism, thus effectively protecting the religion from tough examination. But everything is not as it seems. If Muslims are a race because of Islam, then it means that Islam is a racial ideology. Therefore, what this ideology has to say about its own & other “races” becomes very important. In fact, the Qur’an posits an enormous qualitative distinction between Muslims & non-Muslims that is hard to miss. Believers are loved by God, whereas infidels are hated to the extent that they are tortured for eternity (3:32, 4:56) merely for not believing. Muslims are told to shun unbelievers (3:118), who are called “helpers of evil” (25:55), “wicked” (4:160), “fond of lies” (5:42) & compared to the worst of animals (8:55, 7:176, 7:179). Members of Islam are told to be merciful to each other, but ruthless to those outside of the faith (48:29). Violence is also sanctioned against those who are obstinate against Islamic rule (8:12-13, 9:5). If Islam is a race, then Christianity & Judaism are races as well, meaning that if the Quran speaks of them as inferior, then it is a racist book. In truth, the Quran does more than that. In a stunning burst of religious bigotry, Muslims are ordered to fight Jews & Christians "until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, & feel themselves subdued" (9:29). There is no basis in the text for bringing Jew & Christians under the heel of Islamic rule except by virtue of their religion. No other religion filters perception through group identity to the extent that Islam does. Around the world Christians, Jews & other individuals are routinely brutalized merely because they are a member of a non-Muslim group, not because they have done anything to personally deserve having their lives taken, their children maimed or their property torched. Meanwhile, other Muslims are generally indifferent to this violence & reserve their true outrage for circumstances involving Muslim victims of non-Muslim acts, however unintentional or relatively slight. So, if Muslims are a race, Islam would not only be a racist ideology, but arguably the most hateful & destructive in history. It is bad enough that hundreds of millions of people have been killed in the last fourteen centuries by divinely sanctioned Jihad & slavery, but to retroactively supplant the stated motive of religious supremacy with that of racial superiority is hardly a step in the right direction for a religion seeking the acceptance of an increasingly sceptical audience. From thereligionofpeace, editors comment.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 16:34:39 +0000
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