Spiritually Filthy

Keyvan Shirazi:

Like many people around the world since 9/11, I too have wondered what it is that inspires Muslims to become such utterly bloodthirsty terrorists.  At first, I would insist that the problem lay with Islamic extremists, the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia in particular.  When people challenged me on this, arguing that the problem was the moral backwardness inherent in Islam itself, I would dismiss their accusations on the grounds that I personally knew practicing Muslims who were as peaceful and inoffensive as any people on the planet.  That latter bit I still know to be true, but the former part of my reasoning – namely, that the decency of some Muslims exonerated Islam itself – is not an opinion that I have the energy or the inclination to defend anymore.

He goes on to relay a personal story from 1974 that says a lot.

Comments

[Alex]

Just to play devil advocate for a minute...his argument that most "good muslims" are good because they only accept the teachings of the Quaran up to a point could equaly be applied to modern Christianity. The bible is quite clearly against things such as pre-marital sex, divorce, abortion, and homosexuality, yet most Christians today ignore those aspects of the bible while still profesing to beleive in Christianity. The only difference is that even the most extreme Christians don't come close to the level of intolerance and hatred displayed by Muslim extremists, and that's largely due to the way western society has evolved over time. The vast majority of us who come from Christian roots have either abandoned the faith entirely, or have learned over time that the bible is not perfect, and that we must decide for ourselves which of it's teachings are right and moral, and which are nothing but superstition and hatemongering. Muslim society on the other hand has not had the opportunity to evolve in such a fashion, and it doesn't appear likely to happen any time soon; those enlightened few who chose to cling to their religion while trying to make it more civilized and tolerant usualy end up persecuted by the fundamentalist barbarians.