Saturday, June 10, 2006

A Good Muslim Speaks the Truth

Salim Mansur: "We Muslims have work to do"
Story here. h/t: Nealenews.com Read it all! It's absolutely worth it!

Let us, Muslims, be brutally honest.
We have inherited a culture of denial, of too often refusing to acknowledge our own responsibility for the widespread malaise that has left most of the Arab-Muslim countries in economic, political and social disrepair.
(...)
Instead of acknowledging the reality of the Arab-Muslim world as a broken civilization, we Muslims tend to indulge instead in blaming others for our ills; deflecting our responsibilities for failures that have become breeding grounds of violence and terrorism.
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We have made hypocrisy an art, and have spun for ourselves a web of lies that blinds us to the real world around us.
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We preach tolerance yet we are intolerant. We demand inclusion, yet we practise exclusion of gender, of minorities, of those with whom we disagree.
An absolute must-read for everyone.
A frank, honest statement by a Muslim. This is exactly the sort of thing I've been calling for! Because only a Muslim can effectively tell the Islamic world what its problem is... and not be slammed and dismissed as a mere "Islamophobe".
This is immensely helpful. I'm extremely encouraged by this good man's article and what he has written. The more Muslims there are communicating the truth rather than lies and dogmas and fundamentalism, the more Muslims will listen and take an honest, critical look at themselves and their faith.
And the more Muslims who dare to speak the truth and dare to criticize the Islamic world for its own faults, the more nonMuslims will listen and come to realize that not all Muslims wish to be our enemy.
This gives me hope that there might, after all, be a huge number of Muslims, hopefully the majority, that don't take every single dictate of the Koran literally, nor believe that they must wage jihad against nonMuslims simply because their holy book says so.
This gives me hope that one day, perhaps not too far off, there will be genuine peace and harmony between the Islamic and nonIslamic worlds. Then human civilization can really progress once again.
Thank you, Mr. Mansur, for your great courage in speaking the truth. You are doing humanity, regardless of faith, a great service. Please continue!