Ideals & Judgements
Critic:-
Muslim who do not practice Islam are a dangerous lot because in times of great stress they are called upon by the imams, mullahs, clerics, ayatollahs etc. to wrecked havoc, mayhem, murder in order to gain instant Islamic paradise.
Comment:-
Yes the masses are whipped up into hysterics by those they take as leaders. Even the more intelligent are affected. This was so in Christianity when the Crusades took place. It was so in Germany under Hitler, in Russia under Lenin, in Yugoslavia and so on. It has little to do with religion. It has to do with Politics and human limitations.
Critic:-
Look around the world - from Indonesia, Philippines, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Xingjiang, Malaysia, Sudan, Algeria, Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the troubles are all Muslim related. Is this coincidence or some kind of pattern.
If this is true, then anyone can deduce that Islam is about Evil
Comment:-
You are being selective. There are terrorist movements and incidents in Ireland, South America, USA, India, Japan, Europe, which have nothing to do with Islam. There were many civil wars in many countries throughout the world and two very destructive World Wars which had nothing to do with Islam.
On the other hand there is a lot of injustice in the world and this does provoke retaliation. It also allows extremists and unscrupulous ambitious people to take advantage of the situation to serve their own purposes. But they lack wisdom and ability. Sometimes there is no option but to fight against oppressors. It has to do with this injustice and economic and political problems rather than religion, though Islam does teach resistance to oppression.
Critic:-
Can anyone prove me wrong?
I will convert if you can prove me wrong and show me a pure ideal Islamic country.
Comment:-
No one can prove anything to anyone else because accepting it depends on their perception, motives and knowledge.
But those who wish to be objective can see that there is a difference between Islam which is a teaching and people who may understand and practice it to various degrees or not at all.
It is also obvious that "convert" means accepting the teaching. This must be done on its own merits. You cannot convert by seeing a "model Islamic country" because in order to accept it as model you have to compare it with the teaching which you must accept first.
To say that you will convert "on condition that..." is to say that you will not accept the condition either and make that into an excuse convincing to yourself.
It is also evident that if everyone from the very start made that a condition for conversion then there would be no Ideal Islamic country - as there would be no Muslims to produce it.
In this world of limitations Ideals have never been established because they have always been diverted by actual human defects, opposition and adverse circumstances. The purpose of an Ideal is to act as a goal towards which people strive. They may then gradually approach it.
But there are small communities and families, not nations, who do approach the Islamic Ideal to various degrees. It is a question of looking for the good rather than focusing attention on what is bad.
Critic:-
I still think that Islam is the source of all evil in the world today.
Comment:-
It is my considered opinion that as the psychological, social, political and geophysical troubles of world increase due to the Western Economic and political Policies Islam and Islamic ideas will spread more widely and eventually transform the world.
Critic:-
This is most unlikely. And data that Muhamad was a womaniser, robber, murderer and a pedophile have been posted on the Internet again and again.
Comment:-
But intelligent "rational" people know the difference between the bare facts, the interpretation of facts, and judgements. They also know about selective perception and that people see and interpret things according to their motives and the nature of their minds.They can also see that there is no logical connection between your assessments about a person and the solution to the psychological, social, political and environmental problems of the world.
Your judgement tells us about you, not about what you judge.
But for those who are willing to be more rational:-
Muslims obviously do not judge Muhammad (saw) in this way and the faith they follow is not, therefore, what you think it is.
There are several errors in the judgement of those who are hostile:-
(a) Their judgements are entirely personal and subjective based on hostility, fear or desire and on concentrating attention on certain kinds of actions (those which they can interpret as evil) while ignoring all others (those which are good). They also tend to compare the supposed evil in one with the supposed good in another system. But they assume that there is something objective about this kind of judgement. This is ignorance based on arrogance.
(b) People do not follow something because it is evil, but because they think it is good. When there is a conflict between two ideologies, then the adherents of each regard theirs as good and the other as evil. One can only judge between them by means of some objective standards which must be arrived at by thorough research and not superficial opinions. It is not very difficult to show from available data that the ordinary secular standards are leading to psychological, social, political and geophysical disaster. And that Islamic standards can reverse this.
(c) They assume that the standards or criteria they are using are objective and not subject to time and circumstance. The aim of religion is spiritual progress and is not primarily naive conventional or superficial morality and conformity.
(d) They judge the person by outer acts and assume that the person being judged is inwardly like themselves and have the same motives and weaknesses. But people certainly differ in level, and specially when they are led by their faith. The life of the Prophet shows that he devoted it to the service of Allah without any worldly profit to himself. We think it is absurd, therefore, to attribute bad motives to his actions.
(e) The Ideal is an idea and a goal. All human beings are less than perfect but are required by religion to strive to improve, even if they do not reach the ideal. Without ideals there is no progress. This does not involve immitating others but having a value system. Muslims do not think that Muhammad (saw) is God and do not, or ought not to worship him. He is followed because he is the Messenger of Allah and because of the Message. As he himself said, "If I tell you about your religion then accept it, if I tell you about anything else then I am only a (fallible) man."
(f) There is no logical connection between the supposed behaviour of a person and the validity of what he teaches or the effectiveness of the solutions of the problems faced by nation and mankind.
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