Islam sucks

Joe Fisher

I'm not very fond of religion. The practice is merely normative statements without credible positive statements to support them and is largely determined by socialization. This is why many people just adopt the religion in which they were raised.

This is also why you don't find many white people attending a mosque or why people raised in Orthodox Judaism don't embrace Christ. These cultural differences are nothing more than subtleties in the cesspool of religion.

Some religions suck more than others, though, and one of them is Islam. It's not Muslims that I dislike - I just dislike their faith.

Many atrocities have been carried out in the name of Islam. Terrorism is a prime example. Some complain that movies involving terrorism predominantly and unfairly portray terrorists as Muslims.

But I fail to see how this is an "unfair" portrayal. Where are the terrorists fighting on behalf of Christianity, Hinduism or Judaism? They exist, but they're on the ultra-fringe. I don't think Americans act as sub-human as the Palestinians did following Sept. 11, dancing in the streets and rejoicing. That brief moment in history will forever leave me apathetic to their fate, if not hopeful for their demise.

What about the Crusades? What about the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians? These are religious acts of violence carried out by non-Muslims. I must be wrong.

But am I? The treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis is not a religious matter; it's a security matter. The people of Israel enjoy a fairly secular society where fear, not faith, determines policy. The Crusades weren't just about God. They were about expanding trade and general control. Hijackers and suicide bombers actually think they're going to get some sort of eternal reward for this. How stupid is that?

Islam also presents a danger to the welfare of many due to its influence in Middle Eastern and North African governments. Islam subjugates hundreds of millions of women, sexual minorities and other religions where it's the law of the land. The over-emphasis on treating people's faiths equally is the reason most vocal people are on the anti-war side of the debate.

Fortunately, we have a secular public school system in America that can deprogram the children of Muslim immigrants and help them adopt more productive values.

Unfortunately, we have countries like Saudi Arabia where children are taught to make friends with Muslims and adopt their traditions.

Did you know that in Islam, reading the holy books of other religions is a serious sin? So is screwing your brother-in-law apparently. A man in Saudi Arabia recently was convicted of raping his sister-in-law with punishment of six years in jail and 4,750 lashes, to be administered 95 at a time. This is the part the Saudis got right.

Violent rapists should be dealt with brutally. The Saudis screwed it all up when the court ruled that the woman did not consent but still committed the grave offense of banging an in-law. She will receive six months in prison and 65 lashes. Don't you just love the Islamic world where the women are raped, then beaten?

Muslim extremists also get the honor of being lumped together with the likes of the KKK. Apparently, they are one of the last groups that don't consider anti-Semitism a taboo. Munich 1972 is a good example. So is the past week. A Pakistani official said Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's last words before having his throat slit were, "I am a Jew, and my father is a Jew."

I'm aware this isn't an exact representative of all Muslims, but compared to other religious fanatics, it happens quite frequently. Furthermore, if governments that perpetuate such atrocities exist, there must be enough support for these values among their citizens. Being that the women probably can't vote, they are hopelessly trapped in the result of one of the most destructive religions of all time.

This should tell you there is something uniquely flawed with this one.

Turkey is the shining light amidst all this madness. There's an understanding that a Muslim society can prosper, as long as it downplays the whole Islam thing. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, understood this.

"Countries may vary, but civilization is one, and for a nation to progress, it must take part in this one civilization," he said. "The decline of the Ottomans began when, proud of their triumphs over the West, they cut their ties with the European nations. This was a mistake which we will not repeat."

I'd like to close by saying that the Muslim world is the poorest, most illiterate, backward, unhealthy, unenlightened, deprived and weakest of all the races. I don't have to defend these words because I didn't say them. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf did at a science and technology conference last week. Good job Pervez. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Daniel Pearl, you will not be forgotten. E-mail Joe at joe@wayne.edu

The views represented here reflect those of the individual writers, and not necessarily of The South End, The Student Newspaper Publication Board or Wayne State University. The South End welcomes letters to the editor, which can be sent via email or sent directly to our office.

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