From “Kuffar” to slaughters
Jeff Siddiqui
Posted Jun 15, 2014 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly VersionFrom “Kuffar” to slaughters
by Jeff Siddiqui
Different stresses can be applied to things and they will return to their original shape after the stress is removed, however, in Science, there is something known as Yield Point which says that after a certain amount of stress is applied to an object, it loses the resilience to return to its original shape and becomes more and more deformed on a permanent basis.
This is true for the environment and for communities of people.
If the stress is applied at a gradually increasing rate, the object will continue to stretch until is passes its Yield Point and the deformation becomes permanent; the transition from the original state to the deformed state is barely perceptible. For example, we know that if we put frogs in a pot of water, and heat it gradually, the frog will not notice the increasing heat and will die from the heat, this would be the frog’s Yield point. However, if the frog is dropped into a pot of heated water, it will jump right out.
American Muslims are currently the frogs in the pot and our society is being changed for the worse, but so gradually that we do not notice it and the realization will not come until our entire future generations have grown to be different people (our Yield Point) and there will be nothing we can do about it; the changes will become irreversible.
It starts innocently enough. An Imam is invited to preach at a Mosque and when it turns out that he subscribes to an intolerant line of thinking, nobody dares challenge him because of a deep, cultural imprinting that one must not challenge or even question the “Ulema” or scholars of Islam unless one is a scholar himself. Combine this with the fact that most Muslims who came to this country did so with only a superficial understanding of Islam that only got deeper after 9-11 when the West declared war on Muslims, and we can understand how and why, Muslims remain silent in the face of intolerant lines of thought in the interpretation of Islamic teachings. Top this off with the drive to target Muslims in the West, and it becomes clear why Muslims want to keep silent even about the imperfections of our community leaders.
This leaves the intolerant imams free to spew their hate and condemnation of others who are deemed “Kuffar“, the Unbelievers and when such thoughts are imprinted on our youth who actually know nothing about Islam except for what is taught to them, then we truly have an extremist-thinking generation. As these Imams preach their intolerance, they automatically alienate and lose tolerant Muslims and attract those who agree with these imams and that is how entire congregations can be moved towards intolerance.
One imam has been preaching that for anyone to invoke the help of “Auliya” (Saints), are committing “Shirk” (believing in more than one god). This immediately alienates the entire body of people who are Sufis or Shia and some others as well, who now believe they have been accused of Shirk. This also focuses hate against the same people because there is nothing more repugnant in Islam than people who believe in more than one god (“Mushrikeen“). I had a long phone conversation with this imam who is unrepentant about his sermon and says he will be repeating it and in the same conversation, he said the Shia are not Muslim because they have a different Quran and the Shia believe one of the prophet Mohammed’s wife was promiscuous.
As it turns out, this imam may be in a position to recite the Quran backwards and forwards, but he has no knowledge of the Shia except for his own fantasies and he has the certainty of knowing what God should be saying if God had the facts available to Him as the Imam does. I told him I had a copy of a Shia Quran (translated by Pooya Yazdi & Ahmed Ali) and it is no different than the over dozen others I have, translated by Sunnis. No, he said, the Shia have copies of the Quran for public consumption and copies that they read in secret. I got the shivers because this is exactly what our non-Muslim enemies say about ALL Muslims; that we have secret true copies of the Quran that command us to “kill the infidels” and public ones that we use for show. I guess hate-filled bigots do think alike.
I also got a link to a website with a speech by Syed Hassan Nasrullah (yes, the leader of Hizbollah…not everyone considers him to be a “Terrorist”) who quoted Ayatollah Khomeini as saying that is is forbidden to speak ill of the prophet’s disciples or of his wives in any way that insults their memories.
Still, intolerant bigots are seldom derailed by facts and the poisoning of innocent minds continues.
Once this cycle starts to take hold, we should not be surprised to see our youth go to the only countries that they are conditioned to believe they belong to and to take up arms against the “others” in that country. Our children who have gone to fight in Somalia, in Syria, perhaps in Lebanon and Yemen as well…and Egypt maybe, are not there because they have in intense need to serve the countries of their forefathers, nor are they really there to serve Islam. Our youth are there because they have been so filled with hate against the “other” and against “The Unbeliever” that they are willing to risk their lives, just so they can kill “the other”. This is how the sectarian (Shia vs. Sunni) wars in Iraq and Syria provide fertile grounds for our passionate but unthinking youth. If they survive, then of course they return…with the baggage of hate and violence hot in their hearts…and they continue the battle against “the other” and against all Americans because they see the US as responsible for the mess overseas…with good reason, I fear.
This poison does not spread in a vacuum. It spreads because those of us who should know better, remain silent out of a misguided sense of “respect” for the preachers and teachers of intolerance. The poison spreads because we do not insist on a standard of preaching; ironically, Muslims are scared enough by the authorities that they do actually insist that the preachers stay away from preaching about “politics” (whatever that means!), but they are not yet scared enough to insist on guidelines of preaching in regards to faith and tolerance. Most of our imams are reduced to preaching superficial sermons about the glory days of Islam, how long beards should be, the blessings of having trousers with high cuffs, how important it is to pray. Stuff that seldom has an impact beyond the giving of the sermon. Most of our imams stay away from talking about the persecution Muslims encounter in their daily lives in America or, how to deal with such matters as citizens of this country.
Our communities are taught to hate…but to hate our own. Because we are divided around sectarian lines that run so deep that we can barely stand “the other”. This is why our Muslim communities are so often seen in interfaith encounters, helping non-Muslims learn about Islam, but never in encounters between sects, to help each other understand who we are as Muslims.
This state of affairs MUST change, or we will end up destroying our own. Our enemies and there are many, have to do nothing but sit back and watch as we destroy ourselves more effectively than any numbers of batteries of Drones sent by Obama even can.
Jeff Siddiqui’s blog is at http://penjihad.wordpress.com/
SEE ALSO:
American Muslim efforts to counter radicalization http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/repeated-false-claim
Sunni & Shiah Unity Resources http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/shia_sunni
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