On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:
On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Sean Gabb wrote:
where Islam is concerned, there are so many individuals behaving badly that we are justified in thinking the whole religion a force for bad.
But the fact is that most Moslems venerate old men in beards, who think that anyone who disagrees with them about God should be put to death, that a woman with a clitoris is a kind of devil, and that Western classical music is evil.
And your travels in the Islamic world consist of? And you personally know how many Muslims? And you have read how much Islamic sources?
I never visited Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union under Stalin; but I think I am justified in regarding them as nasty places, hostile to any concept of liberal civilisation. Equally, though I have done my best to avoid visiting the Islamic world, I have seen enough *religious* Moslems here in England, and read enough of their material, to know that Islam is more often than not a force for evil. Turning to literature, I have read my way through dozens of pamphlets sent me by the Islamic Propagation Centre International of Birmingham - the one that strikes me as most hilariously dishonest is "The Status of Women in Islam" by Dr Jamal A. Badawi. I will upload a review of this tomorrow. I also have a copy of the Koran, translation and Commentary by A. Yusuf Ali; and I have read much of Al Ghazali and a French version of "The Regency of the Theologian" by the late Ruholla Khomeini. Of course, even if I list everything I have read about Islam or by Moslems, and read three times more, you would still come on this list questioning my right to form an opinion. One tactic - used ad nauseam by the socialists - is to dismiss whatever I have read as works unrepresentative of the true essence and canon. Well, I say that I know quite enough about Islam to regard it as a horrible religion. I still disagree with Tim as to what response is appropriate. But I agree with him that it would be a nasty day for humanity if Islam were ever to become the faith of a powerful and expansionist state. Sean Gabb, Editor Free Life.