OPINION: Terror Recuitment by Remote Control ...

One of my all-time favourite movies is The Naked Gun. For those who can’t recall the plot, an LA businessman (played by the late Ricardo Montalban of Fantasy Island fame) is hired by terrorists determined to have Queen Elizabeth II assassinated. His solution? A special key ring with a button that, when pressed, will turn anyone into an unwilling assassin.

And in case you thought this only happens in hilariously bad comedies, now al-Qaeda is using the same strategy in its jihad against anyone who isn’t them. Al-Qaeda’s slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslims in Somalia, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan obviously hasn’t convinced Muslims to join its cause. Hence it has had to resort to
remote control non-Muslim wingnuts in the United States to help things along.

One of them is a goofy pastor from Florida named Terry Jones who wanted to gather his flock to burn copies of the Quran on the anniversary of September 11. Jones thought this crazy act would somehow send a message to crazy suicide bombers.

President Obama agreed. Except that he thought the event would be a “recruitment
bonanza for al-Qaeda” and similar groups looking for even more people crazy enough to “blow themselves up” in American, European, Middle Eastern, Asian etc cities. As if the Americans bombing Middle Eastern and Asian cities isn’t enough incentive.

Of course, Muslims who understand their faith will understand that no amount of burning Qurans will have any effect on the book’s appeal to its believers. They believe the promise contained in the Quran’s text that God will preserve and protect the Quran.

Muslims who understand their faith will know this. But here’s the bad news. There are lots of Muslims who don’t understand their faith very well at all. There are Muslims whose dictators, kings, emirs and presidents-for-life hold special key rings. At the press of a button, thousands are transformed into nutty crowds that behave like attendees at a KKK rally.

We all saw how much damage these crazies did in response to the Danish cartoons. And - in a touch of irony - the Danish cartoonist who drew the most offensive one - depicting the Prophet wearing a bomb for a turban - has also come out and condemned the Florida pastor.

In fact, it’s hard to find anyone who won’t condemn the nutty pastor. Sarah Palin has
refudiated him, as has Angela Merkel of Germany and David Cameron of Britain. One Indian politician has even asked media not to print or broadcast images of the event.

Perhaps the wisest words came from a French government spokesman who declared the event would be a grave insult to the 9/11 victims and their families.

For one victim, this especially rings true. On the morning of September 11 2001, Baraheen Ashrafi joined her husband Mohammad Chowdhury for morning prayers and recitation of the Quran. He then left for his work as a waiter at the Windows of the World restaurant, on the top floors of Tower One. Reciting the Quran was one of their last acts together.

Pastors burning Qurans and wingnuts protesting outside proposed mosques won’t reduce Baraheen’s pain. Still, those who share the same types of hatred as terrorists would hardly care for the sentiments of victims.

First published in the Crescent Times Issue 23, September 2010.

Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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REFLECTION: A night with the brethren ...

The following was first published on the Aussie Mossie blog on 22 May 2005.

Muslims come in all shapes and sizes, colours and flavours. They speak all different languages at home. And like all major religions, Muslims have different denominations with different understandings of Islam.

Yet regardless of colour or sect or belief, Muslims all become equally upset when neo-Conservative commentators and shock jocks speak with ignorance about Islam and Muslims. Usually the ill speech consists of the presentation of a huge conspiracy that Muslims are conspiring to destroy western civilisation. The ill speech is often made to sound less defamatory by pretending that a clear distinction exists between “Islamists” and the “moderate” Muslims.

Daniel Pipes is a great supporter of the notion that “Islamists” are evil and must be destroyed. He estimates that 10-15% of Muslims are “Islamist”. In a community of 1 billion people, that means that at least 100 million of these are eligible for elimination.

Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Daniel Pipes allegedly wants to see 100 million Muslims eliminated. Who is more dangerous? Or is that an unfair question to ask?

Of course, what hate-mongers like Mr Pipes do not focus on is the enormous diversity of faith and culture that exists within Muslim communities. I witnessed that diversity first-hand on the evening of 21 May 2005 when I attended a cultural night organised by the Ismaili Shia community in Sydney.

The Ismailis are a small sect that branched off from the mainstream varieties of shia (being the ithna ashariyya and the zaydiyya). The spiritual leader of the branch of Ismailis I met is known as the Agha Khan. Hence, this branch are often described as ‘Agha Khanis’.

The bulk of the Ismaili Muslims I met that night hailed from Gujrat in the Indian sub-Continent. They form a large minority within a broader Ismaili community that find their homes in Central Asia, China, the Middle East and Africa. Most of my Indian Ismaili friends travelled widely, and many settled in Pakistan following partition in 1947. Many speak Urdu and Gujrati, but almost all speak fluent English.

The Agha Khani community are extremely organised, and have a very slick public relations machine. Many of our allegedly mainstream Muslim organisations could learn a lot from this small Ismaili branch about building bridges with their host communities and communicating their contributions and achievements.

The night commenced with drinks and tandoori chicken. I felt right at home in the company of ‘desi’ (i.e. from the Indian sub-Continent) people. There were plenty of saris floating around, and I even noticed mums eyeing me as a marriage prospect for some female relative.

How on earth did they know I was single? I pondered on this point over a samosa before remembering a common refrain of my own desi mum: "Hindustani aur Pakistani ma'o ko sab kuch patha lag jaatha hai" (more or less translated as "Indian and Pakistani mums have a unique system of matrimonial telepathic radar").

The Communications & Publications Director of the Australia/New Zealand wing of the international Ismaili community addressed a mixed crowd of politicians, civic leaders and other people of actual and supposed influence. He cited the verse from the Quran in which God says that He created us from one male and one female, then making us into tribes and nations so that we may come to know each other, not hate each other.

The Director went onto mention the Clash of Civilisations thesis of Samuel Huntington. He said that in reality, civilisations can only enrich each other, and that a clash of civilisations was impossible. Sadly, what was possible was a clash of different forms of ignorance. And so it is when ignorance spreads within and between communities that conflicts begin.

It was not hard to read between the lines of the Director’s message. On the one hand, he was signalling that Ismailis were mainstream Muslims and mainstream Australians, and that most Muslims are of this description. On the other hand, he was telling his audience (which included a close Parliamentary colleague of the Prime Minister) that Muslims are not a monolith and are not to be treated as the enemy.

His message is hopefully still ringing in the ears of the Mayor of Baulkham Hills Shire (where the function was being held). The Shire Council had recently shown its commitment to the Muslim communities by refusing to allow a development application from a Muslim to build a small inconspicuous prayer facility on his property. The property was located in the heart of an industrial zone and on a main road, well away from residential areas where parking and noise may have affected residents.

The Director’s message was later expressed to me in more strident language by some young Ismailis I met. They are highly educated, articulate young men and women who had travelled far and wide. Their view of the world was far more realistic than so many Muslim young people from mainstream sunni and shia communities (many of whom rarely venture outside of the Muslim ‘ghettos’ of south western Sydney).

Words © 2005-10 Irfan Yusuf

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OPINION: Wanted - home-grown imams ...

Radical sheiks have attracted a following because of their ability to relate to young people, writes Irfan Yusuf.

SOMETHING is rotten in the state of Australian Islam. Mainstream imams are preaching mainstream peaceful Islamic theology in a language young Muslims don't understand. More young Australian Muslims are attending classes given by locally born imams who are educated and radicalised overseas, mainly in Saudi Arabia. What is the solution?

The Prime Minister's Muslim Advisory Council wants a system for regulation and accreditation of imams which it hopes will weed out the radical imams, who are accused of misleading gullible youth to a version of Islamic theology which isolates them from broader Australian society.

What the council fails to mention is the reason mainstream imams are not able to attract more young people.

In Christian churches, the hierarchy is dominated by clerics who determine not only theological issues but also manage church affairs. Lay members have varying degrees of input. But imams are not priests or clerics but are more akin to legal counsel who can be consulted on matters of religious law.

Australian mosques are governed by societies whose members generally come from its congregation. These societies are generally divided on ethnic and linguistic lines. Membership is often limited to members of a single ethnic community.

The Lebanese Moslems Association, based in Lakemba, manages the Imam Ali ben Abi Taleb Mosque, one of Sydney's largest. Yet the association's constitution refuses full membership and voting rights to anyone ineligible to hold a Lebanese passport. The Muslim League of NSW manages the Green Valley Mosque. Its constitution allows only persons of Fijian-Indian origin to be members.

Mosque management committees are therefore run along ethnic lines. As such, the imam is generally someone who will toe the ethnic, cultural and linguistic line of whichever group runs the society.

Inevitably imams are brought from overseas. Often they are related to members of the societies' executive committees, many of which are run like family fiefdoms. The ability to speak English and relate to young people is not a prerequisite for employment.

Imams are expected to play roles consistent with Islam's status as a cultural artefact in most mosques. The sermon is rarely, if ever, in English. Women are excluded from many mosques. One Pakistani imam was dismissed in part for holding classes for women inside the mosque.

Yet for the majority of Australian Muslims, such cultures are irrelevant. The most recent study of Australian Muslims, conducted by Professor Abdullah Saeed of the University of Melbourne, shows that most were born in Australia and are aged under 40.

With few imams able to speak English, and with mosques unable to provide a culturally relevant version of Islam, it is little wonder many young people flock to the more radical sheiks. One of these, Feiz Mohamed, was brought up in Australia and speaks fluent English. He heads the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool.

Many will remember Feiz for his remarks attributing sexual assault to the manner in which some women dress. But for thousands of young Muslims, Feiz is the only person who stands between them and jail or drugs.

Feiz might have some unusual views on theology, but his ability to relate to young people has enabled him to attract a large following. His centre is welcoming to young people; its prayer hall doubles as an indoor sports arena, it has internet facilities, a gym, a cafeteria, and a multimedia and book store. All classes are conducted in English. Women are welcome.

Few mosques are willing to imitate this model. Mosque societies are not prepared to open their doors to women and young people.

Regulating imams is only part of the answer. But who will manage the regulation process? It isn't the role of government to tell religious congregations who should preach from their pulpits.

Unless Australian Muslims at a grassroots level take back control of their mosque societies from the governing ethnic cliques, the system will remain in the hands of the same people who have overseen the system of overseas and largely irrelevant imams.

This will lead young Australian Muslims to turn to the "thick sheiks" or leave their faith altogether.

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 29 December 2005.

Words © 2005-10 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: Thoughts on the run in Indonesia ...

The following column was first published on the Webdiary while I was touring Indonesia for two weeks in January 2006.

I am sitting here in an internet cafe near the Hotel Ibis in Yogyakarta, Indonesia's major university town. Our delegation of five Aussie Muslims has just had a meeting with students and staff at the Centre for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies at the Gadjah Mada University.

We are now entering the second week of our Indonesian escapade, a tour of young Muslims organised by the Australia Indonesia Institute. We are discovering how much awesome variety exists in this extraordinary country. I am writing these lines in a hurry, and apologise to readers in case this seems like a disorganised jumble of thoughts.

If Australians think they are an open, multicultural and pluralistic society, they should understand that our multiculturalism is child's play compared to the multiculturalism we witness in this, the world's largest Muslim country.

And Aussie Muslims in particular have plenty to learn. In this awesome and hauntingly beautiful land, Islam has adapted itself to a wide variety of cultural and linguistic settings.

In Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia you will find women sitting side by side with men in the largest mosque in South East Asia. The Masjid Istiqlal (Independence Mosque) has no separate entrance for men and women. Everyone worships in the same hall. There are no curtains. Women enter the mosque, regardless of how they are dressed.

Across the road from the mosque is the Catholic Cathedral of Jakarta. When parking in the Cathedral overflows for services, worshippers use the mosque carpark.

Today I met a Muslim Balinese student studying in “Jogja” (as Yogyakarta is often referred to by locals). He told us that in Bali, it is almost impossible to tell if a person is Muslim or Christian or Hindu from their name. He also spoke of how Balinese people of all faiths are suffering because of the drop in tourism since the Bali bombings. Many talented Balinese students are finding it impossible to study in universities as their families cannot afford the tertiary fees. Such students are forced to terminate their studies in Year 12.

I also met a Muslim girl from Java. She wears a “jilbab”, the word Indonesians use to describe a headscarf. I asked her name, and she told me she was called “Sita”. I was surprised because Sita is a name typically associated with Hinduism.

In India, one would rarely find a Muslim girl named Sita. But in Indonesia, people are proud of their Hindu heritage. Hindu names are still used even by the most observant Muslims. Tonight we will be seeing a traditional play using shadow puppets. The play tells the story of the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu epic.

Many people think Indonesian women are covered from head to toe. But anyone who sets foot on a Jakarta footpath will see young girls wearing hipster jeans and tank tops. The young guys are all dressed in jeans and t-shirts. Just like at the mosque, segregation is hardly anywhere to be seen.

We leave Jakarta on 29 November. Sadly, we will miss seeing Chinese New Year, now a public holiday in Indonesia. Things have changed since the Suharto era when Chinese culture was relatively suppressed and Chinese had to adopt Indonesian names to move up the social ladder. Today, Mandarin programs are show on free-to-air TV, and Chinese New Year is even celebrated in many mosques.

In my next installment, I will tell readers about the work of a heroic group of Muslim women trying to help women suffering from domestic violence. Like in most countries, the scourge of violence against women exists in Indonesia.

I'll write more soon. I have to go to the bathroom to attend to the results of eating too much chillied and spicy food!

Words © 2006-10 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: Trad appeal

These days, Keysar Trad doesn’t appear all too often in the press. I’m not really sure why. Maybe journos have cottoned onto the fact that the vast majority of Muslims aren’t too keen on polygamy. Maybe it’s the impact of a NSW Supreme Court judgment from last July in a defamation claim brought by Trad against Radio 2GB presenter Jason Morrison.

In that judgment, a jury found Trad had been defamed by Morrison, but Justice McClellan ruled that Morrison had established his remarks about Trad were largely true. His Honour said it was reasonable to describe Trad as racist and offensive. He made other interesting remarks which are currently the subject of appeal.

I checked Google News but couldn’t see any reporting of Trad’s appeal. Only one opinion piece by columnist Paul Sheehan appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday 14 June 2010.

Sheehan, who was in court for the appeal on Friday, describes Trad as

... a quote-machine representing the Muslim community in Australia.

You wish, Mr Sheehan.

For more on Paul Sheehan, see this article by Shakira Hussein.

Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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OPINION: False Prophecy ...

This article was first published in NewMatilda on 11 October 2006.

_________________________

The Australian's editorials and columnists frequently praise Muslim 'reformers' for doing little more than abandoning Islam altogether, writes Irfan Yusuf.

John Howard recently expressed his belief that 99 per cent of Muslims have successfully integrated into mainstream Australia and have adopted a set of uniquely Australian values.

Unique values. You know the ones like mateship. Just ask the current Telstra board.

And like democracy. Yes, apparently this is a uniquely Australian value. Howard has repeatedly lectured Muslims on why their countries should adopt democracy. His Treasurer lectures Muslims on why they should support secularism, separating Mosque from State.

Over the next few days, Howard will announce the new Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG), a set of ‘leaders’ he will consult on matters affecting Australia’s 360,000 Muslims. The MCGR was formed in September 2005, and its first term recently expired.

And what democratic processes will be used to select these people? Will ordinary Muslims get to nominate people? Will Muslims get to vote on who is selected?

Yeah, right. The Government may have just enough of a majority of shares in Telstra to select one director but the Howard Government seems to hold 100 per cent of all shares in Australia’s Muslim communities.

When it comes to democracy, Howard will be misleading by example. He and his ministers will handpick which Muslims they wish to talk to. Who knows what the criteria will be.

Lately, one of Howard’s favourite newspapers has been busy supporting, promoting, and then condemning, certain current MCRG members.

Consider The Australian’s interest in Dr Ameer Ali, a former president of the virtually defunct Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, and outgoing chair of Howard’s MCRG. Some readers will remember Ali as the man whose organisation took 21 days to issue a letter condemning the London bombing, while taking less than 21 minutes to condemn Michelle Leslie’s dress sense.

Ali is now writing an academic paper on how some Muslims seem to be interpreting Islamic texts literally: an interesting theological and philosophical subject.

But for Richard Kerbaj, The Oz’s specialist reporter assigned to report on all things Muslim, Ali’s research findings have become a yardstick against which to decide who is and isn’t a moderate Muslim.

The circus began on 4 October with an article headlined ‘Prophet not perfect, says Islamic scholar’. The article followed a predictable script, with words thrown together randomly to produce a meaningless yet scary message. Try this sentence on for size:

The chairman of John Howard’s Muslim advisory board yesterday warned that Islamists would continue to breed jihadis unless the Koran was œreinterpreted  for today’s society.

So when Islamists do some horizontal folk dancing and one falls pregnant, you can bet your bottom dinar that nine months later out will pop a jihadi. The bastards are breeding like rabbits!

It gets better.

He also said mosques were increasingly being used by imams to deliver sermons that were not open to discussion.

What the? How can imams stop people from discussing their sermons?

Following this are quotes from Ali about how the Koran needs to be reinterpreted to suit modern times; that people should question its teachings; that Muslims should stop reacting to every provocation; and that Muslims should stop judging people’s religiosity by the length of their beards (presuming they are blokes).

It’s hard to know what to make of Kerbaj’s article. He treats Ali’s theologically benign statements as a virtual revolutionary manifesto for an all-Aussie Islamic revolution. Such a characterisation shows he has little understanding of current debates in Western Muslim communities.

Ali isn’t the first person to condemn Muslim responses to the Danish cartoons. He also isn’t the first to criticise literalism in Koranic interpretations, nor is he the first to call for honest dialogue with Islam’s critics.

The usual suspects roundly condemned Ali’s comments. The Oz then published a somewhat patronising editorial about the issue, which made out that the Alis of this world will rarely find support within Muslim communities. The article even went so far as to suggest that Ali’s remarks dealt with ‘some of Islam’s most controversial issues, which have already sparked widespread displays of anger and retaliatory violence around the world’.

I’m not aware of a single riot within the Muslim world on the issue of literalism in Koranic interpretation or on the notion of questioning Islamic teachings. Indeed, in the world’s largest Muslim country, followers of liberal reformers like Nurcholis Madjid are setting up foundations and even establishing universities. And the grandson of the founder of Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood is openly calling for a limit to the application of Islamic sharia .

Most amusing was The Oz’s explanation of Ali’s scholarly authority.

Dr Ali’s standing cannot be easily dismissed. He is a doctor of economics who works at Murdoch University in Perth and is writing an academic paper entitled Closing of the Muslim Mind.

So let me get this right: an economics lecturer has the right to authoritatively comment on matters pertaining to religious law and esoteric theology. Presumably, this applies vice versa. I look forward to seeing Cardinal Pell appointed to the Reserve Bank board.

The Oz editorial then manufactured facts, claiming that the entire Muslim world was on fire as a result of the Pope’s speech and the Danish cartoons. The paper suggested that violence was a default position to be expected of Muslims:

Thankfully, the response of Australia’s Islamic leaders has been rhetorical and not vengeful, in stark contrast to the response overseas to publication of the Danish cartoons and the Pope’s speech and the treatment of French philosophy teacher Robert Redeker, who has been forced into hiding for linking Mohammed to violence.

I am the first to admit that some Muslims behaved in an extreme and inappropriate manner, to say the least. But seriously, these responses represent a minority. The vast majority of Muslims protested peacefully. Some voted with their wallets by boycotting Danish goods. Others organised peaceful rallies. There are 1.2 billion Muslims on the planet, if even half of them each lit a match, global warming would soon become global boiling.

The Oz would have us believe that Ali is a brave lone voice in the wilderness. The paper’s editorials and columnists frequently praise Muslim ‘reformers’ for doing little more than abandoning Islam altogether. Openly ex-Muslims like Wafa Sultan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are put on pedestals. Rushdie-wannabes like Irshad Manji are frequently quoted making outlandish claims that they single-handedly rediscovered ijtihad , a fundamental concept and process used by just about everyone from Osama bin Ladin to Anwar Ibrahim.

(Ali has since criticised the headline and slant taken on his comments by The Oz .)

People should be free to enter or leave Islam as they wish. They should be free to practise whatever religion, if any, takes their fancy (so long as it doesn’t involve blowing themselves and/or others up). And they should be able to define who they are, instead of having pseudo-conservative newspapers and politicians trying to impose alien definitions on them.



Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: Zero tolerance at Ground Zero

Imam Feisal Abdur Rauf, regarded as one of the softest voices in North America
n Islam, wants to establish a new mosque and cultural centre some 2 blocks from the site of what was once the World Trade Centre in New York.

Opposition to the project is led by a blogger named Pamela Geller and author Robert Spencer who have formed a group calling itself Stap the Islamisation of America.

So who are these people? Here is how one local website covered the group's protest:

Only a handful of victims' relatives came on Sunday.

Sunday's crowd included representatives of the conservative Tea Party movement, some of them wearing anti-tax T-shirts that had nothing to do with Ground Zero, Islam or terrorism.

"We must take a stand and we must say no," shouted rally organizer Pamela Geller as the crowd roared approval. Moments later, another keynote speaker, Robert Spencer, sparked more cheers when he asked, "Are you tired of being lied to?"

Spencer, however, did not explain precisely what lies he was referring to.

Many protesters held American flags. Many carried signs ...

Clearly these people weren't very smart. Here's why.

At one point, a portion of the crowd menacingly surrounded two Egyptian men who were speaking Arabic and were thought to be Muslims.

"Go home," several shouted from the crowd.

"Get out," others shouted.

In fact, the two men – Joseph Nassralla and Karam El Masry — were not Muslims at all. They turned out to be Egyptian Coptic Christians who work for a California-based Christian satellite TV station called "The Way." Both said they had come to protest the mosque.

"I'm a Christian," Nassralla shouted to the crowd, his eyes bulging and beads of sweat rolling down his face.

But it was no use. The protesters had become so angry at what they thought were Muslims that New York City police officers had to rush in and pull Nassralla and El Masry to safety.

"I flew nine hours in an airplane to come here," a frustrated Nassralla said afterward.

Yep, if you look like Jesus, you ain't welcome! Another "Tea Party" protestor decided to drag monkeys into the controversy:

... the proposed mosque has also drawn criticism, including a blast from a Tea Party bigwig who said it would serve as a tribute to the 9/11 terrorists "for the worship of the terrorists' monkey-god."

Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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COMMENT: The athiest who wants Muslims to become Catholic ...

No, I kid you not. Self-confessed migration fraud and evangelical athiest Ayaan Hirsi Magaan argues in her new book Nomad that Muslims should be converted to Catholicism.

Many Muslims recognize the weaknesses in Islam... But they will not join me in atheism because they still believe there must be a God. This is not easy for an atheist like me to admit, but it appears that the painstaking construction of a personal ethic is not enough for many people ...

I explained to Father Bodar [a Dutch priest living in Rome] why I had asked him to meet me. 'I'm not a Christian and I'm not here to ask you to help me convert and become one," I told him. "But I think the Christian Churches should begin dawa (proselytizing) exactly as Islam does. You need to compete, because you can be a powerful tool to reverse Islamization. You should start with Muslim neighborhoods in Rome. Europe is sleepwalking into disaster - cultural, ideological, and political disaster - because the authorities of the church have neglected the immigrant ghettos.

The churches could go into Muslim communities, provide services just as the radical Muslims do: build new Catholic schools, hospitals and community centers, just like the ones that were such a civilizing force under colonialism in Africa. Don't just leave this in the hands of governments - take an active role. The churches have the resources, the authority, and the motivation to convert Muslim immigrants to a more modern way of life and more modern beliefs. Teach hygiene, discipline, a work ethic, and also what you believe in. The West is losing the propaganda war. But you can compete with Islam outside Europe and vigorously assimilate Muslims within it.'

Father Bodar positively beamed with happiness.

So Catholicism is like a half-way house on the way to atheism. Christianity is a sheltered workshop for Muslims not yet ready to embrace the athiest faith.

Many in the so-called Christian Right will probably be too imbecilic to see just how insulting and patronising such an attitude is to their faith. Presumably Hirsi Magaan is counting on that to keep them on side. But I doubt many genuine Christians would be happy to see their faith treated as some kind of temporary arrangement.

I also wonder why Ms Magaan doesn't choose other faiths for Muslims. Why, for instance, does she not want Muslims to become Jews? Surely Jewish doctrine is far more close to Islam than Christianity. Rabbis play a similar role to Imams. There is a sacred law and an emphasis on maintaining scripture in its original language. Dietary laws are similar. And Muslims don't have to forcibly wrap their heads around a trinity.

What about Buddhism? Or Javanese spirituality? Or Mormonism?

Hirsi Ali appears to have seriously lost the plot. And I have no doubt that many Muslim atheists (as in atheists with a Muslim cultural heritage) will agree with my assessment.

Words © 2010 Irfan Yusuf

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