Objections to Islam
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[edit] Introduction
My objection to Islam is their goal of domination of the world in religion and imposition of their Shari'ah law. If they are localized I could not be “bothered” meaning while I object to the caste system, or to Japanese xenophobia, the people who hold these views do not have a religious duty to propagate, export their beliefs and value systems. So my objection to Islam is that they think locally but act globally. That is why Christians or Jews are terrorized from Argentina to Pakistan and Indonesia for events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. The agenda to dominate is evidenced by the fact that while they happily accept Western multiculturalism to built mosques and proselyte in the west, Islamic nations and Muslims either totally prohibit restrict by law or by extra-legal violence any non-Islamic religious activities. This happens even in the supposedly moderate Islamic nations of Malaysia, Turkey and Indonesia.
[edit] Objections
Please note that while I separate Islam as a religion from Islamic law in my objections, the reality is that no such dichotomy exists in Islam.
[edit] As a World Religion
As a religion there is no freedom. Apostates are killed or incarcerated. The oft quoted “there is no compulsion in Islam” is for western consumption. Islamic legal systems all recognize that the “no-compulsion” verse has been replaced with latter revelations that require that apostates be killed. This is borne out clearly in virtually every Islamic nation and even in Muslim majority communities in the west, where if there are no instituted laws to punish apostates, Muslims themselves will persecute the apostates or any Muslims for not following certain aspect of the Shari'ah laws (for wearing the hijab) or marrying non-Muslims.
Muhammad’s actions and lifestyle is incompatible to that of a holy prophet of God. He may be a brilliant strategist and military chief, but certainly not a prophet, at least not of a holy God.
Normally one bad example would be sufficient to discredit a holy prophet, let alone the most holy prophet of a holy God. Here is a list of Muhammad’s actions that are incompatible to that of a holy prophet:
- Pedophilia – I believe no founders of the other major religions have that many wives, concubines and views towards sex.
- Condones the rape of women captives.
- Condones slavery
- Condones the killing of his critics
- Muslims have defended Muhammad’s attitude towards rape and slavery on the ground that such practices were societal norm and it would take time to bring about the changes needed. This defense falls flat because Muhammad was able to eliminate the much ingrained and widely cultural taboo against marrying one’s daughter in law and the widely acceptable practice of adoption. He did that by declaring that they were the wishes of Allah to cover his lust for Zainab, the wife of his adopted son Zaid.
I regard Islam as a bad religion because it places so much emphasis in form over substance. That is clearly evident from the need to punish Muslims for not fulfilling their religious duties – Friday prayers, fasting during Ramadan, abstinence from alcohol, not wearing hijab. It is also evident by the fact that Islam regards certain lack of hygiene to be a moral sin. Example it is a major sin if one’s clothing is contaminated with one’s urine. Items that come in contact with dog’s saliva require 7 times cleansing. A Muslim’s prayer is invalidated should a woman, donkey or dog walk in front of him during prayers.
As a world religion, I find Islam to be an Arabic cultural colonizer. What kind of god is Allah who gave the world languages but will only accept prayers in Arabic? The culture and languages of many North African and Middle Eastern nations that Arab Muslim conquered has been replaced by Arabic and Arabic culture. Remember the destruction of the Buddha statues in Bamiyan? Even today, from Africa to Malaysia, many aspects (music, dances, clothing) of their indigenous culture are being purged to conform to Islam/Arab standard. Aside from Arabic calligraphy and mosaics, what art or music have Islam/Arabic culture given to mankind? Where are their Rembrandts, Michelangelos, Mozarts or Beethovens? I shudder to think a world culturally dominated by Islam.
[edit] As a Legal System
As a legal system, the Shari'ah is regarded as the perfect and immutable laws of Allah for all mankind for all ages. This means Islam expects modern society to conform to the rigid 7th century model. If the Islamic system was benign and good, it would be welcomed. However the record shows that many aspects of their laws are not and efforts by Muslims themselves to change or modify them to make it compatible to the human societal development have been futile or insufficient – example jailing apostates instead of killing them.
Here are the examples of the injustice of the Shari'ah laws.
- Non-Muslims'/dhimmis' testimonies are not valid in Shariah courts.
- Women's testimonies are not valid in hudud (Islamic penal code) cases.
- Women's testimonies are worth half of that of a man.
- Murders can pay blood money to escape punishment, while apostates and adulterers cannot pay any kind of compensation to escape stoning to death and execution. This shows that Islam considers adultery and apostasy (both non-violent in nature) to be far worse offenses than murder.
- Murderers can pay blood money to escape punishment, but thieves cannot escape mandatory amputations by paying any kind of compensation. This implies that Islam consider stolen goods or money to have more value than a human life.
- Rape is ambiguously treated, from being a taksir crime to a zina crime requiring the unanimous testimonies of 4 reliable male Muslim witnesses to convict. Women who are raped but cannot produce the 4 witnesses can be killed for adultery if they become pregnant.
[edit] Parting Thoughts
There are countless other examples of my objections to Islam which I have not listed here; one of which is the way women are treated in Islamic society. For the life of me I don’t see how Muslims can continue to say that all these bad treatment of women in Muslim communities are either not Islam or cultural tradition that has nothing to do with Islam, when the same Muslim community will vigorously enforce all other aspects of Islamic laws.
