Anti-Semitism and Islam: Reverse Discrimination: Anti-Islam.We Muslims are unpersuaded by many triumphalist claims made for the west, but are happy with its core values. As a westerner, the child of civil rights and anti-war activists, I embraced Islam not in abandonment of my core values, drawn almost entirely from the progressive tradition, but as an affirmation of them. I have since studied Islamic law for 10 years with traditionally trained scholars, and while some particulars in medieval legal texts have troubled me, never have the universals come into conflict with anything my progressive Californian mother taught me. ..Westerners, in their advocacy of global conformism, often speak of "progress" and the rejection of the not-too-distant feudal past, and are less likely to reveal their unease about corporate hegemony and the real human implications of globalisation.
Bilal Racheha is a Muslim residing in Sydney Australia. As no title was provided, the current title was provided by the editor.
When a Welsh resistance leader was captured and brought before the emperor in Rome, he said: "Because you desire to conquer the world, it does not necessarily follow that the world desires to be conquered by you." Today one could offer an echo of this sentiment to western iberals: "Because you wish your values to prevail throughout the world, it does not always follow that the world wishes to adopt them." The imperial voice is based on ignorance of the rich traditions of other civilisations, and on an undue optimism about what the west is doing to the world politically, economically and environmentally.
The entrenched beliefs many westerners profess about Islam often reveal more about the west than they do about Islam or Muslims. The Ottomans were history's longest-lasting major dynasty; their durability must have had some relation to their ability to rule a multi-faith empire at a time when Europe was busily hanging, drawing and quartering different varieties of Christian believer.
Today Islam is said to be less, not more, tolerant than the west, and we need to ask which, precisely, are the "western" values with which Islam is so incompatible? Some believe Islam's attitude towards women is the source of the Muslim "problem". Westerners need to look to their own attitudes here and recognise that only very recently have patriarchal structures begun to erode in the west.
The Islamic tradition does show some areas of apparent incompatibility with the goals of women in the west, and Muslims have a long way to go in their attitudes towards women. But blaming the religion is again to express an ignorance both of the religion and of the historical struggle for equality of women in Muslim societies.
A careful reading of modern female theologians of Islam would cause western women to be impressed by legal injunctions more than 1,000 years old that, for instance, grant women legal rights to domestic help at the expense of their husbands. Three of the four Sunni schools consider domestic chores outside the scope of a woman's legal responsibilities toward her husband. Contrast that with US polls showing that working women still do 80% of domestic chores.
Westerners, in their advocacy of global conformism, often speak of "progress" and the rejection of the not-too-distant feudal past, and are less likely to reveal their unease about corporate hegemony and the real human implications of globalisation.
Neither are the missionaries of western values willing to consider why Europe, the heart of the west, should have generated two world wars which killed more civilians than all the wars of the previous 20 centuries. As Muslims point out, we are asked to call them "world wars" despite their reality as western wars, which targeted civilians with weapons of mass destruction at a time when Islam was largely at peace.
We Muslims are unpersuaded by many triumphalist claims made for the west, but are happy with its core values. As a westerner, the child of civil rights and anti-war activists, I embraced Islam not in abandonment of my core values, drawn almost entirely from the progressive tradition, but as an affirmation of them. I have since studied Islamic law for 10 years with traditionally trained scholars, and while some particulars in medieval legal texts have troubled me, never have the universals come into conflict with anything my progressive Californian mother taught me. Instead, I have marvelled at how most of what western society claims as its own highest ideals are deeply rooted in Islamic tradition.
The chauvinism apparent among some westerners is typically triggered by Islamic extremism. Few take the trouble to notice that mainstream Islam dislikes the extremists as much as the west does. What I fear is that an excuse has been provided to supply some westerners with a replacement for their older habit of anti-semitism. The shift is not such a difficult one. Arabs, after all, are semites, and the Arabian prophet's teaching is closer in its theology and law to Judaism than it is to Christianity. We Muslims in the west, like Jews before us, grapple with the same issues that Jews of the past did: integration or isolation, tradition or reform, intermarriage or intra-marriage.
Muslims who yearn for an ideal Islamic state are in some ways reflecting the old aspirations of the Diaspora Jews for a homeland where they would be free to be different. Muslims, like Jews, often dress differently; we cannot eat some of the food of the host countries. Like the Jews of the past, we are now seen as parasites on the social body, burdened with a uniform and unreformable law, contributing little, scheming in ghettoes, and obscurely indifferent to personal hygiene.
Cartoons of Arabs seem little different to the caricatures of Jews in German newspapers of the Nazi period. In the 1930s, such images ensured that few found the courage to speak out about the possible consequences of such a demonisation, just as few today are really thinking about the anti-Muslim rhetoric of the extreme-right parties across Europe. Muslims in general, and Arabs especially, have become the new "other".
When I met President Bush last year, I gave him two books. One was The Essential Koran, translated by Thomas Cleary. The second was another translation by Cleary, Thunder in the Sky: Secrets of the Acquisition and Use of Power. Written by an ancient Chinese sage, it reflects the universal values of another great people.
I did this because, as an American, rooted in the best of western tradition, and a Muslim convert who finds much of profundity in Chinese philosophy, I believe the "Huntington thesis" that these three great civilisations must inevitably clash is a lie. Each civilisation speaks with many voices; the best of them find much in common. Not only can our civilisations co-exist in our respective parts of the world, they can co-exist in the individual heart, as they do in mine. We can enrich each other if we choose to embrace our essential humanity; we can destroy the world if we choose to stress our differences.
Copyright 2011 is held by the nominated authors on this article page.
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R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been dramatically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
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I too found the article intriguing and perhaps there might be hope between us, the Children of Abraham, but, I am afraid, it will not be in our lifetime.
Let me mention a couple of thing. You live in Australia AND NOT IN A MOSLEM COUNTRY. As such, you are able to say things that would be otherwise unacceptable. Your life and that of your family would be at risk. I cannot nor will I judge every Moslem of being an antisemite, but the virulent and obscene hatred that is being displayed by Moslems against Jews rivals and often exceeds the Nazis’.
R20;Mainstream Islam may dislike the extremists as much as the west does”, but their silence is deafening. You speak of the West, of the Christian world, but you say little of the relationship of Islam towards Jews and Judaism. You cannot compare the discrimination against Moslems, with what the Jews have to and continue to bear. They are threatened with extinction, with being ‘wiped off the face of the map’, not just in words, but in deed. And the Koran is not free of hate towards the ‘Jewish infidel’.
Let me conclude with the following. I am glad that you speak against extremism. I would be more hopeful if there were more than just a handful of Moslems, from within their own countries, who were just as brave.
Muslims in recent years have displayed the worst type of hatred towards Jews and made it their main agenda to undermine and fight the Jewish state on all levels and often with extreme passion.
How hypocritical, seeing a Muslim author trying to compare Muslim’s "suffering" and "hatred" to what the Jews went thorough in Nazi Germany. There is a very distinct difference my friend. Muslims are hated and feared for because most of their leaders are continuing to preach to hatred towards the west and continue to send out low life so called “martyrs” to blow up innocent civilians on airplanes, trains and busses.
Jews were hated simply for being Jews.
It always amazes me how so many "educated" Muslims can’t see such simple facts and continue to bend the truth and tell it like it is like the rest of the world are plain stupid to notice.
You need to start by actively condemning all acts of terror and pro-actively fight them and help authorities to bring whoever responsible to justice. You need to stop disputing events like 9/11 and take responsibility for your owns wrong doings......only then the world may start looking at your claims differently. Only then your theories may have some buyers.
From a reader who sent me an email: It simply says:
"In what nation has Islam ever brought peace?" -------------------------------------- Should I start a forum where the Muslims,Jews and Christians can slog it out??
The reader mentioned in the comments section above has sent another email which I post here:
The absurdity of the fictitious title of this article, "Muslims: The New Jews Battling Anti-Semitism" complete with the"R.P.BenDedek" pseudonym, serves the illogical premise of the text.
Since fiction is the apparent goal here I thought I would try a few titles.
Amalakites: The New Jews Battling Anti- Semitism or Neo Nazis:The New Jews Battling Anti- Semitism or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:The New Jews Battling Anti- Semitism or Al-Aqsa:The New Jews Battling Anti- Semitism
No.1 The writer of the story gave it no title. I gave it the title (designed to catch the eye of Internet Spiders)
No.2. Pseudonym is written for all to see, for BenDedek is in fact a Pseudonym. But until you are told otherwise, you can assume it to be real. Just Like the name Mr. Ryan - BenDedek could be real or a pseudonym.
No.3 Fiction was not the purpose but fairness.
No.4 So your objection to the article was really an objection to it's title???????
