Introduction
A debate was conducted by the NPR (National Public Radio) concerning in this matter.
Now, unlike other mainstream media, the NPR does not have an agenda, it's simply a public radio program, there to inform the people of significant events all around the world.
In this day and age, where Muslims are quite often unfairly stereotyped to be wife-beaters, terrorists, and forcing child marriages and arranged marriages along with honor killing, one is forced to take into consideration where these accusations are coming from.
Slanders and insults don't just appear out of thin air; there is a source that is often greatly exaggerated to "fit" a stereotype of a person, be it based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender or whatever.
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The Debate: Supporters and um...Unsupporters!
The panel had 3 people for and against the idea that Islam is dominated by radicals. And all of these people are well educated. Nothing like country hicks arguing over a couple of cans of beer.
Support for Islam is Dominated by radicals:
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Vice President of the Foundation for The Defense of Democracies, a man who converted to Islam, put in time raising funds for jihad with the radical Saudi funded al-Haramain 'charity' and then left Islam and wrote an amazing book called "My Year Inside Radical Islam" as well as a number of illuminating articles, some of which have been linked to on this site.
Paul Marshall, a Senior fellow in the Center For The Study of Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.
Asra Nomani, a noted Muslim feminist, a professor of journalism at Georgetown University, and a former reporter with the Wall Street Journal.She was a friend and colleague of the late Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by Islamist terrorists in Pakistan and was one of the last people to see him alive.
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Against the Idea that Islam is dominated by radicals
Reza Aslan, an assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside, a fellow at the USC Center For Public Diplomacy.He's the author of several books on the subject of Islam, and one of the Middle East analysts for CBS news.
Richard Bulliet, a professor of Middle East history at Columbia University ( with all that implies), and one of the professors who was instrumental in inviting Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Columbia.
Edina Lekovic, Director of Communications and a well-known spokesperson for the Muslim Public Affairs Council
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Ideas before and after the debate
BEFORE the debate, everyone [the audience, the people listening to the debate on the radio] voted on their opinion about radicals dominating Islam.
46% of the audience agreed that Islam was dominated by radicals, 32% disagreed, and 22% were undecided.
AFTER the debate, everyone was asked to call in and vote to see if their opinion on radicals in Islam changed.
73% agreeing that Islam was dominated by radicals, 23% disagreeing and only 4% remained undecided.
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qUOTES FROM THE RADIO PROGRAM:
*note* All of these quotes are taken from the actual transcript of the radio program debate. I will post the link to the transcript down below.
-->"In Pakistan,Indonesia, Morocco and Egypt between seventy-three percent and 92% believe that the U.S. goal is definitely or
probably to weaken and divide Islam. In the same countries, only
nine to twenty-three percent believe that the goal of the U.S. war
on terror is to protect itself from terror attacks."
-->"And to end on a deeply
confusing note, in Egypt eighty-eight percent agree that groups
like Al Qaeda that use violence against civilians are violating the
principles of Islam, yet sixty percent believe that suicide bombers
are often or sometimes justified."
Quotes from the Pro-Islam is dominated by radical side:
"In Iran, if you kill someone who is a member of one of
the non-listed religions, non-recognized religions – say, such as
the Baha’is – there is no punishment. To kill a dog, a cat or a
Baha’i is the same thing. It is no matter of the law because they
have no legal status. They do not religiously and politically exist."
...it is an ideology that has taken root in countries from
Pakistan to states in Nigeria to provinces in Indonesia with laws
that put women in second class status, that give women criminal
punishments because of sexual crimes. In each instance you
could say that there’s a political purpose. But at the end of the
day it is done in the name of Islam. But at the end of the day it is part of a
continuum of an interpretation of Islam that takes a literal read
that says a woman is sexual temptation, that a woman is sexual
distraction. You take that interpretation and it isn’t that long that
you have to also add up to an interpretation that says that you
can’t be friends with the Jews and the Christians, that violence is
acceptable.
Why do I know this? Because I’ve heard it from my pulpit. I’ve
heard it from the sermons that are downloaded on college
campuses across this country and across the world. There is an
exportation of this ideology.
We can
stand up for religion that is not dominated by radicals, but we
can accept the fact when it is. And in our day, in the trenches in
the Muslim world from a mosque just a few blocks away from
here to Seattle, Washington to Dubai, we are facing a momentum
where the leadership is one that accepts radical ideology and the
moderates don’t stand up against it.
...they intimidate people, if they’re organized, if they have funding, if one
sees even in Indonesia the increase in radical movements, radical
Islam— radical imams, who were not there 10, 20, 15 years ago.
When you see in Indonesia the destruction of hundreds of
churches, where 10 years in Indonesia, 20 years ago you
wouldn’t— would never have seen that, people coexisted. So even
in places like Indonesia, in places like Bangladesh, in places like
Malaysia, even though most of the people don’t want it, you have
the growth of radical movements, and they often win, because
they intimidate and scare other people—
In 14 Muslim countries, right now, it is illegal to change your
religion, in eight of these countries, it is punishable by death.
That is, you cannot convert out of Islam in these countries. That
does not support equality between religions. This is supported
also, by anti-proselytism laws, laws that prevent people from
other faiths from propagating their own faiths, while at the same
time Saudi money goes out throughout the entire globe,
propagating a Wahabist version of Islam. This also is supported
by anti-blasphemy laws. Laws that are used to suppress people who have a view of religion that does not conform with the very
stringent view that a state might have.
For example, a recent poll conducted by Pew found
that 15 percent of Indonesians support—believe that violence in
defense of Islam is justified. Well 15 percent isn’t a whole lot.
But when you look at Indonesia which is the world’s most
populous Muslim country, you’re talking about 25 million people.
Quotes from those Against Islam is dominated by radical side:
How the experiences of the
colleagues for the motion in confronting radicals in their own
communities has given them the knowledge necessary to judge
the beliefs and practices of a billion and a half people, I’m not
sure. I will say that if I based my views of Catholicism on the
stories that I hear from my former Catholic friends and on the
media reports about Catholicism, I’d pretty much have to assume
that Catholicism is dominated by sadistic pederasts.
....that 95% of all suicide terrorism is, quote, not driven by religion as much as by
clear strategic – read, political – objectives. In short, when we
talk about radicalism in the Muslim world we are talking about
political radicalism, which after all, in a globalized world is not
that odd.
Now, Islam is
dominated, if you will, by scholars, by average people more so
than anyone else, who are struggling to understand Islam in a
21st Century context and who seek to foster inclusion of Muslims
on the international stage and who want nothing more than to be
understood and to be respected, as that same poll showed over
and over again. To point to Saudi Arabia over and over again, I
will hand that to the other side. Saudi Arabia is no, by no means
the shining glory of any part of the Muslim world. But pointing to
pockets in no way reflects the overall picture, the overall reality.
Looking in a pocket or in many pockets in no way represents the
overall cost to, the overall character of the people and it is the
people who define the faith and who define their global
community.
The reality on the ground is this: radicals are failing in
their attempt to dominate. Radicals, those who make up Al
Qaeda and its various branches, are on the run. They are in
decline. Their messages are not reaching the audiences that they
seek to convert and to brainwash as much as they used to.
And that, to me, is an important symbol of the rise of moderation,
the rise of the middle, the rise of those who dominate this faith.
Even those in Al Qaeda – Ayman al-Zawahiri, who recently
released a tape – they have had to change their tactics because
they are receiving criticism from within the Muslim community.
In 2005 Jordan’s King Abdullah convened an
international Islamic conference of two hundred of the world’s
most leading Islamic scholars from fifty different countries. Those
scholars unanimously issued a ruling on three fundamental
issues – the validity of all interpretations of Islam, the eight legal
schools.
They forbade the declaration of apostasy between Muslims and
they further provided pre-conditions to issuing fatwas, since theyhave become such a currency on the international market and
have lost their meaning entirely. That’s one example. Another is
that a hundred and thirty-eight Muslim scholars joined together
to affirm freedom of expression -- scholars from around the world
– and to condemn the negative reactions to the Danish cartoons.....
SOURCE: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/RCP_PDF/IQ2_IslamDominatedByRadicals_041508.pdf
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
IS ISLAM DOMINATED BY RADICALS? WHY OR WHY NOT?
