Lying About Religion (Especially That One)

President Obama's recent speech in Egypt, on Islam, was ignorant at best, mendacious at worst, says Luis Granados. Granados' conclusion:

Obama's hubris is that he thinks he can use religion. He can't — it's too big. Religion is using him. He is an enabler, like the alcoholic's spouse who buys the booze and makes the excuses.

To me, that goes for the way the president "plays" Christianity, as much as for how he says he sees Islam. Obama held forth almost breathlessly on the great religion of peace, intoning: "As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam — at places like Al-Azhar University — that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe’s Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed."

Granados, it must be said, is the better student of history. Rejecting the blinders that pandering politicians routinely don, he performs a righteous fisking:

Algebra? The word is Arabic, but the concepts aren't; they were developed by Babylonians, Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks long before Muhammad. The magnetic compass? That was developed by the Chinese, not the Muslims; it was Chinese fleets who visited Arabia and Africa in the early 15th century, not vice versa. Printing? Not only did Muslims not invent the printing press, they absolutely forbade its use for nearly three centuries until 1727, and then shut down the first operating press after a few years because the ideas it was pumping out threatened the supremacy of the God experts. Printing in the Muslim world did not resume until 1783, by which point the West had Newton's laws of physics, the steam engine, joint stock companies, etc. Understanding how disease spreads? As late as the 19th century, a Sufi brotherhood in Morocco attacked the authorities for ordering the evacuation of towns in an attempt to curb the spread of a plague, because the spread of disease should be left to the decision of God. ...

[Also,] Obama fantasized that "In ancient times and in our times, Muslim communities have been at the forefront of innovation and education." What planet is he referring to? Since the Enlightenment freed Europe and America from the religious constraints on the growth of knowledge, what innovations have we seen from the Muslim world? The short answer is: "none."

I attended a speech myself this past weekend, one in which a nice white liberal man quoted the same passage from the Koran that Obama reverently cited in Cairo:

Whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.

Pretty, isn't it? In the audience, I observed a young Muslim lady with a headscarf doing a little "Yay for us!" fistpump. I'm sure she's totally lovely, and I don't begrudge her the respect paid to her favorite book by the speaker. But in the interest of honesty and academic rigor, let's look at the full Koranic verse, and thereby at the context of that nicey-nice one-liner, shall we? Granados does just that:

[T]hat is not what the Koran says. It does not say "kills an innocent," it says "slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land." It then defines "mischief in the land" as opposing the messenger Muhammad, who had come "with clear signs" of divine favor. The next verse prescribes the punishment for those who make "mischief in the land" by opposing Muhammad: "they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides."

Sleights of hand (excuse me) don't get much more shameless than that. Or do they?

Perhaps Obama's dishonesty on the topic of religion reached its apex when he lauded the "golden rule" supposedly imposed by all faiths, including Islam: Treat other people as you would like to be treated.

For real? Does he think anything resembling a golden rule is what drives Christian attempts to crush marriage equality and modern-day witchcraft alike? Does he believe the golden rule has taken root among the Christian-folk who kill little children and pro-choice doctors for not adhering to biblical pronouncements?

More to the point, does the president truly assume that 91-million-plus Muslim terrorists and terrorist sympathizers could find anything about a golden rule in their holy book if they tried? How about the much more numerous peaceful Muslims, even?

I can't think of a faith — certainly no mainstream one — that shits all over this so-called golden rule with as much faux-pious, bloodthirsty hatred as that which the Koran habitually inspires. Granados is probably with me on that:

[The golden] rule does lie at the heart of humanism, because humans have figured out over time that it makes sense. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and even Obama's busy imagination could not find a single verse of the Koran to twist into support for it. The word Islam means "submission," and the rule that lies at its heart is that men and women must abjectly submit to the word of God as related by Muhammad, which often requires them to do unto others in a manner they would not at all wish to be done unto themselves.

Comments

[Marty]

Luis Granados has written many important essays that deserve a much wider audience. thanks for helping to spread his word!

[Issa Kirarira]

For how long are we going to continue educating people to be just and don’t derail others from contributing ideas that build instead of destroying?
All your analysis in Obamas speech are mendacity and based on your personal agenda –probably to serve you interest.
Let us learn to be positive and put forward facts and respect history.
Issa Kirarira

[Jeff the Poustman]

Well, Issa, in order to build on land that is already occupied by a structure you first have to level the structure. If there are unsound thoughts in the mind, these thoughts must be demolished before building new ones.

[Rogier]

Issa:

My "personal agenda," when it comes to mainstream faiths, is anything but hidden: To tear the lovey-dovey veil off of organized religion, in order to see it for what it is, rather than for what it claims to be.

Respect for the facts, for education, for history? Absolutely. Where's yours? Your ostensible preference for "being positive" results in the usual gloss-over-the-truth bullcrap from religionists and their enablers. In fact, such a seemingly lovely guideline -- who could be against being positive, right?! -- is incompatible with your goal to respect the facts.

Being positive is nice, but it tends not to alter reality. It's also a mindset that's vastly overrated. I prefer being clear-eyed and truthful over being "positively" self-deluded.

[Rogier]

Google clarifies that Mr. Kirarira, a Muslim activist, heads an African organization for religious tolerance. The tolerance only works one way, natch, as is so often the case when religionists invoke the concept.

For instance, Mr. Kirarira is on record as saying that "Islam is the only system that can solve the problems the world is facing today."

Ah yes, the old 'submit or die' warning, now with new, fluffier packaging.

Mr. Kirarira is also a vocal opponent of Uganda's Domestic Relations Bill -- domestic-abuse legislation that would punish Muslim men for beating and murdering their wives. He took that proud stance on the grounds that the followers of Islam should be allowed to adhere to the letter of their holy book, rather than be bound by some silly secular law defending equality for all.

Feel tolerated yet?

[Issa Kirarira]

Dear Brother Rogier,
And you see my Brother,
When you talk about unsound thoughts in the mind and you went ahead to say that they must be demolished before building new ones.
It is you and me and others who are concerned that we educate the young ones the need to respect people’s cultures and find a way of living in this world together.
We need to Borrow ideas from USA where you find every tribe and religion in the world
Represented and yet they are living in harmony and have true love for they country minus their origin

[Issa Kirarira]

Why don’t you use simple language so that we understand your messages clearly?
Nothing is bad like taking somebody’s land and you continue to even use it at your will. even when you have been advised by your friends to give it for purposes of peace.
We are not saying that citizens of Israel have no right to live but to utilize what belongs to them and find a formula how they can live alongside their neighbors- Palestinians.
Whoever says that Israelis have no right to live is the enemy of Allah for you can’t determine life of anything you can’t create.
But still Obamas message is timely when it comes to Palestinians to recognize Israel and Israel to stop building in the occupied land.
Let us encourage both sides to accept the advice given to them by President Obama.
You seem to be a very knowable man who is bent on diverting people from the correct line with intent. That is bad my Brother. Use that capacity you have to build instead of destroying. What do you gain when you see people Killing each other and living with fear every hour that passes? Is that life. Let us think together as people who have intentions of changing people with bad minds for better and make the world a place where every citizen enjoys his freedom without interfering in people’s freedom but respecting each others Beliefs and culture
+256 712 802048

[GreginOz]

Heyyyyy, Issa, go fuck yourself! if "respecting each others Beliefs and culture" means that 50% of the Muzzy world (women) suffers unspeakable ignorance and violence then fuck them. If clitorectomy of innocent , youg girls is sanctioned then fuck them, if I can not drink a cold beer or a crisp chardonnay according to Muzzys then fuck them. Capisch, you moronic piece of pigshit? As for Obama, after reading that he approves of PREVENTATIVE imprisonment & torture, fuck him too...

[Jeff Wiebe]

If we are going to respect history, we should agree that the land that Israel is on is theirs.

The Palestinians could have been taken in by multitudes of other Arab nations, but instead were elected to be the spearhead of anti-semitism in the area. This entire group of people were given a new name ('Palestinians') in order to destroy rather than build.

I do not believe in respecting a culture, nor a nation-- which are only conglomerates of ideas and individuals, respectively, but in respecting individuals and ideas themselves. I respect an individual and an idea by granting them the consequences which naturally attach to them, and add compassion by trying to minimize the distressing consequences. Whether an individual or an idea comes from an Islamic, a Christian, a Jewish, an aetheist, or even a Raelian (!) origin is not of much importance. Nor is it important if the individual or idea is Russian, American, Indonesian, or from the intriguing nation of Tonga. Individuals are evaluated on the basis of what they do, ideas on the basis of what they mean, what they lead to, how adequately they apprehend reality, honor God and honor human beings.

Anyway, I did appreciate this one sentence from Issa,
"Whoever says that Israelis have no right to live is the enemy of Allah for you can’t determine life of anything you can’t create."

I sincerely hope that this is more than words, and that the huge numbers of Muslims who cry 'death to Israel' will repent.

[hermesten]

Mark Twain said this about Christianity over 100 years ago, but in general terms --especially the "in spite of" part-- it applies to all religion:

"The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive...but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born."

[Hasan Kalair Ashraf]

Hasan Ashraf Kalair, Born on 10th March 1982 in a small village, Kot Jnayat Khan The. Wazairabad and Disst Gujranwala Punjab Pakistan.

He attended basic education from his village then went to Ghakkhar mandi
He later joined college where he was awarded a Diploma in Civil Engineering at the government College of technology of rasul, which is the biggest college in asia.

Check out this guy's full profile on www.hasan.aishagroupltd.com

Anyway my point is we will prove the world that Islam is not about terrosim. islam is a peaceful religion which which puts humanity first.

[krulayar]

ALLAH THE ALMIGHTY IS ALREADY ON EARTH !!!

The sigh of His arrival: A face in the sky video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_OAauYfPwE

For details:
Please stop in http://manaalmahdi.wordpress.com
Please refer to someone incharge fitted whatever doctrine you are.
This is an exceptionally distinguished essence fitted all mankind.

Thanks,
Krulayar