Anwar Shaikh Quotes

The writer was born and brought up a Muslim and because he criticizes Islam, he has had a death fatwa issued against him much like Salman Rushdie. His prediction was one of the earliest warnings

Most Islamic fundamentalists oppose the education of girls. Malala Yousafzai as a teen ager spoke out encouraging girls to go to school. This offended some of the Taliban fundamentalist terrorist, who threatened her if she continued to speak out. When she continued, they tried to murder her. They shot her in the head, but she was airlifted for medical treatment and survived. She was the winner of the European Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and nominated for the Nobel Prize.

While critics of Islam cite this sura to show how absurd the Koran can be and contradicts what is known about the Earth’s orbit, few sophisticated, moderate Muslims believe this. However, even in the United States there are many Christians and Orthodox Jews who not only deny Evolution but also believe the Earth is 6000 years old. The basic difference is that in Islamic countries publicly critiquing such anti-scientific theological statements is rare and an individual who publicly argues against the Koran taken literally is often in danger from state or private retribution. In the West the conflict between the Bible and known science is not only publicly commented upon but in a somewhat derisive way. However, consider this: Islam is about 1500 years old. When Christianity was the same age, Galileo was tried and convicted by the Catholic Church for denying this very statement. Perhaps in another 700 years Muslims will look back with embarrassment on this as most of Christianity does.

The teaching of hatred towards other people—especially people of a different religion has a long and tragic history. The Palestinians and other Muslims did not invent or even perfect the technique which was ongoing before Islam began and reached a low point in WWII Nazi Germany. But in the modern world, most other religions and people have put a stop to the overt teaching of hatred. The Muslims alone invest large resources towards teaching hate of Americans, The West, Jews, Israel

In September of 2005 a Danish Newspaper published some political cartoons showing the hypocrisy of some Muslims who use Islam to justify murder of innocents and terrorism. Months later, in January of 2006 many in the Middle East protested vehemently and Muslim fatal riots broke out because the Prophet Muhammad's visage was depicted against Islamic tradition. Many Muslim nations started a boycott against Denmark. Many Muslim leaders claimed that insulting religion was an “abuse” of freedom of speech including those from nations which regularly publish material that is virulent against Christians and Jews

This quotation is fascinating but sad. In 1902, Aga Kahn III and other Muslim reformers gathered to improve the terrible state of Muslim education. Muslims could attend the English operated public schools which were excellent, but the Imams fought these schools as they were purely secular and not under their control. Yet the Madrassas religious schools that then existed taught by rote and only Islamic religious content—no mathematics, science, other literature, art or anything else. Much of the teaching was religiously extreme with not even modern religious content. Over a century later the Schools of Pakistan—the Islamic nation carved out of India and those of most of the Arab nations are little better and despite a century of progress, the curriculum is the same.

This quote is significant for several reasons. First, it illustrates the theological dimension of the Saudi Arabian kingdom where the Royal Family maintains its position by always accommodating and financing the Wahabi fundamentalist version of Islam. Second, it shows how difficult it is for modern science to be taught and understood in fundamentalist Islamic societies. Third, it illustrates a historically classic repressive logic: He who disagrees with the current religious orthodoxy is disagreeing with the espousers of that religion. And if the espousers are wrong, they are lying. Therefore the dissenter is accusing God and his prophets of being liars. That is blasphemy and an insult to all believers. Last, it illustrates the parallel between Islam and Christianity in development. The latter is 700 years older than Islam, and about that long ago, the Roman Catholic Church repressed Galileo for claiming that the Earth was not the center of the universe.

The Saudi Arabian Royal Family had been large financial and political supporters of the Wahabbi sect of Sunni Islam. The mullahs in turn supported the monarchy and provided religious cover, so important in Islamic countries. However, the Wahhabis took the Saudi money and set up Madrassas (Islamic Schools) throughout the kingdom and in many other countries of the world including the United States. However, the Wahhabi curriculum included extensive hateful and violence advocating materials regarding non-Muslims. After 9-11, the Royal Family realized that they were also the targets of the terrorists who ironically were recruiting many of their fighters and suicide bombers from the very Wahhabi Madrassas that the Saudis had funded. They claim that they were not previously aware of the extent of the violence taught in the Madrassas (hard to believe) but they resolved to make changes. As a first step, the examined all the texts and teaching guides of the institutions they had funded and demanded that changes be made. (However, they had little influence on those Madrassas outside the kingdom that were not dependent on current Saudi money such as many of the schools in Pakistan and The West Bank and Gaza. These did not change and continued to produce terrorists.). al-Faisal however showed that the Saudi’s were now serious about reform of the teaching by going a large step further, and focusing on the teachers. Saudi Arabia began a program to vet all the teachers, imams and other clerics, a step that was a remarkable reversal from the situation on 9-11.

Many of the difficulties been Islam and the West can be traced to a huge gulf in what constitutes a proper education. In this case, the Indian Governor General was explaining to Queen Victoria that while the Hindus in India were getting very well educated and were qualified for many government administrative positions, the Muslims were not. See {630719}. Even in modern times most colleges and universities in Islamic nations are highly focused on religion to the expense of mathematics, the sciences, and non Islamic literature.

Legal Religious Ruling. This is an example of a source of tension between some Muslims and others. Non-Muslims are required to have a Muslim Education in Muslim countries, but they insist that any required Christian or secular education in a non Muslim country is anti-Islamic.

She was referring to Malala, a young Pakistani girl who was shot and badly wounded in an assassination attempt. She had publicly advocated girls attendance at school—a practice banned by the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban.

This is only one of many anti-American and anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic passages in the text. It is typical of much of the Wahhabi literature which also supports jihad and violence. Much of the funding for the Wahabbi comes from the Saudi Arabian Government and members of the Saudi Royal Family. There is total censorship in Saudi Arabia and nothing gets preached or printed if the Saudi government wishes otherwise. However, most of the imams in Saudi Arabia are Wahhabi and are paid by the government. The Royal Family’s only fear of losing power is if the Islamic clerics claim that the government is not supportive of Islam. They spend much money to buy their lack of opposition to the monarchy. The government position however is contrary to these hate-filled textbooks.