A. Rashied Omar Quotes
We must not become weary from stating unequivocally that acts of wanton violence and barbarism are contrary to the teachings of Islam. In Islamic ethics, the end does not justify the means. Religious extremism has no virtue in Islam and has been unequivocally condemned by the Prophet of Islam. He is reported in a tradition to have declared thrice, “The extremists shall perish.” For contemporary Muslims this means to acknowledge, no matter how painful it is, that we do have extremists (mutatarrifin) within our ranks. This is off course not unique to Islam. What is peculiar to Islam is that extremists appear to have a disproportionate influence within the house of Islam, not least because of the proclivity of the media for sensationalization.
A. Rashied Omar, American Islamic Imam, The Social Message of ‘Id Al-Adha, Muslim Peace Fellowship, March 2005
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
She had been covering Muslim nations and leaders for a long time and saw the relationship between the contemporary domination of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism long before most.
Son of Reverend Billy Graham. While parts of the Koran do preach violence, parts of the Old Testament also do, as do parts of the New Testament such as the Book of Revelations.
The reason he claimed that Governor Taseer was a blasphemer was that the governor opposed death penalty for saying or writing anything that was heresy or blasphemy as interpreted be fundamentalist Muslims. The Governor knew he was taking a risk. See {620970} .
Essentially, he is advocating a reformation of the Islamic religion, much like that which has taken place in Christianity and Judaism. However, while most Muslims of the world are not extreme fundamentalists, most of the existing clerics (as did their Christian and Jewish counterparts years ago) turn any attempt at reform into blasphemy and sin. Throughout much of the Islamic world, Muslims who argue publicly for reform are at risk for their lives as the existing Muslim clerics generally encourage attacks on reforms or turn a blind eye to efforts to suppress reform.
This threat of massacre by the Arabs backfired in that the Israelis had no other alternative but to fight and win or else die. It also gained them a great deal of world sympathy and revulsion at the Arab call for massacre. See related quotes for another of the many examples.
She was born a Muslim herself and her life has been threatened by other, Muslims who are fundamentalists who are living proof or her point.
The journalist and author, one of the most influential Italian journalists and intellectuals, was then dying of cancer and came out of retirement to warn about the great threat that she believed that Islam was for the West. See {587753} for her earlier warning. While at the surface, she appears to be a very bigoted individual, her main concern about Islam in general and for European immigration in particular had an intellectual and sophisticated base. Specificly, was 1) Islam is the ONLY religion that teaches and demands the transcendence of nationalism in a world that is organized around nations. It demands a concept of Muslim land as opposed to Egyptian land or Pakistani land. 2) It is overtly sexist and requires sexism of its adherents as opposed to other religions where sexism is traditional and cultural and not as theological. 3) It is anti democratic and requires adherents to conflate religion and government. However, what Fallaci was unaware of was the reform and modernist movement within Islam who argued for a modern, democrative evolution of the religion much as what has occurred with Christianity and Judiasm and other religions.
