A Clear Choice: Liberty or Slavery

I’ve been pounding the media trails for quite a number of years now, saying the same thing to anyone who would listen: Islam is not compatible with Democracy. Those who would believe that there is some possible way to reconcile Islam with Western Civilization are deluding themselves. Unless and until Islam develops a period of “Enlightenment”, whereby it understands that a bright line must be drawn between secular law and ecumenical law and respects both, then nothing will change.

Fortunately, there ARE Muslims who also understand that 14 centuries of tradition, unfettered by progress,  leads only to stagnation and slavery. Slavery of both the body and the spirit. It is corrosive and destructive and it was not until Christianity reached a similar epiphone that the West blossomed and planted the seeds which grew into the tree of liberty. One such author is Ibn Warraq . It is a pen name used by a Pakistani author and historiographer, founder of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society (ISIS) to protect his true identity, as there are those who would kill him for simply considering such a concept as separation of church and state. To the Islamist, there can be no such division. I’ll let Ibn Warraq say it himself:

“In the West we are free to think what we want, to read what we want, to practice our religion, to live the lives of our choosing. The notion of human rights, and freedom were, I believe, there at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, and further developed during the Enlightenment…  It was the West that took steps to abolish slavery; the calls for the abolition of slavery did not resonate even in black Africa, where the rival African tribes took black prisoners in the West. By contrast, stoning to death someone for adultery is a clear violation of the human rights of the individuals concerned; punishments. Laws concerning inheritance, and the rights of women prescribed by the Sharia, Islamic law, also flagrantly violate the rights of individuals. Under Islamic law, women are not free to marry men whom they wish, homosexuals are killed, apostates are to be executed. The Koran is not a rights-respecting documenting.  We are free, in the West, to choose; we have real choice to pursue our desires; we are free to set the goals and contents of our own lives; the West is made up of individuals who are free to decide what meaning to give to their lives. In short, the glory of the West is that life is an open book, while under Islam, life is a closed book. Everything has been decided for you: God [Allah] and the Holy Law set limits on the possible agenda of your life. In many non-Western countries, especially Islamic ones, we are not free to read what we want; in Saudi Arabia, Muslims are not free to convert to Christianity and Christians are not free to practice their faith—all clear violations of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights… A [Western] culture that gave the world the spiritual creations of the classical music of Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Schubert; the paintings of Michelangelo and Raphael, and Da Vinci and Rembrandt, does not need lessons from societies whose idea of spirituality is a heaven peopled with female virgins for the use of men, whose idea of heaven resembles a cosmic brothel.”
—-Ibn Warraq.

 

One should always bear in mind that “Islam” translate as “submission”, not “peace”.  I will never submit.