In Western nations it has not been usual to publicly criticise religious
groups or religious practices unless they pose an immediate threat to
human rights or infringe the law.
This has been (correctly) justified because of the desire to foster
tolerance of cultural diversity.
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Democracy Index as published in January, 2007.
The palest blue countries get a score above 9.5 out of 10 (with Sweden
being the most democratic country at 9.88), while the black countries score
below 2 (with North Korea being the least democratic at 1.03).
From Wikipedia
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Note that Muslim nations generally score poorly.
(North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and the Middle East are
predominantly Muslim.)
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Failings of Muslim nations, May 2014
Polio has been eradicated in most nations of the world, but not in the
Muslim nations of Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan.
Girls are being sold and denied education in Nigeria, by Muslims.
The Muslim group, the Taliban, would deny women education in Afghanistan if
they could.
Most of the world's refugees are either Muslims or are
escaping nations that are dominated by Islam.
In both cases most of them are
victims of Islam.
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More information on Islam
In July 2014 Peter Townsend sent me a copy of his book,
Questioning Islam to review.
It is far more extensive than this page and covers all aspects of Islam.
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However, I believe that the threat posed to democracy, to
traditional freedoms, and to the ideal of a well informed and rational society by the rise of the modern, very intolerant, form of Islam being seen in a number of countries is so great that it must be openly discussed.
I should stress that this threat is not immediate, it is long-term; as with
climate change, I will probably not live to
see the worst of the damage.
What will happen to our work in fostering cultural diversity and freedom of expression if it results in a group of intolerant religious fundamentalists coming to power and forcing everyone to live by their prejudices?
(Karl Popper called this problem the paradox of democracy.)
The justified concern about a religion that contains as much
cruelty and intolerance as does Islam is very different to the racism and
xenophobia with which it is often naïvely confused.
The fact that most Muslims are very nice people and do not practice or
advocate the nasty bits of Islam (such as cutting of the hand of a thief,
Koran, 5.38) is to a large extent irrelevant;
this page is more about Islam itself, and some of the discriminatory and
cruel cultural practices that come with Islam, than it is about Muslims.
I live in a predominantly and traditionally Christian nation.
If the Christian delusion was on the rise like Islam, it would be a similar
threat to a rational society; fortunately it is moribund except for some
weird sects; they will come and go.
While the original form of Christianity, as taught by Jesus, seems to have
been tolerant and relatively benevolent, its practice
became very corrupt and cruel; consider the empire-building
of some of the Popes, the selling of indulgences and bishoprics, the
burnings and torturing of heretics (one man's heretic is another man's true
believer), and the bloody wars of the Reformation.
On the other hand, the original form of Islam was cruel, intolerant and
hateful, consider amputation as punishments for theft, stoning as
punishment for adultery, and execution as punishment for apostasy.
It may or may not be that these were adopted into Islam from the Old
Testament, but the fact remains that they were accepted by Islam.
Over the centuries most Muslim communities tempered the
cruelty of the original Islam.
I need to say that Middle Eastern Muslim nations, because of their oil
reserves, have had to suffer a high level of interference from the
USA, the UK and the West generally in recent (pre-Obama) years.
The USA has also been very one-sided in its support for Israel, no matter what the excesses of that nation in its struggle agains Muslim terrorists.
(Israel is fighting for its life, but does this excuse war crimes such as the dropping of many thousands of cluster bombs in southern Lebanon?)
The recent rise of Islamic terrorism aimed at the USA must at least partly be due to the Muslim perception of US imperialism.
In the other direction, the degree of the threat posed to the USA, in
particular, by
terrorism has been exaggerated for political purposes.
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At least some Muslims hold that any man can murder another man if a fatwa has been placed on that man.
How totally against all modern concepts of justice!
And it must be remembered that there is no formal hierarchy in Islam;
who can legitimately place a fatwa?
Anyone?
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In terms of adherents I believe that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West.
Muslims have more children than most other citizens of Western nations.
If current trends continue, several Western nations will be numerically dominated by Muslims within a matter of decades.
Overpopulation is one of the world's greatest problem.
All other factors being equal, the
climate
change problem would be halved if there were half as many people on the planet.
The last thing needed if we are to control greenhouse/climate change is more people.
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Why is it that the Islamic world has had so little to do with science and learning?
The relatively advanced state of scientific learning in the Islamic world in what has been called the Islamic Golden Age (c. 750 CE – c. 1258 CE) is well known, but even then Islamic scholars were more involved in preserving the science of the ancients and incorporating Indian science than they were in developing new learning.
And following 1258, science was little practised in the Islamic world.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk forced Turkey to move away from Islamic-influenced government and toward adoption of modern ways following World War I, but unfortunately at the time of writing Turkey seems to be moving back toward bigotry.
It seems that science and Islam are largely incompatible.
What does this mean for a world where the Muslim fraction of the populations of many nations is quickly increasing?
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Eurobarometer conducted a survey of beliefs in European states (including Turkey, the only predominantly Muslim state included) in 2005.
One of the propositions was 'human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals'.
Only 27% of Turks answered 'true'; Cyprus (with a large Muslim population) gave the second lowest response at 46%.
The lowest of the other European states was Lithuania at 49%.
This suggests an abysmal level of ignorance of science with a
correspondingly high belief in superstitious humbug among
Muslims, even in a relatively secular state such as Turkey.
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I believe that the Koran also holds that Muslims must place
'God's Law' above the laws of states.
I suspect that if Islam was recently invented and had only a few adherents it would be banned as a terrorist or subversive organisation for reasons such as these.
With all the resource and environmental threats facing the world at present there is a greater than ever need for rational government, but this becomes less likely in any nations dominated by a dogmatic religious group or groups, perhaps Muslims more than others.
Some Muslims would have us believe that it is only a few pockets of
fundamentalists (takfeeris?) in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are the problem.
That this is not the case was shown by the riots that broke out in many countries following a Danish newspaper publishing cartoons featuring Mohammed a few years ago.
If the problem were confined to a minority of people espousing a warped view of Islam, then why do we hear so few main-stream Muslims criticising the extremists and the embassy burners?
What to do about the threat?
Violence is not any part of the answer.
Perhaps the current rise of fundamentalist Islam will prove to be a temporary thing, perhaps Western Muslims will prove to be more tolerant and open minded than their Middle Eastern brethren?
Education must be a part of the answer, but with so much entrenched and irrational Christian belief and acceptance of superstitious nonsense in most Western nations, trying to establish a fully rational education system for Muslims will be a challenge.
Think about it:
“I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true. I must, of course, admit that if such an opinion became common it would completely transform our social life and our political system; since both are at present faultless, this must weigh against it."
Bertrand Russell, Skeptical Essays, I (1928)
There are no grounds whatever for supposing that there is any truth in any religion.
Muslims are the greatest victims of Islam.
They have been taken in by the great confidence trick that demands they give up so much and promises them eternal bliss, but in the end will give them nothing.
Muslims should not be thought of as, in any way enemies of non-Muslims,
but rather as innocent dupes of this great deception.
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Christianity's victims
As Muslims are the greatest victims of Islam, so Christians are the greatest victims of Christianity and many others the greatest victims of their own personal delusion; but the degree to which Islam twists and controls the lives of Muslims seems greater than is the case in most other religions.
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Muslims are expected to devote their life to their religion, to prey five times a day, every day (and no doubt to feel guilty and to fear damnation if they fail to do so).
They are told they must not question Islam; consider how much confusion, doubt
and guilt this must lead to.
If a Muslim does not understand something about Islam he would feel that he is committing a sin if he asks someone a question that has some appearance of doubting the truth of Islamic teaching.
Even worse is in any way criticising Islam; not only is this seen as a
terrible sin, but in some Islam-dominated countries, it is a very
serious criminal offence.
(Is this why so few Muslims are willing to criticise Islamic terrorists
and embassy burners?)
Muslim women are not able to take part in many sports because of the dress code that they feel forced to accept, and Muslim girls are denied the right to behave like other children.
Islam teaches that Allah created everything including Man; so they are not free to accept the truth of that great pillar of science that is
organic evolution.
Indeed, any science that can be interpreted as contradicting the Koran
must be disregarded.
If they are to follow Islam faithfully they must not either produce or
indulge in art that depicts any living thing.
They must not drink anything alcoholic, nor eat pork or bacon.
Above all, a Muslim believes that if he gives up his religion he risks
eternal torment in the next world, and he knows that Muslims in the real world will feel justified by religious law in killing him as punishment for his apostate state.
Nations dominated by Muslims often have poor records for freedom of speech, freedom of religious practice, women's rights, rights in general, and democratic government.
Nations with an Islamic majority often oppress their minorities.
They seem only too willing to force their non-Muslim minorities to live by the rules of Islam.
Islam forbids Muslims to use alcohol and Indonesian Muslims in positions of power have made some attempts to ban alcohol, even in Bali.
The Balinese are predominantly Hindu and have no prohibition of alcohol; most of the tourists who visit Bali are non-Muslim.
Of course the Balinese (Hindu and others) are financially suffering from the downturn in tourism caused first several years ago by Islamic terrorist bombings and now by the reduction in availability of alcohol.
Some Muslim nations consider changing from Islam to another religion a
capital crime.
I believe the Koran says that anyone who changes from Islam should be killed.
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Click here to see one of dipictions
of Mohammed published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten.
Click 'back' to return to this page.
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The burning of embassies in 2005 following the publishing of cartoons depicting Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is an example of Muslims attempting to force their prejudices on the whole world.
Freedom of the press is an aspect of freedom of speech.
(Interestingly, depicting Mohammed in publications has been quite acceptable in a number of Muslim nations in past times; religious dogma, like so many things, evolves.)
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This man (his face has been obscured to make him unrecognisable) was
photographing his wife in these gardens!
They may have been newly married.
Of course newly married men like to photograph their wives when on the
honeymoon; but what would be the point when the wife is dressed like this?
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The majority of those nations that treat their women
as second class citizens, particularly denying them a full education and
employment opportunities, are Muslim.
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When the statement
"If men are not in charge of women, women will lose sight of all human values and the family will disintegrate"
was put to representative groups of people in six Islam-majority countries, the people of four of those countries either agreed or strongly agreed.
For more detail see
elsewhere on this page.
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In some Muslim nations women are treated almost as slaves, being allowed
very limited movement in public; even to the point of never being allowed
to go into public places except when accompanied by a male relative.
This should not be accepted as just 'religious or cultural tradition', it is
just as wrong and unethical as was slavery in the seventeenth century
New World.
It is especially abhorrent because it is justified by no more than a belief
system based on myths and delusions.
Where women have to follow the stricter version of the Muslim dress code
they have very limited participation in sports.
Consider, for example, how a woman in a burka would go in a swimming race!
Not only sports, but a great many outdoor activities must be made almost
impossible for a woman in a burka; consider cycling and bushwalking.
Nonie Darwish, in Cruel and Usual Punishment, a critique of Sharia,
listed the following quotes from the Hadiths (Muslim records of the life of
The Prophet) regarding the Islamic view of women:
- According to Mohammed, '...I looked at the (hell) Fire and saw that the
majority of its residents were women.
- People ruled by a woman will never be successful.
- A woman advances and retires in the shape of a devil; so when one of
you sees a woman, he should come to his wife and have intercourse with her.
- Women are more harmful to men than anything.
- The husband may forbid his wife to leave the home.
- If the husband's body is covered with pus and blood and if the wife lick
and drink it, still her obligation to her husband will not be fulfilled.
- Women are domestic animals; beat them.
- Women are half devils.
- A woman has a crooked character, similar to the man's rib that she was
created from.
The woman is like a rib; if you try to straighten her, she will break.
So if you want to get benefit from her, do so while she still has some
crookedness.
- Ghaqali said: 'If you relax the woman's bridle a tiny bit, she will take
you and bolt wildly.
And if you lower her cheek-piece a hand span, she will pull you and arm's
length...
Their deception is awesome and their wickedness is contagious; bad
characters and feeble mind are their predominant traits.'
Mohammed said: 'The likeness of a virtuous woman amongst women is like
a red beaked crow among a hundred crows.'
Can this view of women be acceptable to any open-minded and reasonable
person in the modern world?
Recent research has shown that many people in temperate regions are
suffering from diseases associated with an insufficient supply of
vitamin D.
Vitamin D is naturally produced by the skin when exposed to sunlight.
With the spread of Islam to parts of the world with less sunshine than the
traditionally Muslim counties, and the
apparent trend toward total body covering by Muslim women, vitamin D
deficiency problems will increase.
The woman in the photo above would be at high risk of vitamin D
deficiency-related diseases even in tropical countries if she always
dresses like that when in the open.
According to Cruel and Usual Punishment, a critique of Sharia written by
Nonie Darwish, adoption "was forbiden by Mohammed after he married the wife
of his adoptive son who was required to divorce her so the prophet could
marry her.
In effect it could be claimed that he was marrying his daughter-in-law,
so adoption in Islam was thus made illegal after this incident."
One wonders how many other of the laws in Sharia were made for Mohammed's
personal convenience.
Early in the period when Mohammed was establishing Islam he was friendly
with Jewish tribes, forging alliances with the Jewish tribes of Medina
and even instructing his followers to prey facing Jerusalem.
It was only later, when the Jews refused to take up Islam, that he turned
against the Jews.
For a man who was supposedly taking instructions from an infallible god,
this seems a remarkable about-face.
Mohammed married Aisha, the wife who was to become his favourite, when she
was six years old.
He consummated the marriage when she was nine.
It is largely for the reason that Muslims hold that Mohammed was of exemplary
character that Muslim nations have found it difficult to pass laws making
the age of consent as high as sixteen; which is common in Western Nations.
For a Muslim nation to make sex with a girl under sixteen a criminal offence
would be to say that Mohammed was a child abuser and a criminal.
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Blasphemy
Of course if I was to publish this page in a nation having Sharia law I
could find my life in danger.
Any criticism of Islam, and particularly of Mohammed, is regarded as a
serious, even a capital, crime under Sharia.
Islam holds people by fear.
Critical examination is the greatest enemy of Islam.
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Few religions welcome criticism and doubt; to criticise Christian teachings in Europe between about 500AD and 1500AD would have been
dangerous; but for a Muslim to criticise Islam is to risk being accused of blasphemy, and the punishment for blasphemy, in all the Sharia schools, is death.
The Koran itself orders Muslims to never ask questions:
"O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble...
Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith."
(Koran 5:101-102)
Remember that for a Muslim to loose his/her faith is to deserve being punished by death, but how could anyone expect to learn about Islam, or anything else, without asking questions?
Perhaps this is why we hear so few Muslim voices raised against Muslim acts of terrorism and the embassy burnings following the Mohammed cartoon affair.
Islam is a threat to some of humanity's most beautiful creations, that is, art; just as
climate change is a threat to the beautiful creations of nature.
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A traditional Chinese painting on a marble slab in front of a hotel in Georgetown, Malaysia.
Malaysia is a predominantly Muslim nation, but is so far, in most places, tolerant of diverse beliefs.
As this painting depicts birds it is not acceptable to strict Muslims.
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Quote from Wikipedia, 2016/09/23
"Typically, though not entirely, Islamic art has focused on the depiction of
patterns, whether purely geometric or floral, and Arabic calligraphy, rather
than on figures, because it is feared by many Muslims that the depiction of
the human form is idolatry and thereby a sin against God, forbidden in the
Qur'an."
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Art in any nation dominated by fundamentalist Muslims is very constrained.
Islam bans the depiction of any living thing and so the traditional Islamic art of the Middle East and North Africa consists only of geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy; it can be beautiful, but it is very, very, limited.
It is not only the visual arts that are put at risk by the rise of Islam, the performing arts are held to be questionable, even despised and banned by some Islamic regimes.
Quoting from Wikipedia:
"The relationship between Islam and music has long been a complex and controversial matter. Many Muslims believe that the Quran and Sunnah prohibit music (instruments and singing); however other Muslims disagree and believe that some forms of music are permitted."
Note: "some forms of music".
Many people, myself included, would consider art as one of the greatest of the modern world's cultural heritages; after science, perhaps the best and most noble aspect of modern civilisation is the body of art that has been built up over the last few thousand years; consider the music of Handel, Bach and Beethoven.
All of this would be put at risk if Islam ever came to dominate world culture.
Consider what would become of the wonderful art of Western nations should intolerant Muslims such as those of Taliban Afghanistan ever come to power.
It is worth noting here that Christianity has had periods when 'profane' art was unacceptable and even actively destroyed, however, I know of no religion as intolerant of artistic expression as is Islam.
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This section added
2024/09/25
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How can Islam, a religion that tries to hide women’s beauty, and, in a strict interpretation, does not allow the depiction of a living thing, ever be at one with the beauty of our world?
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
John Keats, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’.
(The Grecian Urn would probably depict human figures, and so would be anathema to strict muslims. See Islam and art, elsewhere on this page).
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These photos show several of the animal benches at
Kek Lok Si Buddhist temple in Georgetown, Malaysia.
Buddhism is a positive and happy religion, as these benches suggest.
Don't look for any humour or joy in connection with Islam; but the photos
have another link with the subject of this page – Islamic
writings speak of non-Muslims as apes or pigs.
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Allah will help Muslims find and kill all Jews: (from the Sahih Bukhari
Hadith – via Cruel and Usual Punishment, p166)
"The Hour Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight
the Jews, and kill them.
And the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree
will say: oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, this is a Jew behind me, come
and kill him!"
The duty of Muslim men toward non-Muslims (from Cruel and Usual Punishment
quoting the Koran – different translations of the Koran differ
somewhat):
- Your Lord inspired the angels with the message: 'I will terrorise the
unbelievers.
Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them.
Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes.'
(Koran 8:12)
- Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them
captive, torture them, lie in wait and ambush them using every
stratagem of war. (Koran 9:5)
Under Sharia, apostates (those who have given up Islam) are treated
very badly (from Cruel and Usual Punishment, p169):
- Apostates are to be given three days to repent and return to Islam.
If they refuse, they may be immediately killed.
All Sharia books agree unanimously on this point.
- It is obligatory for the caliph (Muslim leader of the nation) to ask
the apostate to repent and return to Islam.
If he refuses he may be immediately killed.
- There is no penalty for killing an apostate (nor is any expiation
required), since it is killing someone who deserves to die.
- Testimony of apostates is not admissible.
- An apostate does not inherit from Muslim parents.
- Marriage of an apostate is immediately dissolved if the spouse is
and remains Muslim.
It is interesting in the above that, while sharia pronounces the death
penalty for apostacy, yet there are other laws that relate to living
apostates.
It seems that the general Muslim population are less willing to kill than
the writers of Sharia were to write death penalties into law.
Also see
Appenix A.
(From Cruel and Usual Punishment).
"If a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the latter has
to pay blood money or compensation, as follows:
- 100 000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man.
- 50 000 riyals if a Muslim woman.
- 50 000 riyals if a Christian man.
- 25 000 riyals if a Christian woman.
- 6 666 riyals if a Hindu man.
- 3 333 riyals if a Hindu woman."
As noted above, if the person killed is an apostate, then no blood money
need be paid.
Other religions must be kept out of Islamic nations, Islam must be
forced on other peoples
Cruel and Usual Punishments
lists the duties of a caliph (Muslim leader of a Muslim nation):
- To safeguard Islam in its original form, and to protect against the
introduction of new things into Islam;
- To defend the rights of Muslims abroad, and to see to it that Islam
can spread freely in non-Muslim lands (including the use of force);
- To organise jihad against any non-Muslim government that prevents
Muslim dawa (proselytizers) from entering the land.
Is it any wonder that
Islamic nations are
backward, considering the first point above?
I should also say a bit in favour of Islamic tolerance.
For much of the life of the predominantly Islamic Ottoman empire, it was
highly tolerant of minority religions.
The largest Islamic nation on Earth, Indonesia, is religiously tolerant and treats its women with equality.
It also should be said that the Christian delusion – the primary religion of Western nations – has a long history of a lack of tolerance for, not only atheism and other religions, but anyone who wanted to stray a little from main-stream Christianity.
Islam is certainly not the only religion that has at least gone through
phases of shocking intolerance, neither is it universally intolerant
today.
In Gaza the Hamas group take Islam to what most people would think of as
an extreme; they are so out of touch with reality that they continually
provoke Israel into bombing them and have so alienated Western nations that
much of the aid that they have relied on to survive has been cut off.
However, even Hamas, who are more extreme than the Fata group whom they
replaced, are not 'Islamic' enough for a new group, the 'Soldiers of God'
or 'Warriors of God'.
Surely more main-stream Muslims must be seeing that this, and the corrupt
Islamic republic of Iran, are
demonstrating that a state run on 'Islamic principles' is unworkable?
I am hopeful of a gradual reaction against extremist Islam and a return
to something closer to rationality in the Islamic nations.
The term 'Islamic republic' is an oxymoron.
A state cannot be both run under the domination of Islamic clerics –
such as happens in Iran – and be a republic.
A republic is a state that is run by a government elected freely and
democratically by the people of the nation; in a state such as Iran
political candidates must first be acceptable to the unelected clerics who
are in charge.
The rigged Iranian election of 2009 demonstrated the corruption that
arrises in such a contradictory situation.
The ruling clerics wanted both to make the state look democratic to the
people and to the outside world and yet to have the party they favoured
'elected' to government.
In August 2009 we heard claims that those who demonstrated in objection to
the rigged election and later 'died in custody' were actually tortured to
death.
An Islamic state is, almost by definition, barbaric, because it is based on
laws that date back to a barbaric period in the history of Arabia.
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Turks suffer from the ignorance about organic evolution that goes with Islam.
A larger proportion of Turks believe creationism than citizens of any
European nation.
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Those nations that are dominated by Islam are frequently backward in things like education (particularly of females), freedoms, democracy, and economic development.
As mention under
'On the other hand', some secular nations having an Islamic majority, for example Indonesia and Turkey, are relatively progressive, but many of those nations whose governments are dominated by the Islamic delusion, such as Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran have very poor records for personal freedoms, democratic government, and cultural development.
The backwardness seems almost directly proportional to the relative
dominance of Islam.
Need for research
Is there a statistical link between the dominance of Islam in a nation
and its economic weakness?
Does the dominance of Islam in a nation correspond to low rates of
economic growth?
I don't know.
If there is a statistical link between Islam and either weak or slow growth
in a nation's economy, then we need to ask why?
The suppression of women's rights would seem to be a likely factor.
How can any nation achieve its full potential while keeping half its
population as virtual slaves and in ignorance?
If a nation concentrates on giving children an Islamic education rather
than a free-thinking education strong in science then cultural and
economic growth are likely to suffer.
(Just as education in the USA is suffering where education is based on
Christian fundamentalism rather than free and critical thinking.)
Also see below; Does Islam or
Sharia make a state more likely to fail?
Does Islam export misery?
Does Islam or Sharia make a state more likely to fail?
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The countries of the world at greatest risk of failing
Ranked from most to less likely
See text on left for data sources
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| Country | Predominant religions
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| Somalia | Islam
| | Sudan | Islam, traditional African religions, some Christianity
| | Zimbabwe | Traditional African and Christianity
| | Chad | 50% Islam, 27% traditional African, 23% Christian
| | Iraq | Islam, minor Yezidi (practiced by some Kurds), minor
Christianity
| | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Mostly Christian, significant
Muslim minority
| | Afghanistan | Islam 99%
| | Ivory Coast | Most traditional African, 23% Islam, 12% Christian
| | Pakistan | Islam 97%
| | Central African Republic | Christian about half, traditional
African 24%, Islam 15%
| | Guinea | 65% Muslim, 33% traditional African, 2% Christian
| | Bangladesh | 83% Muslim, 16% Hindu, Buddhist and Christian minorities
| | Burma (Myanmar) | Predominantly Buddhist, Christian and
Muslim minorities
| | Haiti | Voodoo and Christianity
| | North Korea | Unknown
| | Ethiopia | About 40% Muslim, 40% Christian, remainder local religions
| | Uganda | 62% Christian, 19% traditional, 15% Muslim
| | Lebanon | 55% Islam, most of the remainder are Christian
| | Nigeria | Islam and Christianity, some traditional African
| | Sri Lanka | 70% Buddhist, 15% Hindu, 8% each Muslim and Christian
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About one in six of the people of the world are Muslims.
It can be seen from the above table that large Muslim populations are
strongly correlated with increased likelihood of failure of government.
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In a notoriously over-populated world, Muslims are encouraged by their
religion to have large families – it helps to spread the disease.
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Every year the Fund for Peace and the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace jointly analyse and score countries on twelve social, economic,
political and military indicators of national well-being.
On the right, ranked from worst to better according to their combined scores
in 2007, are the 20 countries in the world that are closest to collapse.
The religions of the peoples of the countries were taken from the New
Internationalist World Guide 2003/04.
Nine of the twenty countries listed
have Muslim majorities (four of the five most likely to
fail), seven others have significant Muslim minorities.
Twelve of the most unstable 13 have at least a significant Muslim minority.
Of course this does not prove that Islam is the problem, but it is
suggestive.
(Is Robert Magarbi as much a liability to Zimbabwe as Islam is to the other
nations on the list?)
Many European nations have minorities made up of Muslims who largely arrived
as refugees, or whose parents or grand parents were refugees.
At least some in these Muslim minority peoples are now pressing their
adopted countries for the right to live under Sharia.
Many, it seems, are opposed to the free speech that is traditional in
their countries of residence, as demonstrated by the
Mohammed Cartoon affair.
Of great concern to the ethnic Europeans of course, is that if the
Muslims ever obtain the political ascendency (and demographically it seems
that they will eventually do so, as their fertility rate is much higher
than that of the ethnic Europeans) they, the Muslims, will impose Sharia
on all residents.
It seems like life under Sharia in the countries of origin has made
the people miserable enough to seek refuge in non-Muslim counties, and
then the Islamic delusion has influenced the later generations – who
didn't experience the misery of actually living under Sharia in the
countries of origin – to
again take up the cause of the misery.
Is Islam and Sharia spreading like a
pandemic?
As I write this section (mid June 2009) Iranian refugees living in
Australia are
marching in sympathy to the Iranians protesting in the home-land over the
recent and apparently rigged election there.
The TV coverage of the Australian marches shows women wearing the traditional
Muslim head covering – labelling them as members of the same religion
that is the cause of the problems in Iran!
In early 2010 Churches in Malaysia were being vandalised because Malaysian
Muslims object to the Christians calling God Allah.
This seems remarkably intolerant and simply
ignorant.
Apparently the Muslims concerned do not realise that the God of the
Christians is their God.
In Arab nations Christian call their god Allah; Allah simply means God.
The main difference between Islam and Christianity is that in addition to
Jesus
and the prophets of the Old Testament, Muslims believe that the last and
principal prophet was Mohamed.
The God of Jews, Christians and Muslims is the same; the differences between
the religions are in the other bits.
I suppose it is futile to expect
religious people to behave
rationally.
Until the second decade of this millennium Indonesia has provided an example of
religious tolerance in a nation with very mixed religions.
While there are more Indonesians who identify as Muslims than with any other
religion there are substantial minorities of Christians, Hindus and other
(or no) religions.
Of great concern to non-Muslims must be the
sentencing of the Christian governor of Jakarta to two years jail for
blasphemy.
His specific crime: he said that clerics had used a Koranic verse to mislead
voters by telling them that Muslims were not allowed to vote for a Christian.
This is clearly a miscarriage of justice motivated by religiously-based
xenophobia.
This is the title of a book written by Riaz Hassan.
It is based around a study that involved interviewing around 6000 Muslim
respondents in Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Iran and
turkey.
It is a large and very detailed book.
I cannot possibly do justice to it in a few paragraphs, but I will pick out
a few points that I feel justifies my title for this page, "Islam's
threat to freedom and a rational society".
The table below shows the results from three of what I feel are the
more revealing questions of the total of 20 used in the interviews.
| Proposition | Level of agreement
|
|---|
| Global | Egypt | Indonesia | Iran | Kazakhstan | Malaysia
| Pakistan | Turkey
|
|---|
| Islamic laws about apostasy should be strictly enforced in Muslim
countries | Strong | Very strong | Strong | Strong | Strong | Very
strong | Very strong | Disagree
|
| Strict enforcement of punishment under Islamic law such as amputation
of limbs for theft will significantly reduce crime | Strong | Very strong
| Strong | Strong | Strong | Very strong | Very strong | Disagree
|
| If men are not in charge of women, women will lose sight of all
human values and the family will disintegrate | Strong | Very strong
| Strong | Disagree | Not asked | Strong | Strong | Disagree
|
As mentioned elsewhere, apostasy is punishable by death under Islam.
(See
"Apostates should be killed", a
section on this page, and
Appendix A, also on this page, quoted from Islam
Questions and Answer, on the Internet.)
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| Red stringybark trees suffering from exceptional heat and drought
near my home.
|
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| Climate change will increase the frequency and severity of
periods of record heat and drought.
More information on
another page on this site.
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There are many environmental threats to our shared world in the early
twenty-first century.
If we are to combat these threats we must all take serious action.
Surely we have a duty to protect the planet for the sake of future generations,
including our children and grand-children.
Islam distracts Muslims from the threats that are damaging the real world.
It imposes many distractions on them, causing them to waste their time when
any sane world-view would encourage them to use it to help protect our shared
home.
Unnecessary environmental noise is very annoying.
In predominantly, or even substantially, Muslim areas such as northern Bali and Lombok, loud and unpleasant calls to prayer are broadcast from mosques five times a day.
(If they were, as Mohammed stipulated, simply in the natural voice of the muezzin, they would be little problem, but with modern electronic amplification they are very unpleasant, at least to non-Muslims.)
Muslims subject non-Muslims to this five times a day, every day; starting in the early morning and finishing around sun-set.
It would be interesting to compare this imposition on the natural right to a quiet environment to the much lower levels of
wind turbine noise and the level of complaint to that, at least among those who object to nearby turbines. And then there is the unnecessary noise from the excessive use of vehicle horns in some parts of the world and from
modified exhaust systems in other places.
Several predominantly Muslim nations and states have at least seriously considered enforcing sharia, Islamic law, which includes barbaric punishments such as death by stoning (for adultery and homosexuality among other things) and amputation of a hand (for theft).
Brunei did enact sharia in April 2019.
While these laws date from the Christian Old Testament, which is the Jewish Torah (or is it Talmud?), no predominantly Christian or Jewish nations would remotely consider bringing them into their modern legal systems.
What is it specifically about Islam that can cause people to behave in terribly cruel ways?
Barry Jones wrote in his book What is to be Done? on the fundamentalist revival of Islam. Quoting him:
The characteristics and beliefs of Islamic fundamentalism include the following:
- an insistence on rule by theocracy and the inerrancy of scripture;
- dogmatism and inability to comprehend differing points of view;
- hostility to science and scientific method;
- belief in miracles;
- belief that the creation of the Earth was relatively recent, humans have not changed since their creation, and the theory of evolution is wrong;
- rejection of evidence-based decision-making;
- hostility to modernity;
- resistance to feminism and the changing roles of women;
- hierarchy and paternalism;
- homophobia;
- self-definition as 'fighters', and cultivation of a siege mentality;
- constant need to have enemies, to provided the rationale for forceful action;
- dismissal of United Nations and international opinion, including disregard for UNESCO World Heritage sites;
- suppression of dissent, including punishing critics or whistleblowers;
- readiness to act outside the rule of law, and to assume that 'the end justifies the means';
- assertion of simple explanations for complex problems; and
- deep suspicion of 'the Other'.
I can recommend Barry's book. It is an excellent critique of how the modern world is moving away from Enlightenment in many ways, religious fundamentalism being only one of them.
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This section added
2023/04/08
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Several Muslim majority countries have terrible human rights records, several that come to mind, particularly in regard to women's rights are, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan.
World Population Review lists the 10 countries with the lowest human freedom indices as (worst on top):
- Syria
- Venezuela
- Yemen
- Sudan
- Egypt
- Iran
- Somalia
- Burundi
- Iraq
- Libya
Of these, only Venezuela and Burundi do not have Muslim majorities.
The same organisation gives a somewhat similar ranking for the 10 countries with the least gender equality, again, worst on top:
- Afghanistan
- Yemen
- Iraq
- Pakistan
- Syria
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Iran
- Mali
- Chad
- Saudi Arabia
Of these the Democratic Republic of Congo is the only non-Muslim majority country.
The Global Economy gives a different ranking to that of World Population Review for human rights, again, worst on top:
- Yemen
- Iran
- China
- Egypt
- Central African Republic
- Syria
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- North Korea
- Burma
- Sudan
China, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea and Burma are not Muslim majority.
Also see Wikipedia, Human rights in Muslim-majority countries.
A somewhat related article was published in Global Issues, by Karlos Zurutuza (Hamburg, Germany); Friday, April 07, 2023; Inter Press Service. It was titled "Journalists in Balochistan: Keep Quiet or Die". Balochistan (or Baluchistan) was forcibly annexed by Pakistan in 1948.
