Reactions to Khan's Article

REACTIONS TO THE ARTICLE OF KHAN

A Poet’s work

To name the unnamable
To point at frauds
To take sides
To start arguments
To shape the world and stop it from going to sleep

Salman Rushdie

A Long Introduction:

You are breathing hard. You are excited. You feel engaged and alive as you are typing these words. You then have an insight that all those poses, those insipid jokes, those pitiful lame attempts of poetry writing, those inane comments (including your own) are just pathetic strivings to be human. A man totally cut off from his fellow men cannot be a real human. Only when he is in communication with others, even in miscommunication, can he become himself. Man is a social, communicative being. Yet he feels alone and lonely throughout his life. That’s why sex and love are powerful drives. He has a strong need to be understood. He needs to be joined with others. During sex, he has an illusion that he is joined physically and, hopefully, emotionally with somebody. (Therefore, it does not take much imagination to think that sex with a prostitute is an empty, lonely act). It takes a very strong man to be indifferent to the drives.

On this planet, everything is evanescent, is subject to dissolution. What’s about God? Well, the reality of the World has an evanescent existence. Contrary to common beliefs, “God is invisible, inconceivable, and unthinkable. No symbol or metaphor can describe Him and none may take His place. All metaphysical representations of God without exceptions are myths, meaningful as such when understood to be hints and parallels, but they become superstitions when taken for the reality of God Himself ” (Karl Jaspers). To talk about God is tantamount to talking about the origin of the Universe. We know the how but not the why. We know about the Big Bang, but we don’t know, at least not yet, why the Big Bang occurred. Those who talk about God as if they understand Him all engage in wishful and delusional thinking. Man is the only animal who is big on delusions and illusions. This paragraph is perhaps the most profound and insightful of the whole essay. We can tell how smart and honest a person is after he expounds his beliefs and ideas about the concept called God. We can tell if he has done some serious thinking or merely parrots what he has been taught and heard.

Likewise, Man can only be experienced and not totally understood. Each man is an island. And Life is a journey of a sailing ship among the islands. Most of the journey is at night amidst rain and howling winds. Occasionally the ship sails in bright sunshine and balmy weather. That’s when life gives you a glimpse of the grandeur and joy life can be. You wonder why the ship can’t cruise during the day and in the better weather conditions more often. The answer lies in the fact that Man likes to do things the hard way. He likes to overreach himself, to go beyond himself. He is never satisfied. Those who are satisfied are not quite human enough. Man, by definition, is a work in progress, not a finished product.

Sooner or later, every man asks himself the questions: Who am I? What can I know? What do I live for? Selfishly for myself or for my family and my fellow countrymen? Am I a real man or merely a monkey in disguise? When I die, am I proud of the way my life has been?

Article by Khan:

The long introduction is necessary to explain why I deign to take the time to write. I have no means to verify if all the allegations made by Khan in his article are true. About four years ago, I checked out a book about Islam from the library. I did read about the killing of the Jewish tribes after they broke the covenant with Muhammad and joined Muhammad’s enemies to attack him and his followers. If I were Muhammad, I would do the same and rightfully so. From what I read, Muhammad, after conquering Mecca, instead of ordering wholesale slaughter of the male inhabitants as it was the CUSTOM in that region , Muhammad spared their lives. This behavior earned him much gratitude and respect among the Arabs and soon many Arabs joined his cause.

I have a distinct impression that Khan has an agenda and that is to combat Islam as a whole, not just the contemporary extremist elements. We, the alleged university-educated members of the human species, have to maintain intellectual vigilance when coming across articles and books peddled by Khan. We have to watch if they are written with the truth in mind or with political aims in their hearts and thus facts are distorted and exaggerated in order to besmirch the entire religion which is followed by more than one billion people. If Muhammad indeed was such a blood-thirsty and vengeful person, instead of a fair and merciful religious founder, military leader, and administrator, he could not have commanded such fierce loyalty and love from his followers. Also, history textbooks would expose his alleged brutality if indeed it was true.

Islam spread like wild fires for the following reasons, from what I have read and from memory (you just have to take my word for it):

1. Byzantine Empire rule was harsh and many of its subjects were glad to join Islam.
The zeal and pride of the new faith. Islam unified the Arabs and channeled their energies into outward expansion instead of fighting among themselves.
Islamic conquerors treated conquered peoples fairly. New converts were exempt from paying certain taxes. Those who were not willing to convert were left alone to practice their religions. If Islamic conquerors were indeed as harsh as Khan alleged, there would be constant revolts and uprisings and the history textbooks would mention about these.
Islamic rulers utilized the talents of the conquered subjects. Scholars from Persia and Greece and other lands flocked to the capitals (Baghdad, Damascus, and Grenada) and contributed to the learning and knowledge during various reigns of the Islamic dynasties.

While it is not enlightened to counter the claims of extremism with another example of extremism, we must remember the current extremism practiced by the fanatical elements of Islam-- which are the minority and in response to the humiliation and grievances suffered by the Muslims after centuries of Western imperialism and domination—is by no means the sole province of these fanatical elements. Those extremist elements of Christianity must also bear responsibility to the following well-documented atrocities:

1. The barbarity and brutality committed by the Crusaders against Muslims and Jews.
2. The wholesale expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain after Christians reconquered Spain after seven centuries of Moorish rule.
3. The ruthless and unconscionable mistreatment and genocidal practice against Native Americans.
4. The harsh exploitation of colonies by Christian countries, starting with the sixteenth century until well into the 1950’s when most colonies gained independence. The exploitation still goes on in some former colonies via economic means instead of naked outright military force.
5. The slaughter of the Palestinians in Lebanon refugees camps by the Christian Falangists after the Israeli invasion in 1982.

Conclusion:

Culture in some Christian countries is obviously showing signs of decadence: drug usage, rampant sexuality and lack of modesty in attire, family ties and work ethic are weakening, materialism, alienation expressed by widespread appearance of graffiti, tattooing, and body piercing. Islam, even among the moderate elements, is viewing these examples of degeneration with disgust and is thus trying to protect their young ones against the “values” of the decadent West. If practitioners of Christianity view Islam as an enemy, they will be in for a nasty fight. In my view, the morally superior and ardent and committed people will eventually win the fight. Technology superiority has its own limits. Witness the failures of the British, the Russians, and now perhaps the Americans in Afghanistan. [Perhaps the following custom of the Pashtuns, constituting the majority of the Taliban, and living in south of Afghanistan and northwest of Pakistan, is something to reflect upon: the custom is called Pashtunwali, an ancient traditional code of conduct and honor. I read it in the Economist a few years ago. If anybody, even a stranger, seeks shelter in a home of a Pashtun, he is obligated by custom to provide him the shelter and protection. It is thus no surprise that the Pashtuns (28 million according to 2005 census, second-largest ethnic group and prominently represented in the military) living in Pakistan are helping their brothers (14 millions according to 2009 figure) in Afghanistan with their own lives in the fight against the Americans. So, the war in Afghanistan, for all practical purposes, is now expanded into the Northwest of Pakistan].

Bigoted followers of Christianity should learn to accept others as they are and stop viewing Muhammad as a false prophet and Islam as a false religion. Times for holding exclusivity claims are long past. It’s time to examine the soundness of their own religious beliefs in light of common sense, logic, and scientific knowledge. It’s time to stop being holier-than-thou and start asking questions and doing some hard thinking into the nature of reality, truth, and the like. Maybe the truth is that the Zionists are using Americans to fight for them.

Roberto Wissai
October 6, 2009