A group of prominent Canadian Muslim religious leaders, the Calgary Council of Imams, has moved to create one of the more promising Islamic reformations in modern history. With a declaration from this group regarding personal freedoms and respect for all creeds, these Muslim leaders have seemingly paved the way for a vast improvement in a system previously beset by archaic and perilous notions, such as violence against infidels and the oppression of women. If these authorities are held to these reforms dragging Islam out of its typical seventh-century mindset, we may witness an encouraging increase of Islamic integration into Western society and civilization.
Statement of "peace" and "equality"
Regarding this development, the AFP article "Canadian imams condemn radical Islam" reports:
A group of Canadian imams on Friday denounced radical Islam in a joint statement that promotes peace and calls for equality between men and women.
The seven point declaration, signed by 38 influential clerics belonging to the Canadian Council of Imams, is designed to be read in hundreds of mosques across Canada at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
"We believe in peaceful coexistence, dialogue, bridge building, and cooperation among all faiths and people for the common good of humanity," the statement read.
"Islam does not permit the killing of innocent people, regardless of their creed, ethnicity, race, or nationality. The sanctity of human life overrides the sanctity of religious laws."
The statement goes on to say that the imams "believe in gender equity and each man and each woman's divine right to education, social contribution, work, and treatment with respect and dignity. Men and women complement each other, and healthy relationships between them are essential to a healthy society."
The imams also defend freedom of religion and the right to dress according to personal taste.
With this "seven-point declaration" by some three dozen Muslim clergymen of this powerful council, Muslims will end up essentially with several of the freedoms and human rights most of us in the Western world expect to see these days—and such a development would certainly be welcome.
Recapping the basic statements here (these are from the article cited above, not from the formal seven-point declaration itself):
- Peaceful coexistence and cooperation between people of different faiths—this is a big deal in consideration of Islam's supremacist past.
- Prohibition of killing "innocent" people, "regardless of their creed, ethnicity, race, or nationality"—ordinarily we would wonder what "innocent" means here, because according to fanatical Muslims, anyone who isn't one of them is not innocent and should be killed. The addendum mentioning "creed," however, changes the playing field, since they are specifically stating that non-Muslims can be viewed as "innocent."
- The declaration that the sanctity of human life overrides that of religious law is certainly a huge step in the right direction, in consideration of the brutality and cheapness of human life in several Muslim countries that call for the death penalty for "blaspemy," as a major example.
- The notion of "gender equity" and opportunities provided to both men and women is obviously extremely unusual for leaders of a religion that includes the subjugation of women in its sacred text:
"Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient." (Quran 4:34)
- Freedom of religion is not in accordance with post-Mecca Islamic doctrine, so this reform effectively overturns or abrogates several passages in the Quran, such as:
"He that chooses a religion over Islam, it will not be accepted from him and in the world to come he will be one of the lost." (Quran 3:85)
- The right to dress according to one's own personal taste—obviously, for women this is a huge one, a serious capitulation to Western freedoms, because so much of Islam is based on the repression of women's sexuality.
According to news reports, this freedom-encouraging declaration was read in some 200 mosques around Canada, and, per CNC News, one of the imams, Hamid Slimi, remarked, “We expect it to reverberate around the world.”
Sincerity and effectiveness questioned
Yet, according to the Canadian newspaper The National Post, these imams' effort has been dismissed by the Muslim Canadian Congress's Tarek Fatah as "completely meaningless" and part of a "medieval mindset." Fatah also said:
These imams are living in a medieval world of their own and have not yet come to terms with the crisis that is facing the Muslim and western world.
The National Post further reports:
It doesn’t include a strong affirmation of the separation of mosque and state or that the mosque is no place for political activity; it doesn’t demand that women be allowed to sit in the front row of mosques or be allowed to become imams; and most importantly, the declaration doesn’t denounce the theory of armed jihad, Mr. Fatah said.
These are perfectly good points; yet, the fact that these Muslim religious leaders gave in on these other issues is stunning and should be lauded. Hopefully, Fatah will succeed in pushing them even farther, including a specific denunciation of the death penalty for apostates. In this regard, my friend Amil Imani, an ex-Muslim from Iran, has appeared on Capitol Hill to express his hopes that apostates in the United States will receive special protection against fanatics interested in carrying out that death penalty, as found in a number of Muslim countries, including Amil's own homeland.
Fatah clarified further: “These three points are fundamental. Unless they include these things, everything else is meaningless." Nevertheless, these other declarations are certainly not meaningless to non-Muslims—they are almost everything we want to hear. Of course, the other issues Fatah raises are highly valuable too, and we would be glad to see Muslims embrace those reforms as well.
In the meantime, not a few people have also suggested that these individuals themselves cannot be trusted to go through with these earth-shattering reforms. Yet, if they are reading them to their congregations and planting these seeds in the heads of thousands or, possibly, millions, they are nonetheless creating a reformation of thought—one that really does need to be encouraged regardless of its shortcomings, which also include the lack of addressing the mistreatment of homosexuals within Islam, for example.
In this regard, one of the imams responded to critics thus:
“This was an honest beginning,” Imam Alli said, responding to Fatah’s comments. “It’s a modest attempt to help us in Canada deal with some of these issues. Hopefully, we can progress upon it.”
Hopefully, indeed. If the intention is sincere, we can only welcome it.
But Fatah's other comments are highly noteworthy, as they acknowledge a typical Islamic modus operandi:
Canada has imams who openly call for the defeat of the Kuffar—or non-believer—and demand the victory of Muslims over non-Muslims, Fatah said. “[The council] should address these issues rather than submitting seven points.”
Yes, it should address what has become known as "jihad" against the non-Muslim world—and it must, if it wants non-Muslims to trust its declaration. Otherwise, as Fatah also said, these imams have not yet come to "terms with the crisis that is facing the Muslim and western world."
Islam in America
The Calgary Council's representative, David Liepert, likewise stated that the declaration was necessary because of increasing tensions in the United States, specifically due to the proposed "Ground Zero mosque." Apparently, while other Muslim organizations and individuals feign incomprehension when it comes to why anyone would object to the Cordoba Initiative's choice of location and timing, this group is sensate enough to figure it out. Liepert also said that the council hoped that American Muslims would follow suit.
In a separate article, "Why we needed an Imams' declaration for peace," Liepert emphasized the history of Islam in America:
Muslims have been part of North American society for more than 100 years. There have been mosques in places such as Edmonton, Alberta; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York, since the 1930s.
In Canada and the United States before 9-11, the growing Muslim minority was well-integrated, with higher-than-average educational attainments for both genders. Muslims in civic and business leadership positions went as unnoticed as members of any other successful community. And North America's Muslims were proud to be an integral part of North American society, because we knew it was the Muslim ideal as well.
To a large extent, these comments are true, in that Muslims have certainly been in North America for that long and have had mosques in various communities for some decades. I lived in the two largest cities in the United States for almost two decades combined, and I barely noticed whether or not anyone was Muslim because no one was making him or herself obvious.
In sustaining the notion that "North American society" is "the Muslim ideal as well," Liepert provides the typical apologist delineation of "real Muslims" and "radicals," saying:
Radicals regularly, ignorantly and blatantly abuse the Quran and the Sunnah (the acts of Mohammed that Muslims use to figure out what the revelations really mean) to promote the idea that Islam is a violent faith.
He then paraphrases a typical Quranic verse commonly used by Muslims to justify murdering and conquering infidels:
"Fight the people of the book [Jews and Christians] until they known themselves to be subdued." (Quran 9:29)
Liepert argues that this Islamic scripture is taken out of context and refers in reality to the situation of the time, in the seventh century. Nevertheless, his remarks serve to demonstrate that Islamists do use the Quran as inspiration for deadly deeds and terrorist acts. If we truly want to see reforms within Islam, it has been suggested, we will need more of these types of admissions, along with some sort of plan either to remove all the anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, anti-infidel and misogynistic hate speech from the Quran itself or to mitigate it with the same sort of argument that Liepert and other apologists proffer. Perhaps Muslim progressives need to follow the lead of the great American President Thomas Jefferson, who provided his own "Jefferson Bible."
In reality, the past decade has seen the abrupt proliferation of aggressive and pushy Islamists all over the world, causing tremendous resentment and concern with their blusterings of global domination that includes, of course, taking over the White House. With the Obama Administration, we've seen that push like never before, as the U.S. has become more Islamized than ever. We can hardly expect that the thousands of Islamic fundamentalists from so many different countries streaming in through our porous borders are going to be effectively reached by these imams and their declaration, but we can hope, because the alternative is absolutely unacceptable.
If these imams are sincere, they need to be encouraged and supported, so that their Islamic brethren elsewhere follow suit. This encouragement need not be a wholesale endorsement of Islam any more than welcoming these refines within Christianity represented a similar thumbs up to that faith's doctrines. Those of us who know the depths of Islamic doctrine and tradition will not personally be interested in accepting even its basic premises; however, with these encouraging reforms a less uneasy relationship can be developed and a hope for a truly peaceful and constructive future be kindled.
D.M. Murdock is the author of controversial books and articles on comparative religion and mythology that can be found at TruthBeKnown.com, Stellar House Publishing and Freethought Nation. For more articles from the Freethought Examiner, be sure to subscribe!
Sources & Further Reading
Canadian imams condemn radical Islam
Critic dismisses Canadian imams’ declaration of values
Canadian Imams denounce Islamic radicalism
Canadian imams issue declaration to combat radical Islam
Why we needed an Imams' declaration for peace
Koran Quotes | Quotes from Islam
Islamic Crusades Series
Comments
What a great and informative article!
It's in their Koran they can lie if it promotes the Koran. Anyone believing their BS needs to do some serious reading.
Can't say I disagree - and I have read the Koran quite extensively, as well as much other information about Islam for many years.
But I like to extend courtesy and generosity of spirit to those who just can't leave the cult but who will try to reign it in (at their own risk and expense because of the devout enforcers). As they say, this is better than nothing, because at least they are recognizing there's a serious problem, rather than denying it or blaming it on the filthy infidel. We must encourage such honest introspection whenever possible.
If you read the article, you will see the remarks by Tarek Fatah, who is recognized as a truly "moderate" Muslim who gets along just fine in Western civilization. We need to encourage more individuals such as him, rather than alienating them by giving them no chance at all to be taken seriously.
...you can't be serious...there is absolutely no support in the Koran or the Hadiths to accept this nonsense... As a previous comment indicated, lying is not only allowed but required of any Muslim living in dar al-harb...your generosity of spirit has to be tempered by the dogmas of Islam and the words of almost all major Islamic philosophers...any acceptance of "Islam-lite" is done at the peril of all human freedom
Thank you. If you followed my work, you would know that I am a harsh critic of Islam. That being said, I am not willing to be harsh and rude with individuals (such as Tarek Fatah) who are actually working within the Islamic framework to reform it as best as possible. There are currently supposedly some 1.5 billion Muslims on this planet, and there are few alternatives to create a peaceful co-existence with all these people. We must encourage "reprogramming" so to speak, so they may join us in the human race. I know many fine ex-Muslims who would not exist if not given the chance, which we must do in order for them to move away from the ideology all together. What is the alternative? Genocide? Surely not.
This is a refreshing piece of news and a refreshing approach in writing about the "moderate" Muslims who are believed to have been better integrated than commonly realized by most people, into free societies such as America and Canada. It is good news to see Canadian Immams taking a different approach than we may have seen, yet, even though it is expected that once setting a goal of attainment, so, too, the rest of the steps CAN follow in a process of full integration. People who for decades have chanted "Peace, why can we all just have peace and not war!" must realize that peace is the objective. The true natural, New Era, or the "New Age" (there have been several at crucial times of natural change in the history of civilization), comes as a result of great testing and trials that "sort out" what doesn't belong. When everyone can realize what doesn't "make peace", and eliminates it..., then Peace and Understanding on the earth will matrialize as a reality globally. Good article Ms. Murdock! I will be passing on your link at Facebook.
Who can you trust the one that borrowed history, one that made up history or the one who rewrote
history? I am tried of trying to fix the problems of Past Glory and IMAGINE future without them.
I just Googled after seeing this rather innocuous post on Islam by Acharya and typed "Islamic terror in canada". in 0.18 seconds, I got 333,000 results. Then there is a term called "Taqqiya" in Quran which clearly exonerates the Muslims to tell lies in certain circumstances if s/he has to hide his true identity to live and survive but are warned not to leave Islam and strike at the first opportunity when the time comes. That is why all these mild posturings are being enacted by these Imams who know that they can not survive in North America, Australia, Europe, China, Russia and Canada with the current defamed image of Isam. But who knows even then, "How their own offsprings will behave"?
One has to remember that these gestures of these Imams will not rewrite the Quran or will not affect or change the behavior or ideology of the radical groups in Islam. Acharya quotes 1.5 billion Muslims but the radicals are only in few thousands. Imagine these few thousands only has created such a havoc globally that this has become a most sinister menace for the entire cross section of societies including the Muslims themselves. But the problem is that these Imams as in Canada, "Will they pass some kind of fatwa or start a counter jihad against these fanatics or declare them as outcast or declare that the Quranic statements are wrong which call for a death to infidels or gender equality to be incorporated in Quran or hijab/niqab/burqa that are not mentioned in Quran has nothing to do with Islam and so on and so forth"?
Until then, what is the value of these declarations by these Imams short of "Taqqiya"? Hence if my contention is not taken as a criticism of Islam but a critical analysis of the above Imam's statements which may not be of any import than to tide over the present crisis against their own survival caused/threatened by these fanatics whom they will never denounce in terms I have indicated. Till that time and untill they call for open reforms of the Holy Book, everything any group declares must be taken highly cautiously in the light of Taqqiya only. I am sorry but my study of their continued behavior does not permit me to expect any emancipation in the near future from the Muslims where they are in majority or in dominating position. Let me put a few points in front of you -
(1) Take for example any single Muslim country out of their around 60 Islamic nations, name even a single country which has excelled in technology or development or educationally. Here I must caution you that Muslims today control the highest petro dollars in the World. Even US and Rupert Murdock are debtors of Saudi Arabia. Yet Muslims nations are the beggars and thriving on US donations. Why do they not engage themselves in developments and science and technology?
(2) Whenever there is a talk of Muslims or Islam, the only topic in discussion is war, murders, jihad, sex, woman dress code, infidels to be killed or converted, poverty, destitution, violence, male dominance, Quran, Sharia, intolerance, Islamic terrorism, fights, fights, fights and more fights, you name and they are in the forefront.
If you want to get anything related to Islamic terrorism, i.e. weapons, training, money, communication assistance, terrorism related intelligence, you can get in Pakistan without difficulty. This slogan of "Islam is a religion of Peace" was a slogan given by George Bush as I am told to counter the hatred by Muslims after his Afghanistan war. Hence you can yourself calculate the depth behind this innocuous looking slogan. This is an as dubious political misguiding statement as we are habituated to so many more myths.
(3) Someone has reffered to Dar al-Harb meaning a house of war. It is yet not that and they are now wanting to convert it Dar al-Amn (house of safety) or Dar al-Ahd (house of truce) or Dar al-Sulh (house of treaty) till they get it converted into Dar al-Islam or Dar al-Salam (house of Islam or house of peace) where Muslims can practice their religion freely.
But all these terms are out of the context of Quran and most probably atributed to Abu Hanifa in whose name Islam goes as Hanafi branch of Islam like Wahabi/Salafi sects in Saudi Arabia. It is a very lengthy and complicated issue of dealing or discussing the strategies by the present day Islamic practitioners. I have no doubt that the present day Islamic fanaticism has reached such a dangerous proportion that will be difficult to contain.
(4) Their entire money, time, energy and thought process is spent after planning unrest, aggression, jihad but they hardly think of spending their resources in any thing useful or productive.
(5) They are a bigoted community and their only values are in buying peace from their fanaticism. There is not a single Islamic country where there is truly democratic setup. They just can not live in peace unless they are ruled ruthlessly. This is the true nature of Muslims by and large. Islam does not accept any other law except Sharia.
I think one can understand from this brief account which is not my thesis but the thesis of Islam or the Islamic scholars.
God bless
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
Thanks for your interest and commentary, Dr. Sudrania. You have, of course, accurately cited Islamic history, doctrine and traditions. My gentle piece here is offered in the hopes that common humanity and decency will prevail, but, naturally, we must not lose sight of the reality of Islamist supremacy and Islam's homicide count of some 270 million deaths in many countries such as your own of India, which has seen some 80 million murders at the hands of Muslim fanatics over the centuries.
And, yes, while the "radicals" and "extremists" may only make up, say, one percent of the Muslim population, that still means there are some 15 million bloodthirsty supremacists running around waiting to terrorize us all.
Let us hope the many millions more of supposedly "moderate" Muslims such as these Canadians are purporting to be can keep their "bad cop" brethren in check.
I have jotted it down from Wikipedia source and it is interesting to know it in the light of this olive branch from these Imams -
The 2006 Toronto terrorism case refers to a series of June 2, 2006, counter-terrorism raids in the Greater Toronto Area that resulted in the arrest of 18 people (dubbed the "Toronto 18") alleged to be members of an Islamic terrorist cell plotting a series of attacks against targets in Ontario, Canada.
They were accused of planning to detonate truck bombs, to open fire in a crowded area, and to storm the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, the Canadian Parliament building, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) headquarters, and the parliamentary Peace Tower, to take hostages and to behead the Prime Minister and other leaders.
Following the end of the jury trial in June 2010, a comprehensive presentation of the case and the evidence obtained from court exhibits previously restricted was presented by Isabel Teotonio of the Toronto Star.[1] It contains the details on guilty pleas and convictions.
So this may be the very pertinent reason to be so kind hearted and extend this Taqqiya olive branch to convert Canada in Dar al-Ahd. If Acharya will permit it, here is the Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Toronto_terrorism_plot
God bless
Dr. O. P. Sudrania
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