To Concerned Muslims

- Note: This'll hopefully be short, as three introductions are rather too much to ask people to stand. As a 'tantalizing tidbit', I'm going to start with Islam and Violence as a topic. Any suggestions you have as to what I should tackle first within that framework?-

Okay. I have one last thing to say before beginning in earnest. This is mainly to people who are already Muslims.

So, Random Muslim. When you hear or see or encounter something that makes you question your faith, what do you do? Someone brandishes an iffy-sounding verse or tradition of the Prophet in your face, or you hear about it on the radio or on TV. (Assuming that it's legit enough to merit looking into it: people say such crazy stuff about Islam you can be justified in not paying attention :)

Now, what you do with this verse is you pick it up, read it, double-check it in your own copy to make sure it's there and discover in fact that it is. What are you supposed to think? It's there, looking you in the eye. Muhammad had nine wives. It's there, looking you in the eye.

Intersection. THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWLEDGE. So that things can't sneak up on you like this and leave you helpless, in the wake of anti-Muslims with serious ammo! (Believe me, they exist.)

Let's say, though, that you don't know much about these issues. How are you supposed to react?

First of all, don't panic. If this path is what God wants us to follow, it will never and can never contradict our human mind. There's no such thing as 'blind faith', especially not closing your eyes to something that disturbs you immensely. So what you do is start searching; search to keep your faith.

Second, keep in mind that your position might not be the correct one, that's there's a wiser opinion: as is the case with a lot of things in life, so don't start with "I trust my own mind!" Times and minds change: just compare the minds of 7th-century Arabia with today's. The tricky thing with Islam - with any religion, really - is that to prove itself as God's word, it needs to prove that it can be compatible with all times and places, right? If people now and forever can be expected to follow it, obviously it's got to be such a thing that can be acceptable to people now and forever.

So that's also what I'm going to try to achieve with this blog. Muslims need to know that they have nothing to fear from their religion. I want to stamp that down in permanent.

Talking Objective!

I'm going to cut to the quick here. The thing that concerns me most at the moment – overlooking school and all the mundane worries of life – what concerns me, just as a person living in the world, is the way people see Islam.

I've had a lot of interaction with people of different faiths (predominantly Christian or people) and while most of them treat me as just another person in the world to get along with, some – while having no personal objection to me – feel the urge to "explain" my faith to me, or "expose" it.

Let me elaborate on this.

Have you noticed how all of a sudden there are so many people who sell themselves as "experts" on Islam? This in America or otherwise; they are people who, without naming names, quote authoritative-sounding passages in the Qur'an or in the examples of the Prophet Muhammad that are to the average non-Muslim or even a less knowledgeable Muslim quite frightening.

For example:

Islam is violent.

Muslims are ordered to kill/maim/subjugate/enslave/not live peacefully with non-Muslims.

Muhammad was a filthy human being who lied, cheated and lusted his way to the top and happened to be a pedophile.

Islam's Shariah law is primitive, degrading, demeaning and unfair - especially to women: who deserve a category to themselves in speaking of smears against Islam. Let's give them one.

Women are seen as objects (incidentally, a point that one could definitely make about the treatment of women in today's pop culture); they have no rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc.; they are punished for being raped - I once talked to someone who thought that women are LEGALLY RAPED as a PUNISHMENT in Shariah law; and are just in general treated extremely unfairly.

Of course, we also have the barbaric and primitive nature of the Qur'an. But then that's a given isn't it.

So. God willing, I'll be discussing...

OH, I nearly forgot. Now THIS, ladies and gents, is just priceless...

'Al-lah' is not OUR God! Not the merciful, just Judeo-Christian God, ho no. Allah is nothing but a moon god that the ancient Arabs used to worship. And Muhammad, um, how shall we say it? 'Stole' the god and basically made him the main one to kinda ease the transition for them pagan Arabs... Kind of like Zeus over all the other Greek gods. Must have something to do with all the other cultures that influenced Muhammad - like how he practically copied the Bible word-for-word. Yeah.

:)

To get back to a few sentences up, I will, OUR God willing, be discussing each of these points. Next post will hopefully be about just how I will go about doing that.

DISCLAIMER:

I just want to assure everyone here that I am by no means an absolute word of authority. Pretty much nothing I'll say here will be original; I'll try to go back to sources in trustworthy books and websites whenever I can. I just hope that my contribution might help whoever might read this.

Peace to you all.

On Intros and Greetings

To begin with:

Peace to you, whoever you are.

One thing I should make clear is that I have posted something on here before.

However, seeing it around six months later brought on a bout of embarrassment, and I decided to delete it. It was too immaturely excited. I am determined to begin my blogging experience properly; if it means I need to delete the REAL beginning then that means I will.

So much for trustworthy historical record!

In any case, I can't let everything that's on the Internet and in the world go unnoticed, undocumented, by myself and as I'm not disciplined enough to make myself type out a disgruntled Microsoft Word once in a while that'll never be seen by anyone else, I guess I'm going to make my foray a public one.

Or, rather, as public as one can get in one of many millions of blogs, among all these other people with the same intent I have. In this elusively enormous cyberspace.

Your question, reader, is WHY SHOULD I KEEP READING THIS?

I say, if you've read that far, you should keep going.

MY GOALS FOR THIS BLOG:

So my goals for this blog - what I'm going to write about, basically - is what I'm interested in, obviously. I'm a Muslim, interested in current affairs, political or otherwise, I enjoy reading (so you might find a nice and juicy scathing, sarcastic book review on here now and then) and you might just find me blogging about the latest Real Madrid game once in a while. My age is none of your business, nor is where I live, but I hope the quality of my thoughts transcends those common standards of gauging worth. (See? I can craft sentences, too! Whether they're good or not...)

Did I mention I want to write a ground-breaking novel?

Oh.

Oh, I didn't realize it was already a memorized given for these pontificating blogger types. Pardon me.

Finally, I'm studying so this may not be frequented that much. But I can guarantee it: if I read/come across/see something that really deserves to be here, it'll be here. (If you can see the loopholes I've left for myself in that, good for you. if not, continue on oblivious, if you please.)

I shout out:

HELLO, WORLD!

..........

Is the world listening? *

__________________________________________

* Ahem. Ignore that last philosophical part. I'm talking to myself.)