Is hating Islam the same thing as hating Muslims? - Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead
Is hating Islam the same thing as hating Muslims?
Author: Esra’a (Bahrain) - March 13, 2008
According to Iman Kurdi, it is.
An excerpt from her article:
I don’t hate Muslims. I hate Islam.” Of course, these are not my words and certainly not my sentiments. They are the words of a Dutch politician. I will not reveal his name, because I do not wish to pander to his need for media attention.
But his words exist; they are in the public sphere. In a newspaper interview this week, he calls Islam “the ideology of a retarded culture” and goes on to say that “Islam is something we can’t afford any more in the Netherlands. That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams…Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.”
This is the response that I sent to the author:
Dear Iman,
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your very well written article, “Hating Islam is the same thing as hating Muslims.”
Based on your article I would also like to put my finger on a few more points. Many people paint Muslims as “enemies of freedom of speech,” especially considering the ongoing fiasco with the Danish cartoons. What they don’t understand is that many Muslims actually support the free speech of others as long as it is done respectfully and without directing hate towards us or inciting violence, even if their opinions go against the very core of our beliefs. I do think that a prime example of this is the Muslim supporters behind FreeKareem.org
As you probably know, Kareem is an Egyptian blogger and former student of Al-Azhar University who not only criticized Islam, but insulted it, compared our revered Prophet (saw) with pedophiles and war criminals, and got 3 years in prison for it (and 1 year for insulting the Egyptian president, making it 4 years in total.) So it is not very common to find a Muslim in support of Kareem due to the viciousness of his posts. But I believe it’s also a part of our faith to guide and have mercy on such people, and to also support them as their views don’t change the fact that they are our brethren. Kareem is in many ways hated amongst the religious Muslim communities within Egypt and beyond, and I personally receive a lot of death threats for having associated myself with this campaign, which is rather successful in terms of publicity. But even after a full year of directing the campaign, I still think it’s imperative that more Muslims do this type of thing. Because I think I am not only serving the cause of free speech, but also Islam, by showing the world that there ARE Muslims who support you even when their religion is viciously attacked like this, that we accept criticism and defend people’s right to express it.
I do not think Kareem was hateful in any way towards Muslims and never incited violence against them, even if he despised the religion itself and referred to us as being “misguided.” Here, I challenge your view that hating Islam and Muslims is the same thing. I am a Muslim, and consider myself to be a close friend of Kareem’s, who has become like a brother to me. I have many other ex-Muslim friends who loathe the religion, but treat me as their friend.
So here we get into another topic; perhaps it only seems as if hating Islam and Muslims is the same way if an inexperienced, ignorant foreigner would associate radical Muslims with the entire religion and its followers and thus resort to hate speech against us. But technically in our region, where many ex-Muslim atheists or converts or harsh critics of Islam reside, we cannot use this same argument because these people come from Muslim families or are close to their Muslim friends and for the most part have first-hand experience (many of which are unfortunately traumatic, due to ill-practiced “versions” of what people like to call “Islam,” but by definition is not.)
I know I lost a lot of respect from my family, friends, and Muslim societies in general for supporting Kareem and his ilk. It is worth paying that price. I think more Muslims should defend criticism, as well as the rights of other minorities (BahaiRights.org is a very important initiative based on the same premises) who are abused in our societies in the name of Islam. It’s our job to. For example before loudly denouncing Islamaphobic cartoons, we should take a look at our own series of anti-Semitic, xenophobic, racist cartoons that are flooding our newspapers on a daily basis across the Arab and Muslim world. If we don’t treat others with respect, and if we don’t pick at our own flaws before blaming others for all our faults, then why should we expect respect and acceptance from others? I believe we spend too much time defending ourselves against all foreign critics, and not focusing on what we do to our ethnic and religious minorities as well as to each other, which, frankly, is far worse by comparison.
Essentially I am not disagreeing with your article at all, but I am just offering a different perspective, one that I think is not really explored in the more “mainstream” Muslim media.
Is hating Islam the same thing as hating Muslims? - Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead