There is violence in the Muslim world, ISIS and Al Qaeda are proof of that, but the media
often
conflates that to imply that Islam is violent.
For example, on his show a while back Bill Maher
implied that all Muslims hold “pernicious” beliefs.
That was his word: “pernicious”.
Which means
“having a harmful effect”.
Ben Affleck, who agreed to be on the show for some reason, said that Maher’s statement
was
“gross” and “racist.”
Because he thought Maher was implying that Muslims have a harmful
effect.
That they are dangerous or evil.
And he knows that there are over 1.6 billion Muslims in
the world and that generalizing about a large group of people is “racist and gross.”
Which it is.
But Maher, who WAS implying most of that, didn’t back down from his argument because
there IS violence and evil in the Muslim world, and he DOES believe that organized religion
is
pernicious.
He made a documentary about it.
He also believes that Islam is more pernicious
than other religions.
He argues somewhat reasonably that the Koran does say some very
outdated and potentially dangerous things about how people should be treated.
Teachings
that are proven to have a harmful effect when interpreted by ISIS or Al Qaeda, who are Islamic
groups that, Maher would argue, share a lot of the same beliefs as everyday regular Muslims.
Therefore, all Muslims have a lot of the same beliefs as ISIS.
Which is true....and terribly misleading.
Muslims and ISIS both teach from the same Koran, but
to get some actual perspective on what that says about Islam, we should bring in the ideas
of a
real life expert on religion, Reza Aslan.
He argues that both Ben Affleck and
Maher are wrong.
...Sort of.
Aslan argues that Muslims who distance themselves from the extremist elements of the Muslim
Community by claiming that those extremists are not “real Muslims” are denying that
religious
violence has a religious motive.
And it obviously does.
So, Maher is right: Islam is a part of this.
But Maher is also wrong because, and I quote, “Islam doesn’t promote violence or peace.
Islam
is just a religion.
And like every religion in the world, it depends on what you bring to it.”
End
quote.
So, if you find yourself talking about the pernicious effects of Islam, you should really
be talking about the pernicious effects of ISIS or Al Qaeda.
Not Islam itself.
Because
Muslims are a group of people largely defined by their following Islam, but they are also
many different groups and cultures.
Saudi Arabian Muslims are different than Turkish
Muslims and Turkish Muslims are different than Indonesian Muslims and they’re all
different than Militant Jihadist Muslims.
So, let's not talk about Muslims in general terms;
let’s talk about them individually by the name of their exact group.
ISIS oppresses
women.
Turkey, in 1993, elected a woman as their prime minister.
That sort of thing.
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