What's Wrong with Muslims?

A few weeks ago I published an interview by Dr. Wafa Sultan, who eloquently summarized my thoughts on the radicalization of Islam. The events of the past week left me ashamed and embarrassed to be associated with Muslims:

• The 'Doctors Plot'
• Red Mosque in Islamabad
• Sir Salman Rushdie
  

These radicals don't speak for me, they don't represent me, and I don't want to have anything to do with them. What I find amazing is that common-sense has not prevailed and the radical niche now dominates/represents the conversation. They have managed to politicize the environment and feel entitled to lead the charge in the Islam vs. Everyone War. For me I've always considered religion an intensely personal affair, it's your relationship with your Maker. To see it marked with such hatred and bloodshed is needless and, really, pointless.

The Doctor's Plot- in a word, terrible. For an unemployed, frustrated, refugee living in a camp in south Lebanon I can at least begin to understand the seeds of hatred and torment. Radicalization is the outcome of a chain of misfortune, pain, and probably personal tragedy. But doctors? Educated to help and cure fellow humans? Their actions speak for themselves, but it's their psyche that I question. Was this a desirable outcome? To wake up on a Saturday morning, ram your SUV into an airport, and THEN put yourself on fire and start screaming, 'Allah! Allah!'? Was this the grand culmination of your life, your education, and your contribution to humanity? Wouldn't it have been better to take your skills, as a doctor, and heal those very people, who live in squalor around the world, that you were supposedly defending? They say the devil lives in all of us, and now I believe it to be true. Despite all the education, this psychopath made a rational choice where self-immolation was a better outcome than healing the pain of others. How one reaches that conclusion is beyond my comprehension.

Red Mosque- why is that Muslims end up fighting with their neighbors all over the world? They have problems with Jews, Christians, and of course, other Muslims. Why can't they learn to co-exist peacefully? At the Red Mosque, seeing mullahs firing AK-47s is simply frightening due to its macro-implications and, in my estimation, deserves the full brunt of military response. Oddly, I feel that is the net result they seek as well: it will fuel their hatred and lead to greater chaos and turmoil, furthering their agenda of destabilization. It's the macro-outcomes that are really disturbing in Pakistan- radicals with open access to military hardware, a vast pool of disenfranchised youth, and limitless funds. What further complicates the situation is the radicalization of the Army- no one wants to see a coup that leads to a radical having access to nuclear technology- those macro-outcomes are just too awful to imagine.

Salman Rushdie received his knighthood, and his troubles with fatwas and mullahs are well documented. Saudi (the bastion of Islam), India (Sir Salman's country with a Muslim President), or Indonesia (world's largest Muslim country) have not issued any public statements in protest, or otherwise. Who did? The Religious Affairs Minister from Pakistan, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, who claimed that the knighthood justifies suicide attacks. Somebody should tell this All-Star Inbred Asshole that his own religion doesn't condone suicide attacks. What business does this man have making this statement? It has nothing to do with him! These are just pressure tactics to politicize and further inflame an already tense populace. Now you understand my disgust with mullahs and religion?

On a personal level, I feel embarrassed that the actions of the few, taint the efforts of many. There are millions of Muslims in the West, who have pursued noble outcomes: education, well-being, and success. They have contributed to their local communities, worked hard, paid their taxes, and want to live an uncomplicated existence away from such turmoil. I, personally, have realized that I've become a self-hating native. The gap between my points of view and that of modern Muslim society is widening. Personally I'd be satisfied with complete separation from such savage personalities. They are so deluded, and deep in their religious mania that they cannot see the benefits in non-violence, productivity, and of course, peace.