Queen Rania of Jordan believes that recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI underscore the prejudice many people feel worldwide against the poor, downtrodden Muslims. She says that the West misunderstands Islam.
No, Your Royal Highness, Westerners don't misunderstand Islam at all. I think they are beginning - though it has taken some time, I have to admit - to get to grips with the totalitarian nature of the world's most belligerent, most narrow-minded, most irrational, most dangerous religion.
You say that your religion should not be judged by some of its misguided and extreme followers. Then what other yardstick can Westerners use, Your Royal Highness? How would you feel if your children were threatened by the sword, if your children were the target of Muslim violence, if your family members were disallowed from converting out of the faith?
Yes, there will always be extreme elements in any religion. But isn't it funny that Islam fosters more than its fair share of extremists? Don't you think there is a simple reason for this? You say that Americans say that they will never understand Islam, and add that Muslims say that they will never understand the West. So be it! Let the two worlds, for the sake of peace, live their lives separately! Why do the two worlds have to be thrown together like this? Most sane Westerners don't want Muslims in their midst because of all the problems they cause them; most Muslims, seemingly, also don't want Westerners in their midst because they cannot understand them, and feel that Westerners are polluting their Islamic purity. Okay, as I stated in my book, The Dawning of a New Dark Age, let an "Iron Veil" drop between the two worlds. That's the best way forward, that's the best way to ensure a peaceful world.
These two worlds are definitely not compatible. Westerners don't want your way of life here in the West; and you don't want the way of life of Westerners in the Islamic world. Let the two worlds, then, live separate lives. After all, this is what happens when a husband and wife cannot get along. They divorce. Though, it has to be said, that divorce can be amicable: There can be some co-operation.
Westerners do not like to see veiled women walking around the streets, nor do they do like to see bearded men in long robes walking around the streets, either. They do not like the ways of Muslims. If allowed to stay here, they would want them to assimilate, and live like them. But they will not. It's an article of your intemperate faith that they shouldn't, isn't it?
It is plain to see that Islam harbours desires to take over and Islamize the world. Westerners don't want your religion. They prefer the system they have, and the lifestyle and liberty and democracy it offers. Muslims believe that their religion is superior to Christianity; Westerners believe that their religion is superior to yours. There you have it! Right from the heart of Christendom! - ©Mark
ABC NEWS: Sept. 21, 2006 — Jordan's Queen Rania Al-Abdullah believes that Muslims have been victims of stereotypes and that Pope Benedict XVI's recent comments about Islam underscore the prejudice many feel worldwide.Mark Alexander (Paperback)
In a Sept. 12 address at the University of Regensburg in Germany, Benedict cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith."
The pope said Wednesday he did not mean to malign Islam when he quoted the emperor, but did not issue a direct apology.
Some Muslim leaders who were offended by his remarks still want a apology from Benedict.
Rania, the world's youngest queen, said she believed that the pope's comments and the reaction they sparked reflected an ongoing misunderstanding of Islam and Muslims. Jordan's Queen: Pope Controversy Reflects Prejudice Against Islam: Rania Says Controversy Indicative of Worldwide Misunderstanding of Islam
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
6 comments:
Queen Rania, I don't think I quite understand. You say that we westerners don't understand Islam. But why aren't you dressed in burqah? Why aren't you covered from head to toe? Why are you dressed like a modern westerner? You seem to be the epitomy of hypocrisy. You have the unmitigated gaul to say that we do not understand Islam, but appear to be a westerner yourself. I trust that you are opressed and beaten like all Muslim women -- is that not so? Why do you appear in public like a decadent western woman? I simply don't understand. Please explain this seeming 'disconnect'.
Your narrow-mindedness is amusing, I must say. Apart from the highly reactionary nature of your post and the clear naivety that it reflects, your hypocrisy is blatant.
" (Westerners) prefer the system they have, and the lifestyle and liberty and democracy it offers". Well for a 'westerner', you certainly don't seem to value the concept of liberty for all.
Muslims have as much right to wear their burqa's and beards in your local supermarket as your girlfreind does to wear her halter top and mini's. To say anything otherwise is to dig your own ideological grave. Western society is quite adamant about maintaining its freedom and democracy yet in the same breath will deny it to others. The double standards are shocking.
Muslims are NOT trying to take over the West nor to Islamicize the Western world. Holding anti US-government sentiments does not constitute a threat to the Western lifestyle. It reflects a deep dissatisfaction with the way many Western governments handle the situation in the Middle East and a desire to free the area from Western "occupation".
Your narrow-mindedness is amusing, I must say. Apart from the highly reactionary nature of your post and the clear naivety that it reflects, your hypocrisy is blatant
You are entitled to your opinion, of course; but then so am I entitled to mine.
You say that I am narrow-minded. There are probably no people on God's earth more narrow-minded than Muslims. Not only are they narrow-minded, but they are filled with superstition, too.
So you think I am reactionary, eh? Well, to a liberal, I might sound that way. In actual fact, however, I am in no way reactionary. I am indeed a very broad-minded person. It's just that I want to continue to live in peace and freedom and democracy. I do not want to live in chains - the chains and enslavement of Islam.
So you think that because I wish for the survival of our superior Western civilization I am a hypocrite. I think you need to take some lessons in reasoning, since you are making no sense whatsoever.
"(Westerners) prefer the system they have, and the lifestyle and liberty and democracy it offers". Well for a 'westerner', you certainly don't seem to value the concept of liberty for all.
As a Westerner with many years' experience living in Muslim countries, and as a Westerner who well understands what Islam is all about, I realize that our liberty is endangered by the unfettered growth of Islam in the West.
I don't know whether you are a Muslimah, or whether you are simply a naïve, liberal Westerner, but whatever you are there in Sydney, you can certainly thank Judeo-Christian culture for the liberty that Australia offers you.
Talking of naïveté, you show me that you know nothing about the problems we face with Islam. You've got a lot of learning to do.
Muslims have as much right to wear their burqa's and beards in your local supermarket as your girlfreind does to wear her halter top and mini's.
Muslims have those rights because we are stupid enough to bestow those rights on them. I can assure you of one thing: Muslims are not so generous in their countries with Westerners. It's conform to their backward ways, or else! There is no reciprocation.
To say anything otherwise is to dig your own ideological grave. Western society is quite adamant about maintaining its freedom and democracy yet in the same breath will deny it to others. The double standards are shocking.
No it isn't. Not at all. There are some things we are simply not free to do. Being a member of an extremist political party such as the Nazi party being one of the restrictions. And quite rightly so, too. The fact is, however, that in many ways, Islam resembles a fascist ideology in many ways.
As Islam is 90% politics and only about 10% spirituality, perhaps the time has come to re-categorize Islam as a political movement, first and foremost.
Muslims are NOT trying to take over the West nor to Islamicize the Western world.
Now YOU are being NAÏVE! For God's sake, get with the story BEFORE it is too late! Watch this and inform yourself!
Holding anti US-government sentiments does not constitute a threat to the Western lifestyle. It reflects a deep dissatisfaction with the way many Western governments handle the situation in the Middle East and a desire to free the area from Western "occupation".
No, and holding anti-Islamic viewpoints for many does not represent Islamophobia, either. It merely reflects a deep unease about the future with the explosive growth of Islam in the West.
Mirroring what you say, there are many in the West who would like to rid the West of Islamic occupation, too. And for similar reasons, perhaps.
Dear Muslimah Sabrine (Pensive Thought)!
You seem to be one angry lady!
Before I go any further, let me, please, reassure you that some of the nicest, kindest, most generous people I have ever met have been Muslims. And I mean that - most sincerely.
Let me also reassure you that I am NO fundamentalist Christian. Not at all! I am actually far more liberal than you would ever imagine.
Please enlighten me, Mark- who’s trying to rob you of your peace and democracy?
Well, that's a simple one to answer. All the fundamentalist Muslims who want to turn our democracies into theocracies à l'Islam.
I suppose it’s the Muslim neighbour down the street who in between paying off his mortgage, feeding his kids and working a 9-5 job, is plotting to take over the world. I suppose I should be on alert everytime I see a burqa in [c]ase there’s a bomb ready to explode underneath.
Well, you might laugh at me, but that is exactly what happens so very often - there's a bomb under dat da burqah!
Yes, there are plenty of so-called "moderate Muslims" more interested in paying off their mortgage than causing trouble. But there are plenty of the other kind, too. And what is to stop a moderate Muslim of today turning into an extremist?
Superior? Talk about a societal complex. I would love to know how you came to such an objective conclusion, Mark.
I come to that conclusion based on the facts. Look at the freedoms that Westerners have compared with Muslims. Only today, I blogged this.
Then there are all the achievements in the arts, sciences, social sciences, medicine, music, literature, etc. And what about all that Islamic hatred of all things Jewish? The anti-Semitism? Please don't try and tell me that Islamic 'civilization' is superior to Western civilization. Look at the human rights we give all people, including people like you - Muslims and Muslimahs! And the homosexuals, the ethnic minorities, and the people of all other faiths, and none. Which Islamic country affords such people human dignity? Which one? Tell me!
This Islamic extremism we see in the world today has NOTHING to do with POVERTY. It has everything to do with POLITICS and the JIHAD and the message of YOUR final 'prophet' - prophet Muhammad. The man who married Aysha at six, and who consummated that self-same marriage with her at nine. And how many innocent people did he decapitate in the interim?
For Christ's sake! Give me a break!
Don’t assume that because 1% of the Muslim population are fundamentalists and want to take over the world, that the rest of the 99% also have that view.
What else can I assume, given the despicable behaviour of Muslims in the world today?
Wow. And you call ME angry.
You pretty much reiterated my point- not all Muslims are fundamentalists and the vast majority are law-abiding, grateful citizens of Western countries. Some are extreme, I wont deny that. But those that are have a pretty difficult time recruiting followers. And the ones they do recruit are reacting to the injustices they see in the world. In no way does Islam condone, justify or even allow these people to do what they are doing. It doesn't tell them to blow up buildings or kill innocent people. They are reacting to political circumstances overseas that they feel inflamed by. The blame cannot be placed on Islam as it ultimately is a product of Western interference in ME affairs.
As for the superiority complex- you really are naive. A few centuries ago when Europe was still in its Dark Ages-chopping peoples heads off because they dared to steal bread for their families to live on- Muslims were heading scientific progress. Avicenna, Ibn Rushd and the like made the breakthroughs in art, science, astronomy, literature and the like that Western societies now are feeding off. If it werent for the Muslim of the day translating the philosophy books of the Ancient Greeks, we would have lost them forever. Modern day medicine would be primitive if it weren't for the efforts of Muslim doctors in the past. I'd know-Im a medical student.
The only reason such a civilisation failed to flourish was because of colnial rule over the centuries and other such forces which brought the Islamic civilisation to its knees. The only reason you're able to now boast that you are part of a "superior" civilisation is because Muslims of the past lay its foundations.
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