FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE: Islam is in trouble at the heart of its birthplace, Saudi Arabia, and consequently in other Muslim countries. Muslim leaders and media are desperately trying to regain control both internally and externally. Muslims are starting to openly and defiantly ask questions about their religion and rulers; while the international image of Islam is being tarnished daily with by every act of Islamic terror, hate speech and calls for jihad from the pulpits of mosques. The traditional Muslim call for violence and jihad that Islam got away with for centuries is now under increasing — scrutiny especially after 9/11. Islam is now under the microscope. That is the quagmire of Muslims today. How can they continue teaching their basic religious jihad education but still save Islam’s reputation in a culture where image and honor is everything?
The West is not fully aware of what is happening in the Muslim world today, where taboo topics are being discussed by brave Muslim reformists and former Muslims. There are ground-breaking Arabic TV and internet shows aired inside homes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Algeria, etc, discussing what ordinary Muslims were never allowed to hear before.
The brilliant Rachid Hmami, a former Muslim-turned-Christian and originally from Morocco, has a show, Suaal Garii ‘Daring Question,’ that is making shock waves across the Middle East. Another equally effective show is that of the brave Coptic priest, Father Zakareya Botros, who was imprisoned in Egypt for proselytizing to Muslims. Father Botros’s show is a huge success in exposing tyranny, contradictions and weaknesses in Islam. Muslims who call in are often shocked by what they hear for the first time about their own religion, yet another proof that the Muslim establishment intentionally spreads misinformation and ignorance about basic Muslim doctrines to Muslims. Many Muslims, even from Saudi Arabia, call in to renounce Islam.
Unprecedented defiance is happening in the heart of the Muslim world. Recently a prominent Egyptian female attorney and human rights advocate, Nagla Al Imam, announced she left Islam and became a Christian and insists that she will remain in Egypt, in defiance of Islamic law condemning her to death. She is now under intense 24-hour security. Islam is in trouble from within.
Both King Abdullah, custodian of the two Holy Mosques of Islam in Mecca and Medina, and the Islamic establishment everywhere, are extremely alarmed by the status of Islam today. Their power to control Muslims, trained for centuries to blind submission, is slipping away. Huge sums of oil money dedicated to rescue Islam’s image, is not enough to do the job.
That is where Obama’s services come to the rescue of King Abdulla. Obama’s bow to the king was no small matter, but of great significance in Muslim culture. It is a Muslim symbol of subjugation and inferiority. >>> Nonie Darwish | Monday, January 11, 2010
