Author: Tawfik Hamid
Publication: Theegyptblog.blogspot.com
Date: October 17, 2011
URL: http://theegyptblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/from-heart-of-muslim.html
I was born a Muslim and lived all my life
as a follower of Islam.
After the barbaric terrorist attacks done
by the hands of my fellow Muslims everywhere on this globe, and after the
too many violent acts by Islamists in many parts of the world, I feel responsible
as a Muslim and as a human being, to speak out and tell the truth to protect
the world and Muslims as well from a coming catastrophe and war of civilizations.
I have to admit that our current Islamic teaching
creates violence and hatred toward Non-Muslims. We Muslims are the ones who
need to change. Until now we have accepted polygamy, the beating of women
by men, and killing those who convert from Islam to other religions.
We have never had a clear and strong stand
against the concept of slavery or wars, to spread our religion and to subjugate
others to Islam and force them to pay a humiliating tax called Jizia. We ask
others to respect our religion while all the time we curse non-Muslims loudly
(in Arabic) in our Friday prayers in the Mosques.
What message do we convey to our children
when we call the Jews "Descendants of the pigs and monkeys"... Is
this a message of love and peace, or a message of hate?
I have been into churches and synagogues where
they were praying for Muslims. While all the time we curse them, and teach
our generations to call them infidels, and to hate them.
We immediately jump in a 'knee jerk reflex'
to defend Prophet Mohammed when someone accuses him of being a pedophile while,
at the same time, we are proud with the story in our Islamic books, that he
married a young girl seven years old (Aisha) when he was above 50 years old.
I am sad to say that many, if not most of
us, rejoiced in happiness after September 11th and after many other terror
attacks.
Muslims denounce these attacks to look good
in front of the media, but we condone the Islamic terrorists and sympathize
with their cause. Till now our 'reputable' top religious authorities have
never issued a Fatwa or religious statement to proclaim Bin Laden as an apostate,
while an author, like Rushdie, was declared an apostate who should be killed
according to Islamic Shania law just for writing a book criticizing Islam.
Muslims demonstrated to get more religious
rights as we did in France to stop the ban on the Hijab (Head Scarf), while
we did not demonstrate with such passion and in such numbers against the terrorist
murders.
It is our absolute silence against the terrorists
that gives the energy to these terrorists to continue doing their evil acts.
We Muslims need to stop blaming our problems on others or on the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict. As a matter of honesty, Israel is the only light of democracy, civilization,
and human rights in the whole Middle East.
We kicked out the Jews with no compensation
or mercy from most of the Arab countries to make them "Jews-Free countries"
while Israel accepted more than a million Arabs to live there, have its nationality,
and enjoy their rights as human beings. In Israel , women cannot be beaten
legally by men, and any person can change his/her belief system with no fear
of being killed by the Islamic law of 'Apostasy,' while in our Islamic world
people do not enjoy any of these rights. I agree that the 'Palestinians' suffer,
but they suffer because of their corrupt leaders and not because of Israel.
It is not common to see Arabs who live in
Israel leaving to live in the Arab world. On the other hand, we used to see
thousands of Palestinians going to work with happiness in Israel, its 'enemy'.
If Israel treats Arabs badly as some people claim, surely we would have seen
the opposite happening.
We Muslims need to admit our problems and
face them. Only then we can treat them and start a new era to live in harmony
with human mankind. Our religious leaders have to show a clear and very strong
stand against polygamy, pedophilia, slavery, killing those who convert from
Islam to other religions, beating of women by men, and declaring wars on non-Muslims
to spread Islam.
Then, and only then, do we have the right
to ask others to respect our religion. The time has come to stop our hypocrisy
and say it openly: 'We Muslims have to Change'.
