As a resident of West Virginia I suppose I am in the midst of western
culture and my observation is that most people do not ordinarily even
mention their religion is they have one. Sometimes someone who I had not
even thought of as having religious beliefs will just incidentally
mention something in passing that lets me know that they do profess to
some religion, but then I never hear another word about it out of them.
For the most part these people who do not harass others with their
religion are pleasant people. If some of them are unpleasant then the
unpleasantness is about things other than religion. This secular
behavior makes for harmonious relations. But then there are some other
people who are like you, Mustafa. They cannot open their mouths without
pushing religion. They are pests and are entirely unpleasant to be
around. They constantly beat others over the head with religion. That
causes others to avoid them. But you were asking about why this pushing
of religion is so offensive. I can speak for myself on that one.
Religious doctrine is so completely absurd and so ridiculous that when
someone approaches me with the expectation that I should actually
believe such utter nonsense they are insulting my intelligence and that
is completely offensive. Around here the ones who do it are Christians
and are commonly called bible thumpers. You, Mustafa, may not be
Christian, but you are the same kind. You never ever send an email that
is not pushing absurd religious religious doctrine. YYou never cease.
You are determined to make yourself obnoxious. I hope tthis will give
you some answers to the questions you are contemplating.
On 7/13/2018 3:01 PM, Mostafa wrote:
On 7/13/18, Mostafa <ebob824@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
For western culture, religion doesn't resemble a crucial element in
everyday life. Westerns in general have embraced the concept of
relativism and disposed sacredness. Therefore, it is quite ordinary to
many of them to ridicule religious thoughts, beliefs and concepts. So,
why has this became a dominant perspective in the west? In order to
answer this question properly, we first must fathom how do they think.
Religion is despised in the west for many reasons, most of them are
due to the materialistic nature of everyday life there. Unlike what
many people assume, antipathy toward religion in the west is not
specific or exclusive to Islam. Yes, there is Islamophobia and its
range may vary from region to another but, the problem in my opinion
has deeper bases. It is the problem of theodicy. Without complicating
an academic definition, theodicy is the vendication of divine
providence in face of existing evil. For many atheists, this is a
perplexing trouble. So, it is not the denial of divine existence. They
rather decline divine characteristics. So in basic terms, if a
providential being is fully omnipotent and in perfect control of this
whole universe, why is there constant asperity in many forms across
the globe? There is one substantial factor and
in many instances, it is missed and not clearly fathomed in western
culture. Allah made evil and good to test our ability to choose
between them. So, it is part of this temporal life to see evil flow.
Islam doesn't justify the existence of evil. Concurrently, it absolves
us from falling in rational disgrace. Islam views this life as of
trial and it salvages eternal bliss of the hereafter for true
believers. Intellectualism is the bridge between belief and knowledge.
It strengthens our rational adequacy to discern how this universe
operates in perfect harmony. Islam doesn't oppose sophisticated
technology or modern lifestyle. It rather discards symbololatry
including and not limited to, mass Christendom. So to Muslim
recipients out there, next time, when you hear about or see a
defamatory Caricature of prophet Muhammad or a vomitous depiction of
his honourable character, (peace and blessings be upon him), please,
do not be offended, react sanely and fathom how these people think.
The cartoonist who made this belongs to western manner of thinking
which as we just stated, embraces relativism and disposes sacredness.
So, if we are to be fair and reasonable, we shouldn't scold
individuals for general conception of western culture and education.
This is how they were brought up, we must recognise that. We rather
are able to react differently. These people are heartless but they
have heavy pockets. For them, life is what money and what it buys.
With truehearted consignment to our faith, we could ostracise them
economically. We shouldn't waste our time attempting to preach about
Islam to them, because they basically won't listen. Similarly, we
should not demonstrate or react violently to any faith defamation.
Basically, these abhorrent acts are intended to appall our stability
and confidence. Thence, the sensible Muslim doesn't waste his time on
social media, engaging in despicable, disgusting and useless
arguments. He should rather use the right technique in the proper
time. Westerns do not even respect their own religion. We have seen
many films therein featuring Jesus peace and blessings be upon him as
homophile. To many westerns, they do not fathom that spiritualism is
in fact impalpable. Thus far, they won't ever respect Islam, the Noble
Koran, the estimable Kaaba or the sanctorum tomb of prophet Muhammad
peace and blessings be upon him which is located in the Grand Masjid
of Medina. The anti religion sentiment in the west has besieged all
organised faiths. The backbone of this is pertained to the total lack
of feting or at least, humbly accrediting the concept of observing
sacredness. I therefore urge Muslim recipients of this post to tardily
ponder and reexamine his or her relationship with western culture. I
learnt English at the British Council. Throughout my thorough journey
of learning this foreign language, I gradually developed a solid
conviction. It is crucial to grab and master the tool by which we
could communicate well with westerns. At the same time, we should not
be manipulated with their culture. In our part of the world, there are
many people who have been impacted with civil defeatism. For them,
western culture resembles a divine being. Consequently, they blindly
attempt to precisely imitate what it enjoins. So for instance, some
may raise a dog or a cat to just look like lay westerns. Of course,
this is backwardness, weakness and lack of identity adherence. Some
may absurdly devote themselves to alcoholism, drug abuse or sensualism
for the same reason. You won't be ever respected if you continue to
behave as such. You should rather be your own, not a distorted copy of
someone else. This lengthy editorial aims at reminding people of who
are we. To those who do not recognise my writing style, I am Mostafa
Almahdy. Some of you may have taught me or studied with me at Al-Arqom
institute for Islamic studies in foreign languages here in Cairo. I
happily proceeded in the field of special education and praise be to
Allah glory be to Him, have gained experience and recognition in the
field. Thank you for patiently reading and peace and blessings to you.
Mostafa Muhammad Tariq Almahdy, adaptive technology instructor,
theologian and English teacher.
