Two Kinds
You want martyr? I’ll give you martyr. Here’s a real martyr.
Mahmud Muhammad Taha argued for a distinction to be drawn between the Meccan and the Medinan sections of the Koran. He advocated a return to peaceable Meccan Islam, which he argued is applicable to today, whereas the bellicose Medinan teachings should be consigned to history. For taking this position he was tried for apostasy, found guilty and executed by the Sudanese government in 1985.
There seems to be a lot of confusion around on this subject.
The funeral of British suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer was held in absentia in his family’s ancestral village, near Lahore, Pakistan. Thousands of people attended, as they did again the following day when a qul ceremony was held for Tanweer. During qul, the Koran is recited to speed the deceased’s journey to paradise, though in Tanweer’s case this was hardly necessary. Being a shahid (martyr), he is deemed to have gone straight to paradise. The 22-year-old from Leeds, whose bomb at Aldgate station killed seven people, was hailed by the crowd as ‘a hero of Islam’.
That crowd is mistaken.
Yes, fair point. I marveled at that item myself. ‘It is said that’ – perfect phrase with which to introduce any old crap. You can make it true just by saying it yourself!
And clearly the people at the ceremony in Lahore are going to be self-selected – which the author might have mentioned by way of clarity.
MKJ – this sort of fuzzy-logic pretending to be evidence also gives other extremists ammo – the BNP could wade in and extrapolate that the Muslim estimate is the truer one, and more than hints at the government’s lack of immigration control, etc etc.
It’s shite and it helps no one.
Nick S- I agree (assuming you are referring to the article as “fuzzy logic” rather than my post.)
The article itself seems to degenerate into a sort of paranoia based on dubious assumptions about population size and growth. It makes the classic demographic mistake of projecting current growth rates into the future- something which is unlikely to happen.
I’m not saying that Islam doesn’t need to take a long hard look at itself but this article takes the perspective of Islam as a “demographic threat”- which it patently isn’t.
Anyone have any data on rates of British Muslim secularization and intermarriage? That would be another factor mitigating the “demographic threat”.
Karl- Secularization I don’t know but the Census data does show figures for intermarriage and self- identification as “British”
The link is: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/census2001.asp
Most interesting is the material on “ethnicity and religion”, “ethnicity and identity” and “inter-ethnic marriage”.
These seem to indicate that Pakistanis and Bangladeshis are mostly muslim, have fairly high identification as British but miniscule intermarriage with other ethnic groups. This does suggest that there are tendencies towards ghettoisation in the UK
Secularisation?
Are you off your heads?
The penalty for apostasy in a muslim is death.
Why do you think “Western” educated muslim females in Britain are deliberately married off (usually forcibly) to fresh people from Bengal etc?
Because they might get “Western” ideas about equal rights, and education, and birth-control, and even seculaism …..
Why will almost no-one admit that religion is the problem, not part of the solution?
“Are you off your heads?”
Yes, completely and certifiably. Although I do happen to know several dozen people of Muslim ancestry (including my fiancee) who are totally secular now.