Koran or Human Life: Which one is more important to Muslims?
I have been asking myself this question for some time but I have now decided to ask it out loud following the chilling news coming out of Afghanistan. The news is not something new. It has become a recurrent feature in many Islamic countries.
Yes, my question is this – which one is more valuable to our muslim friends – is it the Koran, or human life? Is it Islamic piety or respect for this one life we have? Is it this real temporary life in this world or the imaginary eternal life in the hereafter?
Because it is now confirmed that at least 10 more people have been killed and over 45 injured in Southern Afghanistan during a protest by muslims against the burning of the Koran in the US. Some UN workers were among those beheaded by Muslim protesters – who I guess are now expecting bountiful reward from Allah when they die!
I think, given the evolutionary stage of Muslim pride, patience, temper, comportment and sensibility, to burn a copy of the Koran is provocative. But that is not a justification for this madness and senseless bloodletting by Islamic mobs. Personally I have followed with utmost shock and disgust the violent reactions of Muslims in Nigeria, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, to anything that they consider provocative or offensive or as they often say ‘an insult to Islam’. Muslims easily resort to killing, maiming, destruction and bloodshed to register their anger, opposition and objection to an issue. And in the course of protesting against the burning of a Koran in the US, they beheaded UN workers and killed other persons. While I really do not support anyone burning the Koran (I think rather that the Koran should be critically evaluated, revised, or be re-written or be seen and read as a piece of ancient literature), I dont think such an act should warrant anyone beheading people or shedding human blood in protest. What is the connection between the person who burnt the Koran in the US and those killed in Afghanistan by the protesters? None. Will the blood shed in Afghanistan restore the Koran burnt in the US? No. A copy of the Koran burnt – even a thousand copies burnt – can be replaced, but those lives wasted by these bigots cannot be ‘replaced’.
It has become the case that the mere act of cartooning Prophet Muhammad or making some innocuous comment about his love life or criticizing the Koran has caused Muslims to riot and rampage across the world leaving death, destruction and blood in their wake. These violent reactions are expressions and manifestions of the prevailing mindset in Islamic societies. It is a clear sign that all is not well with how most Muslims are brought up in this 21st century. Surely Muslims have the right to protest or to march in demostration of whatever they oppose or disapprove of – whether it is the burning of the Koran or the cartooning of the ‘Allah’s messenger’. But they should not in the course of doing that deny others their rights, as is often the case – as it is in this case. So this idea of Muslims always resorting to killing and beheading to express their anger or Islamic offence should be condemned and not condoned by the civilized world. Such criminal acts should not go unpunished. Today, the civilized world should be able to tell Islamic societies to their face: ‘Enough is enough’. Enough of this outrageous behaviour. Enough of this distortion of human values. Enough of this religious madness. Enough of this nonsense and bloodshed. Enough of this mob action and fanatical hatred.
The Islamic world must purge itself of this fanatical strand which has alienated it from the civilized world and made life ‘nasty, brutish, and short’ for its people. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) should wake up from its slumber and take up this task of self renewal. The OIC should abandon the jihad it is championing at the UN through the infamous resolution on the defamation of religion (Islam). The OIC should strive and get all Islamic countries to attach more value to human life and the human being, than to the Koran.
I don’t think Islam can live happily with secularism. I think Christianity, and especially Catholicism struggle with secularism as it is. Also, western secularism has become so morally weak, so spineless, that there really is no limit to the lengths people will go to appease the biggest evil of our times. People struggle to find moral consensus in a disturbing relativistic world of opinion. Without consensus and political will, nothing can be achieved, only a long slow death of secular values in the west.
The attack on the UN in Afghanistan is a further wake up call, that extremism is not limited to a few terrorists, but it is mainstream in Islamic societies. Most western people are still unaware, that apostasy is a death sentence, that the UN and the west are not only weak, but have fallen for the myth that terrorism is the enemy, and not religion itself.
I fear that too, but I hope that this anger in Afghanistan is fueled by the war and the extreme poverty there. Still, what is the death count now for one burned book? 21 lives? It’s depressing that even in the worst of times humanity will sink to this level.
I agree with Egbert. It is a sad situation, what this world is experiencing, and what makes it worse is that so called “moderate” muslims do nothing about it. The same way the catholic church does nothing with their pedophile priests.
I wonder… if you have a copy of the Koran on an eReader, and throw it away or burn it or break it or delete it… technology is the enemy of islam.
I suppose it’s not surprising that the moderate Muslims in Afghanistan do nothing since they would probably become the next targets. However, why don’t we hear an outcry from Muslim communities in the West?
Well, not even the Interfaith Alliance in New York can do much more than pander to religion, based on their press release:
One can only imagine the challenges this organization faces when trying to walk the line between competing groups of the religiously insane.
Powerful and simple question. Things are only going to get worse.
As a starter, let’s get the hell out of Afghanistan.
oldebabe, If we leave Afghanistan, we will be abandoning it to the froth-mouthed religious lunatics, leaving the women who have come a long way since the invasion to the hideous misogyny of the extremists, and so on.
My closest friend is a Muslim, and he hates people who act like this in the name of his religion with a passion. I don’t think it impossible that Islam can be secularized, a belief system with no basis in reality can be twisted and interpreted into whatever shape is useful, and with time, hopefully the moderate Muslims, the humanist Muslims, and the atheists of these communities, with help of the west, will win against the lunatics.
The errie silence of the moderate muslim repeats again and it is this silence which negates any hope of islam accepting modern liberal human values.
It’s not the Islamic world or Muslim majority countries. It’s the Islamic far right, a powerful movement of lunatics who have the upper hand in Muslim majority countries, but who are in fact the minority in most of them (take a look at elections in Muslim countries where there’re ones and see how religious parties are usually (unfortunately not always) quite small). The problem is that they’ve been very organized in launching a campaign of terror and intimidation, esp. of other Muslims who are less observant, and they have al Qur’an and the Hadith on their side (you have to be very economical with the truth to interpret them in a nice way… it can be done, but it’d be only when you get the “meh-attitude” towards Islamic sacred texts that you get from most Christians nowadays). They should be denounced for what they are, a fascist death cult. And secularists from Muslim majority countries should be given more support and more prominent voices (al-Grauniad and their ilk should be denounced for their constant pandering to the Islamic far right and their siding of secular Muslim voices, for example).
This is not acceptable, and the fact that it seems unexceptional it tragic. Suppose I were to suggest that bigoted rhetoric against socialism should not be tolerated. People would think me lunatic, as well they should. (Or North Korean.)
Religions are ideologies like any other. People who hold them should expect challenge, not deference.
Rhetoric and action(peaceful) against the Muslim faith can and must be tolerated. We should certainly support moderate Muslims, but support is not the same as pandering. I don’t know what is in the hearts and minds of most Americans, but if I looked I would hope to find there respect for the separation of church and state, a commitment to a secular nation, a belief in freedom of expression, and an understanding that debate and conversation – including such demonstrations as book burning – are an intrinsic and necessary part of a mature nation.
[…] or Human Life: Which one is more important to Muslims?”, by Leo Igwe, and published over at Butterflies and Wheels. Here we read a very calm yet urgent concern, expressed with sensitivity: I think, given the […]
Oh great – from “the Interfaith Alliance in New York” –
Really?! Bigoted rhetoric against Islam will not be tolerated? Is that a fact! And who will do the not tolerating? And with what weapons?
Really, that’s an absolutely extraordinary thing to say. It’s worthy of the OIC.
Oh, I see Ken had already made that point. Beg pardon, Ken. The red mist of rage obscured my vision for a few minutes.
[…] Not Leo Igwe? Not Allen Esterson? Not Phil Molé? Not Franco […]
I agree with Leo that the koran should be criticized, but I also think it’s perfectly fine to burn it. It’s actually a worthless glop of rewritten bible stories topped off with reverential slobbering praise for the imaginary Muhammed, who was invented as Islam’s answer to the Jews’ imaginary Moses and the Christians’ imaginary Jesus. Any time I feel like it, I will print out a few pages myself from an online copy and burn it.
First comer here hello! The title of the article pulled me in. I feel that the author is prejudiced against muslims and lacks fundamental understanding of their world. By the way I am a christian.
Please correct me if I am wrong but I consider this question a false dichotomy. You really think that the only reason for the demonstration in Afghanistan is the burning of the Koran? This is only the drop that makes the glass spill over. Please don’t forget the colonialist policies that the western world has since beggining of the 20th century imposed on many of them.People in Afghanistan protest for the constant (civilised world sponsored) conflict which causes lack of basic means for life and endless bloodshed. That is the major cause for anger, disgust and protest.The killings were done from extremists mixed with the crowd. Naming them all simply as blindly violent people who kill on the slightest provocation is plainly wrong.
Violent muslilm protests in Europe and Nigeria ? when, where, what happened ? Misinformed perhaps ?
If that is not an oversimplification then what is it ? In the past three decades that I live the killing, maiming, destruction and bloodshed caused by muslims pales in comparison to the violence that our western civilised, life respecting countries have exercised against them and other unfortunate people.
The islamic world is a diverse mix of people fanatics and moderates are included how do you sum them all up? According to your world view then all Germans during the WWII were Nazis?
Please save us from the hypocrisy about the value of human life. Human life has equally no value in our society if it comes to conflict with our “vital” national interests. Hence our generous support for bloodthirsty dictators and regimes (muslim and non-muslim) that support them.
People mostly protest for some (reasonable) reason. Try to find it before you come to conclusions.
Particularly the majority of these people live under deplorable conditions. The koran is perhaps the last thing they have to hang on.
Take care, be safe
Makis Papadopoulos, you have a point, of sorts. Some of the language you quoted is intemperate and lacking in nuance. It’s fair enough to point that out.
Whoops, posted before I was finished.
As I was saying, it’s fair enough to point out that the language is intemperate. It’s also reasonable to mention that western policies regarding the Arabic world have not well embodied the ideals and ethics that we like to trumpet. Where I would draw the line is your apparent implication that the victims of these atrocities bear more responsibility that the people who did it.
It may seem a small thing to you – once you have begun on your explanations of the corruptions of the west – but I don’t see where you make it clear that brutal murder of men and women for a book-burning they had nothing to do with might not be a reasonable action.
Of course, after having observed what appears to be a viscous massacre to those of us lacking your empathy, people react angrily, and use some strong language. It’s excellent that cooler heads such as yours prevail, and let them know that they should not be angry, but be looking deeply into the situation to find out how it is, in fact, their fault.
After all, clearly, when a book is burned, and what follows is the murder of innocents, we should not condemn, but understand. On the other hand, we should feel deep shame at having used strong language concerning the murder of innocents. The ethical reasoning is very clear.
@ Rhetorical Tyro
Thank you very much for your comments.
I am not sure I understand from which part of what I wrote you come to this conclusion. Please explain.
Here you are right. I never though excused the murders. My aim was to explain the substrate for the occurings. I wouldn’t describe as corruption what is happening in the west. I would call it double standards, hypocrisy and no respect for human life and culture of “other” people outside our national borders.
In any case let me clearly state that I condemn, regret and feel terribly sorry for the loss of any human life under any circumstances. I cannot find any excuse for anyone killing collateraly or intentionally for whatever reason my (or somebody elses) wife, children or friends. Killing people never solved any problems. However that is what happens during most if not every demonstration in Afghanistan.The reason for the demonstration is irrelevant. People are getting killed anyway. Islam and Koran have nothing to do with this.
I am scared that murdering innocent people is being used by all sides in these troubled regions in order to perpetuate the conflicts and defend therefore whatever (sick) interests they have.
I want to point out once more that I am saddened that there seems to be a tedency to judge and critisise large groups of people with inhomogeneous attitudes and beliefs based only on their religion label while at the same time we fail and neglect to recognise and cauterise our (societies/countries) shortcomings.
I think you are right that it’s unfair to blame Islam in particular, although, given your Christianity I imagine we would disagree as to why.
There are moderate Muslims and extreme Muslims, there are moderate and fundamentalist Christians. If we say something like ‘Muslims don’t value life’ then we are making, probably for rhetorical reasons, an unsustainable claim. Obviously many Muslims do; to say they don’t is almost to say they are not human, are incapable of empathy, are incapable of love, are incapable of basic moral reasoning and so on.
And you are right to say that ‘the west’ -which we should not think of as homogeneous either- has often been hypocritical and has performed many heinous acts. To be fair, it wasn’t long ago that Americans were lynching blacks, and as recently as the last couple of decades we have had concentration camps in Europe. It wasn’t long ago that we were propping up the very dictators that kept Arabic people in misery, and in many cases we still are. A lot of the problems in that region do stem from the colonial era.
But I ask myself, although there are moderate religious people who pick and choose their dogmas basically in order to make their faith compatible with modern secular ethical reasoning, what could possibly have justified this bloody massacre in the minds of those that carried it out other than religious beliefs(or quasi-religious ways of thinking like nationalism etc). It is not Islam in particular that is the problem, it is the dogmatic, tribal, willfully ignorant mindset that religion generally inculcates in its most zealous believers that is the problem. Which is where my problem with your argument arises.
You basically miss the point when you seek to locate the cause of the killings in the conditions that the west has brought about. It’s not all the fault of the west, and to say it is is to remove any hint of agency from the Afghanis, they are capable of looking at the world, knowing what it is right and wrong, loving, feeling compassion, and they are capable of choosing to turn their backs on that, and the particular reasons that some of them have chosen to turn their backs in this instance are not to be found in colonial oppression, or justified righteous indignation, but in the tenets of their faith, the manipulations of the leaders of that faith, and the rigid, cynical way of looking at the world that that faith causes.
I think is absurd. The west is largely pluralist, although not perfectly so. If you were to compare the levels of tolerance for alternative beliefs in the UK and the US, to the levels of tolerance in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, I think it would become fairly clear who has no respect for the culture and beliefs of other people. Furthermore, I don’t feel any obligation to respect whatever culture leads to the sort of action we have seen in Afghanistan recently
Well I have to say that I find our discussion quite interesting.
And still is. My bad for not elucidating that with West I mean (most) of our goverments. I also mean (most) of our media. Not all of them of course. The Author of the article echoed in my opinion the prevailing and evangelicised view that the muslims are because of their religion this or that.
I really cannot grasp what you misunderstand from what I wrote can you please quote me ? which of my arguments are you refering too? When did I justify the murder of innocent people?
Of course it is not all fault of the west the east did a lot too. The Afghanis were -so far as I remember- never left undisturbed to choose their own destiny.
True, although neither Pakistan, nor Saudi Arabia advertise as countries that tolerate other religions or attitudes. And despite of that we -that we consider ourselves as propagators of democracy and human rights- are good friends with them and turn a blind eye at their behaviour. (Here is the hypocrisy part) For example I don’t remember any prominent politician or other public figure or media actively critisising the Saudi goverment.
Well you shouldn’t. But is it a cultural thing ? I feel that what happened/happening in Afghanistan was/is not a result of a cultural trait, but rather the product of actions of a minority of armed (perhaps religious) radicals/thugs.
The perpertrators of these crimes in Afghanistan and other war torn regions will probably never get caught. Condemning all killing please tell me:
what short of respect do you hold for the culture of people that press a button thousand of miles away, vaporise among others some innocent men, women and children that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and say oops sorry collateral damage ? Will someone in our pluralist, democratic, just, human right loving society/culture/countries ever held accountable for these and other MURDERS? Will ever?
Take care
Makis, if you think Leo Igwe is writing from “the West” you’re wrong: he lives in Nigeria, where he campaigns against accusations of “witch-craft” against children and often rescues them from terrible situations.
Miss Benson thank you for your comment. I don’t know Mr. Igwe I just pointed out that his views echo the prevailing attitude against muslims of the people of the “western” world. I don’t like to put labels on people.
I must admit I was annoyed by the title of the article. I feel however great respect for Mr. Igwe for he is doing a dangerous job and I hope and wish that he stays safe.
Some of my best friends are muslims from different parts of the Arab and non-Arab world and having the chance to get to know them and their friends well I came to realise many of the misconceptions and sterotypes that plagued my world view.
I couldn’t help but recognise some of those stereotypes inside the article of Mr. Igwe. And I felt an urge to point them out.
At the same time I hope that my own world-view misunderstandings will be argumentative exposed to me.