Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, launched a trenchant attack on Islamic culture, saying it was authoritarian, inflexible and under-achieving. The report was carried on the front page of the Daily Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom. [Read the article] . I was going to comment on Carey’s statement, but then I came across a response to the same article in the Muslims Under Progress blog. The section is entitled “Is Carey right?”. In fact all of the postings here are quite good except for the fact that the poster[?] seems to think that suicide bombers are martyrs if they are in a war morally justified. The problem is that any war can be morally justified. It depends what side you are on. Smart guy, good writer, some faulty justification.
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Dean got Muslimed
I’ve been trying to avoid talking about the Democratic primaries, but Gov. Howard Dean really got Muslimed. Often times, we, as Muslims, talk about how the media portrays us negatively, and that means much of the richness of Muslim civilizations are muted. Therefore, the negative press becomes self-fulfilling. I won’t get into the victim mentality behind such an approach, but clearly there is a kernel of truth to it. Now it seems that Gov. Dean got the same treatment. The only difference is, some outlets are owning up to it. Gov. Dean got Muslimed.
عيد مبارك
Eid Mubarak! May this day bring you much joy and happiness. May the month of Ramadan have brought you wisdom and discipline. May all your good wishes be fulfilled.
A Must Read
Haroon over at Avaristan has done it again! He has written a very nice response to Reid’s orignial posting about misunderstandings between Christians and Muslims. Also very applicable to Muslim misunderstanding about Christians AND other Muslims! Well worth the read. Now if only he would change is colour scheme – so my eyes don’t hurt after I finish reading. White on Dark is just plain wrong!
3 thoughts on “The contributions of Muslim civilisations”
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Salaam!
“The problem is that any war can be morally justified.”
Do you believe that is really the case? Can _any_ war be morally justified? I’m not sure.
In any case, I would make a clear distinction as to who the targets of war. Pakistani soldiers reportedly throwing themselves at Indian tanks is not evil; I think that is a justified cause. Palestinians attacking a pizzaria full of children must be condemdned with no exceptions.
I do not think that War is morally justified, however, I do believe that any side in a given conflict can easily justify their participation in that conflict as moral. Again, it depends on what side you are on. Do you think that al-Qaeda does not feel justified in their crimes? Pol Pot and his followers most probably felt the same. There have been very few instances in history where the doers of bad deeds have said “I know this is wrong, but we are going to do this anyway”. I know of none. Do you?
Maybe we’re arguing over words?
Perhaps I should have phrased it better. But ‘war’, a physical struggle, can become morally justified. An example is fighting a hostile invader – that’s a ‘war’ in my eyes.
As to Pol Pot, al-Qa’ida et al.: sure in their eyes their actions are ‘moral’. But what is the justification? Power-grabbing? Ethnic hatred? A “holy” cause? A fuzzy feeling?
Unless we’re all Abraham’s with sacrificial sons, I don’t think _anything_ can be morally justified.