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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Go pray with your sisters in NYC
Yes, Alhamdulilah – today is a historic day for Muslims in America and the world. If you are in NYC today – you may want to attend a Jummah service led by Dr. Amina Wadud. Yes a sister! She will be leading prayers and men and women will be side by side. Congratulations on such a bold stand. May Allah offer the organizer and attendees courage and protection.
An Invitation? [updated]
“Please attend our destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. No RSVP needed, but looks of shock, disbelief and mourning are encouraged.” Is that what Bush was waiting for? It must be because he said: “There was nothing there that said, you know, ‘There’s an imminent attack,’ ” Bush said during a brief news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian leader visited Bush’s Texas ranch to talk about the Middle East. I don’t think 9/11 was the strictly the fault of the Bush administration, but I believe they did ignore a risk minimization strategy.
I hope this isn’t true [updated]
The following article talks about the disproportionate response to Iraqi aggression by US troops. As a tactic it is debatable, but is also a strategic decision. However, the British troops seem to suggest that the response is not based on strategy but on racism. I hope it’s not true. It does beg the question though, in the first Gulf War much ado was made of the precision guidance systems on our missile systems. Has our technology regressed in the interim? Or have we made the decision that these systems are too expensive to be used in limited casualties? Link via…
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.