My dear liberals, you are wrong about Muslims
I was raised Muslim in a Muslim country till I migrated to the United States. I disagree very strongly with discriminating against or banning Muslims and I am in no way a fan of any politicians who have racist, sexist or xenophobic viewpoints. However, I do know that Muslims have a problem and it’s harmful to pretend otherwise which is the stance that many on the left are taking
The shooter in the Orlando shooting was a lot of things, an American, of Afghani decent, raised by Muslim parents, known to have a history of domestic abuse and anger, potentially gay and homophobic. A cocktail of different things went went into creating this mass murderer. Some pieces of what made him who he was were rooted in the problems of Muslims culture and society.
Sadly, the majority of Muslims support intolerant Sharia laws as shown by this report.
Sharia is authoritarian and harsh across the board. It encourages the harassment of the the LGBT community
Below are some things I witnessed personally growing up in Pakistan
Hate and Muslim religious leadership
Many muslim religious leaders are radicalized. Educated mainstream Muslims make fun of these people and vehemently disagree with them but still like sheep they show up at the mosque. The poor and illiterate are more easily brainwashed by anti west propaganda because they tend to take religious leaders at their word and don’t have any access to other perspectives.
The truth about Islamic schools
Islamic schools called Madrassas can often be hate factories. Those Madrassas that teach hate and serve as terrorist factories should be shut down. The poor children who are being brainwashed in these terrible places should receive proper education and care. This action alone will make the biggest difference against terrorism.
Sexual abuse and pedophilia in Muslim Societies
In Muslim societies sexual/domestic abuse and pedophilia is rampant, never discussed, totally denied, victims are shamed and perpetrators face no consequences. This is a very personal issue for me and I plan to speak out about it as much as I can for being quiet enables perpetrators and leaves the victims carrying the shame.
This happens because in Islam, women are powerless because they don’t have equal rights in court, or to inheritance and are also barred from religious leadership. Muslims need to own up to this malignancy in their religion.
Just a couple of months ago, in Pakistan, my country of origin, religious leadership was advocating a law that allows men to ‘lightly’ beat their wives, WTF!
Muslim men can have four wives. Whenever I have bought this up with Muslims they have said that this was because the Prophet married several women to save them from death back in the dark ages. Well its not the dark ages anymore and crap like this needs to STOP. I am wondering why so few mainstream Muslims are organizing and protesting against this garbage and why instead a much larger number of Muslims are interested in protesting against and blaming the West?
Perhaps Muslims focus on what the West does wrong as a distraction from issues closer to home because Its VERY dangerous for Muslims to publicly advocate or work towards change. Malala Yousefzai was shot for this and she isn’t the only one who has been hurt or killed for speaking out.
Proposals for combating terrorism that could actually make a difference instead of making things worse would be along these lines:
- Adjusting foreign policy and foreign aid to Muslim countries so that we reward positive changes towards stopping hate and intolerance
- Providing support for American mosques and Islamic schools to teach and discuss the issues of sexism, racism, homophobia, sexual consent and abuse openly. Encouraging Muslim countries to do the same.
- Encouraging the use of therapy and support groups so that Muslims who are the victims and perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence can get the help they need. Muslims routinely stay away from mental health treatment due to stigma and denial.
- Understanding that poor countries are often overburdened. Pakistan hosts the second largest number of refugees. Many of these refugees come from war torn Afghanistan and other traumatized areas. The Taliban are largely composed of orphans of war who have been brainwashed by radical Islamists
Its too much to expect that poor countries who are so under resourced can take care of a problem as difficult as terrorism. In order to see any real positive change, rich countries will need to work together with them to enable change.
