\n
GK: \u201cI see. It requires nuance to understand how brutality in the name of religion 600 years AD is a good thing.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI haven\u2019t said \u2014 ever \u2014 that brutality of any kind, for any reason, is \u201ca good thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re going to bear moral witness against somebody, you should take at least minimal care to make sure that you\u2019re not violating the Ninth Commandment in doing so.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cYou\u2019re obsessed with Islam. I\u2019ve never seen anyone in the church ride a hobby horse with such intensity.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nPerhaps you\u2019re unaware that I teach Islamic studies and Arabic at BYU?<\/span><\/p>\nWhy the stupid personal hostility?<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cand then you expect everyone to fall in line behind you. It\u2019s like you fancy yourself a prophet in your own right.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nMy impression has always been that you brought value to the comments section of my blog. Unfortunately, though, if you\u2019re now turning toward personal insults as your favored style here \u2014 this is, by the way, a huge surprise to me; I really didn\u2019t expect it of you, though perhaps I haven\u2019t been paying close enough attention to your previous comments \u2014 it may turn out that the ratio of cost to benefit is simply too high in your case.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cWhen you quote from the Quran you replace \u2018Allah\u2019 with \u2018God\u2019 to give it the appearance that one is reading from the Bible. An interesting sleight of hand.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nNo \u201csleight of hand\u201d at all. And no subterfuge. (Do you really imagine that casual accusations of disingenuousness somehow make you more persuasive?)<\/span><\/p>\nThe word Allah<\/em> is simply the Arabic equivalent of the English word God<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s not a name. It\u2019s used by Arabic-speaking Jews and and Christians, as well as by Arabic-speaking Muslims. It\u2019s the word used in the Arabic Bible, the Arabic Triple Combination, the Arabic Gospel Principles<\/em> manual, the Arabic temple ordinances, and the Arabic Articles of Faith. Translating Allah<\/em> into English as God<\/em> is no more dishonest or sneaky than so translating French Dieu<\/em> or German Gott<\/em> or Spanish Dios<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cYou\u2019re looking at Islam through rose colored glasses as thick as Coke bottles, while diagnosing with myopia anyone that doesn\u2019t accept what you\u2019re seeing. Ironic.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nNonsense. I recognize broad areas of dysfunctionality in contemporary Islamic societies. I\u2019m quite aware of them; I travel in the Islamic world several times each year, and I read and\/or teach about the Islamic world every single day. I\u2019ve done so for decades. I\u2019m willing to call out evil when I see it, but I\u2019m not disposed to see it where it doesn\u2019t exist.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cYou speak of Islamic \u2018culture\u2019 as though it has made monumental contributions to human understanding . . . when everyone can see with their own eyes that that is not true.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s absolutely<\/em> true. You\u2019re welcome to attend my Islamic Humanities course. We\u2019re meeting this term every Tuesday and Thursday, from 1:05 PM to 2:20 PM, and concentrating on architecture and literature in translation. Or, if you\u2019re up to it, feel free to sit in on my course on classical Arabic literature. It meets TTh from 2:00 to 2:50. Right now, we\u2019re reading Ibn Rushd\u2019s Al-fasl al-maqal<\/em> in Arabic. (My course on the Qur\u2019an in translation also meets on TTh, from 9:30 until 10:45 AM.) Next term, you might find my class on Islamic philosophy (in translation) of interest; it will probably focus on al-Ghazali.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cYou speak of Islamic \u2018culture\u2019 as though it has made monumental contributions to . . .\u00a0world peace,\u00a0when everyone can see with their own eyes that that is not true.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve said absolutely nothing of the kind. \u00a0I\u2019ve said nothing whatever on the topic.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nYou needn\u2019t attribute opinions to me that you\u2019ve invented on my behalf. \u00a0I\u2019m quite capable of coming up with opinions on my own.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
GK: \u201cThe vast majority (65%) of Nobel Prize winners are Christian, and even though Jews make up less that .2% of the world\u2019s population, they make up 21% of Nobel Prize winners. Islam is the world\u2019s second largest religion, and Muslims make up about 24% of the world\u2019s population. What have they contributed to human understanding in the last 117 years? Answer: They make up a mere 0.8% of Nobel Prize winners. Let that sink in. They make up 24% of the world\u2019s population, but make up only 0.8% of Nobel Prize winners.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI presume that you\u2019re not arguing that Muslims are intrinsically stupid. (I hope<\/em>\u00a0that you haven\u2019t descended that<\/em> low.) So I presume that you\u2019re arguing that Islamic civilization is inherently inferior.<\/span><\/p>\nBut such a claim is historically indefensible. There was a time when the Islamic world was far, far more advanced and sophisticated than was the Christian West \u2014 in terms of medicine, mathematics, the sciences, philosophy, and literature. Now the tables have turned. History is like that. Ups and downs. And very few things in human history are permanent.<\/span><\/p>\nIs the Islamic world in an era of economic and intellectual and political decline? Absolutely yes. Since at least AD 1800 and, I would argue, perhaps \u2014 in certain crucial ways \u2014 since sometime before AD 1500. \u00a0Very few people who know much about the subject would argue otherwise. Is Islamic culture inherently inferior, always and forever, to Western culture?<\/span><\/p>\nAbsolutely not.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cRose colored glasses indeed.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nNo. I simply know too much about this subject to swallow propagandistic caricatures.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cWhat has Islam contributed to the cause of Liberty and the rights of man?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nNot much, in the past few centuries. Nor had the West contributed much, for many years. Such ideas are, alas, relatively modern \u2014 and are still only intermittently respected, even in the West.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cDo Muslim countries highly value the concept of a wall of separation between mosque and state?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nOn the whole, no. They are perhaps two centuries or so behind the West in that regard, although they could conceivably catch up in much less time than that.<\/span><\/p>\nThere was an era, however, when Islam was arguably much more tolerant of religious minorities and of religious dissent than was Western Christendom. How many people were executed for heresy in the West? I can\u2019t count them. How many were executed for heresy in the pre-modern Islamic world? I can think of two \u2014 Suhrawardi and al-Hallaj \u2014 and, in each case, the real cause for their executions was probably more political than theological. How many \u201cprime ministers\u201d (or whatever equivalent term you want to use) in the pre-modern West were Jews or Christians? I\u2019m unaware of any. In the Islamic world, though, there were quite a few. (And so on and so forth.)<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cObviously they don\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nSo your question was purely rhetorical, intended to make me look like a fool. (Sorry to disappoint.)<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cSo there is no reason to think that they will when they become a majority in what are now Christian countries. Only a person wearing rose colored glasses would expect such a thing.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve said nothing about such an expectation, though I\u2019m interested to see how Islam and Muslims will develop, and are developing, in the West. You really don\u2019t need to invent positions and then attribute them to me. I\u2019ll state my own views, if it\u2019s alright with you.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cDid you happen to see the leaked internal Google video that was recorded after the 2016 election? Watch the whole video and tell me what opinions were not welcome in that meeting. Answer: The opinions of Christian conservatives.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nYou seem to imagine that you\u2019re arguing with a political liberal. What on earth led you into that<\/em> illusion?<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cA juggernaut of Christian persecution is heading down the tracks at breakneck speed.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nConceivably, yes.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cWhat religion is joining that cabal of Communists\/Socialists\/Progressives\/Atheists? Islam, of course.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nHardly.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cIslam isn\u2019t stupid.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIslam isn\u2019t a person.<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s also not a monolith.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201d It\u2019s going to ride the wave that will do the most harm to Christianity. \u2018The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nFantasy.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cThe writing is on the wall. Hard times are coming for Christians. The persecution is going to be unlike anything we\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nVery possibly. But responding with historical ignorance won\u2019t help anything.<\/span><\/p>\nGK: \u201cSo you can continue to paint that false image of Islam of yours, but no one with eyes to see is buying it.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.lds.org\/ensign\/\u2026<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 A virulently anti-Islamic reader of this blog \u2014 I hadn\u2019t noticed his hostility to Islam until the past day or two \u2014 has now posted several comments taking issue with my views on the subject. \u00a0I\u2019ve decided to post my response to him as a free-standing blog entry, here: \u00a0 GK: \u201cI see. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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