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Politically Incorrect Islam, Muslim Religion, Muslims and Daniel Pearl

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I dedicate this essay to memory of the Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered by terrorist in Pakistan five years ago.

Before Daniel was beheaded he recorded a message, "My name is Daniel Pearl. I am a Jewish-American from Encino, California. My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish. I am Jewish."

To Daniel?s parents, Ruth and Judea Pearl, these words meant*, when Daniel Pearl said "I am Jewish" what he was trying to tell his captors was: "I respect Islam precisely because I am Jewish, and I expect you to respect me and my faith precisely because you are, or claim to be good Muslims." In other words, he was saying, "I come from a place where one"s heritage is the source of one"s strength, and strength is measured by one"s capacity to accommodate diversity, because it is only through diversity that we recognize our common humanity."

So when Daniel Pearl uttered his final words, he was telling the world: "I am reminding you of the challenge of understanding others." It is a reminder we need to rekindle today.?

* - Quoted from an article by Ruth and Judea Pearl, Houston Chronicle, May 6, 2007

The essay refutes persistent self-serving unqualified claims by Western educated Muslims settled in America and other non-Islamic majority secular democracies that Islam is a religion of peace. An Open Letter1 (see, references, page 8) to Pope was offered by Muslim elites to clarify some aspects of Islam, which are inconsistent with voluminous empirical data available in open literature not only in past several years but also that starting with inception of Islam by Prophet Mohammad (ca. 570 - 632AD) in late 6th and first half of 7th centuries. The letter admits and I quote, ?Islam spread partly as a result of conquests? and contradicted by insisting that Islam did not spread ?by the sword.?

Everyone has the right to renounce past; but not to make up that past. It is beyond brazen to think that one can get away with inventing history and what everyone saw and read with their own eyes just a few years ago. Although until availability of historical data on internet brazenness had worked, it is getting harder and harder to ignore voluminous empirical historic data.

Islam like its predecessor Christianity spread ?by the sword? as well as other methods; the authors of the Open Letter1 are quibbling over the degree, which reminds me of a joke attributed to an English philosopher and a famous ballerina.

The philosopher asked the ballerina, ?If I offered you a million pounds would you sleep with me??
?I may,? replied the ballerina.
The philosopher inquired, ?what if I offered ten pounds??
?Sir, what do you think I am?? demanded the ballerina.
?We have already established that, madam? responded the philosopher, ?we are dickering over price.?

Islam and Christianity have many similarities; both were influenced by Greek philosophy. Christians had closed the window of Greek thought as early as 4th century as anti-religion till the 15th century when reformists defied the edict of established Church. Muslim scholars, followers of the Mu?tazilite philosophy of rationality in Islamic theology had translated ancient Greek works into Arabic between 9th to 12th centuries. The reformist period in Muslim majority lands lasted only for about two centuries out of more than 1,400 years of Islamic onslaught on non-Islamic lands, sectarian wars and internal power struggles that resulted in murder of many autocrats including three of four Caliphs.

From 7th to 13th century with repeated invasions by Arabs, Islam proliferated to all directions converting subjugated and humiliated population, some times ?by the sword? to spread message and teachings of the holy Prophet. During that period the Muslim Um?mah produced eminent philosopher, scientists, scholars, and thinkers who not only created original thinking but translated Greek, Indian2 and Persian (not Chinese) classical works.

A brief introduction to three notable Mu?tazilite philosophers, who were influential in the West well into the Renaissance period, follows:
1. Al Farabi (Alpharabius) (870-951) is considered father of Islamic Neoplatonism and he wrote over 100 works including Al-Madina al-fadila (On the Perfect State), where he theorized an ideal Islamic state as in Plato?s Republic. Al Farabi contributed to mathematics, philosophy, medicine and music and his work aimed at synthesis of philosophy and Sufism paved way for Ibn Sina?s work.
2. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037) - a Persian (Shia) physician noted for his 450 works mostly in philosophy and medicine - interpreted Aristotle.
3. Ibn Rushd (Averros) (1126-1198), a Maliki, resident of Cordoba, Spain was a commentator on Aristotle and Plato. He authored classic defense of philosophy, ?The incoherence of the Incoherence (Tahaful al-tahafut),? defended Aristotelian philosophy arguing against al-Ghazali?s claims in ?The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahaful al-falasifa).? He held that domains of faith and reason did not conflict. He remained influential in the West well into the Renaissance.

The Christianity of Prophet Jesus Christ was radically altered by incorporation of morality and values attributed to Augustine (ca 354 - 430AD; author of a book, "City of God: Against the Pagans"), a Roman priest, an early Christian theologian, a judge and a warlord in the Rome occupied Africa. The warlord Augustine and his friends forced Arab pagans of Africa to convert to Christianity ?by the sword.? He was murdered by pagan Arab vandals forcing their way into his church and they burned it down.

The western renaissance of 14th century was the outcome of the efforts of those Muslim scholars whose works made their way into western society. The Greek/Muslim knowledge reached Europe from Cordoba where caliphs like Hasham-II, a great bibliophile, were maintaining a library of more than 400,000 volumes, when printing was yet unknown, and not through Ottomans. For this reason, European monarchs hired Arabic-language teachers and established Arabic school to take advantage of knowledge of modern sciences. Ottoman Sultan Mohammad-II conquered Constantinople in the year 1453.

A second wave of changes in Christianity started with renaissance instituted by Papal and European nobility?s patronage of arts and literature, roughly from 14th to 17th century. Reforms in Christianity continued after the 17th century as Europe and Catholic Church embraced the ?industrial revolution? by incorporating into Christianity the newly established scientific truths by Newton and other European scientists, who had learned mathematical logic imported by Jesuit Priests from India. A detailed account of relationship between establishing of scientific truths in Europe and mathematical logic developed in India, with deeply rooted Vedic culture, is presented by Prof. C. K. Raju3. Raju details the physics, philosophy and politics of time beliefs over past several millennia.

In a struggle between the protestant movement and Catholics, the reformist Protestants managed to rid of dominance by fundamentalists Catholic Church. It followed a period of renaissance to bring about reforms in Christian social, cultural and political norms. With a separation of the Church and state, in many instances reformist Christians were able to incorporate reasons to evolve into a modern culture and society.

In the first wave of reforms the Mu?tazilite philosophy of rationality in Islamic theology had advocated that Muslims should absorb the Hellenic traditions, i.e., the learning, freedom of inquiry and the acquisition of knowledge. That changed when Muslims rejected rationality over traditions.

Islam experienced radical changes ? regressive changes - by being dominated by the Asharite philosophy. Al-Ash?ari, Abu-Hasan (ca 873 - ca 935) was a traditional Islamic theologian of medieval times and he founded the Asharite school in opposition to the Mu?tazilite philosophy of rationality in theology. He renounced reason and announced his key idea that the contentious passages of Koran must be accepted ?without asking how.? This precipitated the debate between rationality and providence in Islam, which later moved into Western theology.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote that the way we treat our women is an indicator of our barbarism. Unlike in Islam, starting 19th century, continued reforms in Christianity led to no-holds barred freedom exercised in the western societies. Women liberation is now an accepted norm in constitutional Western democracies that have embraced secular values. Unlike in Christianity, Muslims society guided by the Asharite philosophy became closed minded, regressive or a society with mindset frozen in the past. The Islamic societies surrendered individual freedoms to the vagaries of clerics and ruling elites dominating social, cultural, economic and political Islam. Women and followers of non-Islamic faith remain subjugated and humiliated in 57 Muslim majority nations of Islamic Um?mah represented by Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

A second wave of reforms in Islam has yet to happen as Islam is still dominated by Asharite philosophy. Islamic Um?mah continues to be dominated by the Muslim warlords and politically motivated fundamentalist extremist. For example, theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini (Shia) in Iran, followers of Deobandi Islam (Taliban ? tribal society, Sunni) cooperating with autocrats of Pakistan, and Wahhabist and Salafists (Sunni) cooperating with Saudi Princes have so far effectively inhibited modernization by incorporating much needed social and cultural changes that come with renaissance in arts and literature, and acceptance of scientific truths described in my essay, Science and Cultural Dilemma4.

Unlike political practices in the Muslim majority Islamic states, the Christian majority constitutional democratic nations in the West and non-Christian majority India use secular ideas to guarantee individual freedoms, equality of sexes, and political evolution in keeping with continuous changes in modern time.

Since 13th century the control and interpretation of Islamic teachings has rested with the Asharite philosophy dominated clerics of dubious scholarship and promoted by power hungry autocrats and warlords. The Open Letter1 essentially argued what Prophet Mohammad?s Islam was meant to be. It ignores empirical historical data related to Islam4, 5 and as Islam is today.

A Sunna or tradition of violence was initiated by Prophet Mohammad by conquering Mecca in a military action. His successor Caliphs following his Sunna starting second half of 7th century waged numerous wars against non-Islamic neighbors and in the process forced Islam ?by the sword? on subjugated and humiliated population of the conquered lands. For example, Dr. Wafa Sultan6, a Syrian-born psychiatrist living in USA has observed that only Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches. Let?s examine some relevant historic empirical data:

1. After systematically destroying the places of worships (Hindu Temples, Christian Churches, etc) Muslims built Mosques on top of the destroyed structures in Europe and India.
2. During Sultanate (950 ? ca 1200 AD) and Mughal (ca 1500 ? 1857 AD) periods Turkic invaders from north and central Eurasia destroyed numerous centers of scholarship in India including universities at Nalanda (Bihar), Ujjain MP), Taxila (now in Pakistan), etc. A revival of Nalanda University is in works; a pictorial view of remains of the Nalanda University is available on internet6.
3. In 1150 Caliph Mustanijid burned the philosophical works of Ibn Sina (Avicenna).
4. In 1194 Amir Abu Yusuf al-Mansur, then at Seville (Spain), burned the works of another great Muslim philosopher, Ibn Rushd (Averros).
5. According to Mr. M.A. Khan of Islamic Watch, eleventh century (1001 ? 1030) saw the barbaric assault of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni on India. Mahmud?s army slaughtered 15,000 fighting men in what they described as the ?splendid action? before capturing 500,000 men and women as slaves. In the attack on Thanesar, ?the blood of the infidels flowed so copiously that the stream was discolored and the people were unable to drink it?. Sultan Mahmud attacked (1025) and destroyed the famed Somnath temple in the Western India and massacred over 50,000 Hindus guarding the temple.
? Sultan Muhammad of Ghor raided India during 1192 ? 1200 killing more than 100,000 civilians. The barbarity and cruelty of Sultan Muhammad of Ghor was proudly and vividly described by contemporary Muslim historians8.
6. Sultan Allauddin Khaliji (1296-1316) attacked Chittor in the present Rajasthan State and killed 30,000 people in cold blood. No wonder that 50,000 slave boys were engaged in his personal services and 70,000 slaves worked continuously in his buildings.
7. Firoz Tughlaq, who ascended the throne in 1351, killed another 180,000 Hindus in Bengal and erected the infamous ?Tower of Skulls.?

Many more historical details including instances of mass killing by Mughal Emperor Akbar (1542 ? 1605) are found in history books7.

These few examples refute the claim - Islam is religion of peace ? that ignores voluminous empirical data available in public literature for past several centuries. Not long ago (2001) America witnessed that Islam is anything but a religion of peace when human missiles using pirated civilian airliners were used to put a hole in New York?s skyline and attack Pentagon, not to mention a prevented attack on the White House.

Assuming an average congregation of about 1,000 per Muslim cleric, a reasonable estimate is that more than a million Muslim clerics represent over a billion Muslim of the Islamic Um?mah. Muslims making a home in America and other non-Muslim majority nations should know that a hundred self-serving clerics and scholars out of more than a million Muslim clerics of the Islamic Um?mah representing over a billion Muslims can hardly make a credible representation of overall Muslim understanding of their faith or for that matter their silent support for the offensive jihad against the perceived enemies of Islam. I think Westernize Muslim elites are in denial that they are a party to propagating a profoundly politically incorrect image of Islam.

Western educated Muslims, especially those settled in America, Western Europe and other non-Muslim majority secular constitutional democracies represent only a small fraction of over one billion Muslims. Muslims routinely ignore the voluminous empirical evidence available in literature to assert that Islam is a religion of peace to differentiate themselves from fundamentalist extremist?s practices prevalent in the Islamic Um?mah.

Western educated Muslims settled in secular democracies know or should know that societies in their country of origin in the Islamic Um?mah are trapped in a vise between militant religious extremists on one hand and military dominated authoritarian regimes on the other hand and both segments are the proponents of jihadi terrorism including spread of Islam through conversions ?by the sword.? Space for civil society, which normally includes most Western educated Muslims, has been reduced to minimum and therefore, they lack credibility if they attempt through the Open Letter1 to speak for more than one billion Muslims of the Islamic Um?mah.

They only have to open eyes to latest empirical data such as a poll recently concluded in Egypt, Morocco, Pakistan and Indonesia reported in a news story9, based on a poll conducted by the Washington-based nonprofit group WorldPublicOpinion.org and the University of Maryland. Another review10, reported how officially terrorist organization of Pakistan such as LeT, JUI, etc control more than 65% of Madrassas with an average annual enrolment of 1.5 million students for 2001 to 2006 period. These are factories for production of offensive jihadis in Pakistan and same is true of all member of the Um?mah with a Madrassas brand ?rote and regurgitate? education system funded by Saudis and a variety of Muslim organizations globally collecting funds, some in America for Madrassas.

That the elites who try to promote an image of Islam inconsistent with the empirical data are defending profoundly politically incorrect Islam is irrefutable. Latest scientific data with DNA analysis studies by scientist in India, Spain and US is scheduled for publication in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology according to a news report11. It reported that the Shias and Sunnis in Uttar Pradesh (India) are mostly descendants of converts, the former have some elements of paternal foreign ancestry. The latest data are consistent with mass conversion of Hindus to Islam over a period of forty to fifty generations (about 1,000 years), some no doubt ?by the sword.?

The Open Letter1 also admits that in introducing Islam ?Prophet never claimed to be bringing anything fundamentally new?. The admission confirms that historically Islam is a derivative of Judaeo-Christian religion connected to teachings in the Old and New Bibles and Islam incorporated social and cultural practices and policies that were used to inflict sufferings on pagans - Arabs and other Semites - of pre-Islamic period by Roman Christian warlords cum priest like Augustine and others before him. However, once Islam was introduced by Mohammad the Muslim warlords followed many of the same social and cultural practices used by Augustine and other Roman Christian warlords before him to perpetuate a cycle of violence and conversions ?by the sword.?

Muslims scholars and think-tank pundits maintain that for devout Muslims Islam as a religion is intertwined with its social, cultural and political practices and there is no question of the separation of state and mosque as is the case in many Christian majority democracies and non-Islamic majority nations (India and China). Most of 57 Muslim majority nations are ruled by dictators of various shades and feudal warlords. Repression of masses is a wide spread social and cultural practice in the Um?mah. In Muslim majority nations with a predominantly semi- and illiterate repressed population, Muslim clerics of questionable scholarship dominate enforcement of the questionable interpretations of Koran, Sunna (tradition), Hadith and Shariah - or a code of personal law, morality, ethics and standard for women?s modesty - to guard against influencing Islamic social and cultural practices by modern practices.

In enlightened societies the modern practices are represented by secular ideals such as equality of sexes and of people of all faiths, equal legal protection for all, and an independent judiciary to guarantee protection of all articles of constitution (a publicly voted and approved document!) from abuse by anyone, freedoms of expressions and rights to personal property etc.

In stark contrast to secular ideals, another medieval Asharite Arab Persian scholar, Al-Ghazali (1058 ? 1111) in the history of Islamic thought argued against the theology of reason and against earlier philosophers such as Al Farabi and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) in his book, ?Tahaful al Falasifa? (Destruction of the Philosophy). Thereafter, starting 13th century further thinking in philosophy, mathematics, and science ceased in the Arab Muslim world.

As opposed to the Islamic closed mindset, rational and reasonable people know that a ?just? society requires freedom of religion and protection of individual property rights. The political Islam is for state ownership of all property and the authority for interpretations of Koran, Hadith, Sunna and Shariah is centralized with Muslim clerics. Contrary to what the Open Letter1 asserts, the radical-fundamentalist clerics among orthodox Muslims in Islamic Um?mah enforce traditional Arab tribal practices of medieval period, not the modern day secular and liberal practice of peace and justice for all irregardless of gender and individual religious beliefs. These Islamic traditions are not the characteristics of religious practices that conform to peace and justice for all including women and followers of non-Islamic faiths.

By making an unqualified assertion ? Islam is religion of peace ? the Westernized Muslim elites deploy a ?stealth? technique to indirectly defend indefensible Islamic social, cultural and political practices such as subjugation and humiliation of women as well as the followers of non-Islamic faiths and those waging jihad against the perceived enemy nations (Dar-el-harb). After being indirectly implicated in the event of 9/11 Pakistan - controlled by covertly radical officers of the army - is trying hard to project itself as a moderate Muslim majority nation. In a listing of common excesses routinely committed by Pakistan?s extremists Dr. Farrukh Saleem12 stated (Muslim) men needn?t worry of such excesses against them implying inequalities inherent in Islam. At least a third of Pakistan population is radical - extremist, most of the rest are ambivalent at best and only a small percentage of populations make up the civil society.

By making unqualified, self-serving statement that Islam is a religion of peace, the Westernized elites like any Muslim, do not separate religion of Islam from its social, cultural and political practices leaving one to ask if Islam is a house of cards? If one of three cards ? social, cultural and political ? falls, is it possible all of Islam may fall? Question is what do they mean by Islam is a religion of peace? If religion can not be separated from Islamic social, cultural and political practices, why it should be considered a religion of peace?

A young Muslim cleric in a Riyadh mosque has recently claimed that Muslims have a right to self-defense and so they don?t have to wait for the government to declare jihad. Did he mean defensive rights justified offensive jihad? Have any religious authorities in Saudi Arabia or for that matter, those (in any other country) who maintain Islam is religion of peace clarified the difference?

In the aftermath of al Qaeda guided destruction of New York?s World Trade center, under homeland security rules many Muslims, mostly illegal undocumented immigrants were forced to leave America. This has quieted down the belligerency experienced in America from foreign born Muslims before and immediately after the event of 9/11. Foreign born Muslims in America are mostly self-serving public relations activist who maintain that homicidal Islam4 is an abrasion perpetrated by a minority of extremist Muslim among more than a billion Muslim populations. In a futile attempt to defend Islamic extremism some do finger pointing to extremism by non-Islamic followers, forgetting that unlike global spread of Islamic extremism, that by non-Islamic faith followers is mostly localized to a very limited areas, for example that by Tamil Tiger in Sri Lanka and the Jews belonging to Kach Kahane. Nobody, especially all internet suave well educated non-Islamic faith followers, is fooled by such comparison of global and localized terrorism.

Under public pressure, both political and media mounted, in the interest of self-preservation the Open Letter1 signed by 100 Muslim scholars and Imams have expressed condemnation of terrorism and hate. But judging from the voluminous empirical evidence available there is only scant evidence that autocrats in Islamic Um?mah have taken any substantial political steps to neutralize spread of hate and intolerance by the offensive jihad inclined Muslim clerics. In light of such political realities in the Islamic Um?mah, it is absurd for the defenders of indefensible Islamic practices to contend that one open letter should absolve Islam from crimes extremists committed against America and other non-Muslim majority lands.

The most of the Islamic religious authorities are concentrated in Muslim majority nations of Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Most of the 100 signatories of the open letter don?t represent Islamic Um?mah, which is represented by Islamic religious authorities ? clerics and Imams - in 57 Muslim majority nations. Muslim elites are in denial if they believe that they can convince followers of non-Islamic faiths, especially those of non-Muslim majority countries that are targets of offensive jihad by issuing an assertion - Islam is a religion of peace ? and an open letter now and then without separation of religion from Islamic social, cultural and political practices. An isolated expression of regrets and blaming extremist minority in an open letter is not sufficient evidence to make peace with non-Islamic followers.

In recent times, about 30 years ago, with fall of Shah of Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini established an Islamic theocracy dominated Iran that supports various offensive jihadis in Middle East to intimidate Sunni majority Islamic nations and Israel. The Saudi ruling regime over past 100-plus years not only tolerated extremist Wahhabist and Salafists clerics, but encouraged them, funded them and facilitated their spread throughout the world. Transformation of Pakistan starting 1979 into a terrorism sponsor nation was accomplished with direct participation of Wahhabist and Saudi funding to dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq and now to its current dictator and Commando President. In addition to non-state Arab dominated al Qaeda leadership, current and past Saudi, Iranian and Pakistani regimes are largely responsible for the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and their delightful offshoots of terrorism, beheadings, suicide bombings and homicidal attacks. It is not surprising that several decades of actively promoting offensive jihad has now led to sectarian war in Iraq situated in the center of Middle East and both sectarian and tribal wars in Afghanistan-Pakistan border region along the Durand Line.

As pleasant as it is to hear faux apologies by the Muslim elites engaged in a public relations campaign on behalf of the ruling clique?s the appearances of attempts to modernize or liberalize the extremist Islamic nations are closer to fiction. The fictitious attempts at modernization and liberalizations without instituting the separation of the sate and mosque have been repeated periodically for decades. It is sad to realize the role played by the U.S. political leaders of past 30 years in facilitating this transformation of many Muslim majority nations to Islamic extremism. For its failures to foresee the potential threat to its national security, America paid dearly on 9/11/2001 and continues to pay a heavy price by wagging a War on Terrorism, both economic losses and dead American soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Recent American drive to install democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan is contrary to Islamic Sunna (traditions). Culturally, democracy and Islam are incompatible. Reflecting on Islamic cultural practices, Dr. Wafa Sultan6 maintains that there isn?t any difference between radical Islam and regular Islam. For believers in Islam the baggage of Shariah and Hadith ? traditions in which some of the most violent Islamic injunctions are to be found ? are as central to Islam as the Koran itself. For example, Salafists and Wahabis cannot imagine Islam without the killing of apostates. To them religion is a house of cards (social, cultural, and political); remove one card and the whole structure collapses. To them a Muslim democrat is a bad Muslim and in their version of Islam there is no room for secular Muslims.

Quoting a Pew study (2007) Dr Tawfik Hamid13 observed that American Muslims number 2.35 million, not 5 to 6 million often claimed by many Muslim organizations. The Pew survey found that 25% of under age 30 American Muslims approve of suicide bombing by Jihadis. Consider 100,000+ Muslims or about 5% of 2.35 million in America with a mindset sympathetic to suicide bombing. An estimated one thousand extremist Muslims or 1% of 100,000+ Muslims, not associated with al Qaeda operations, may pose a serious internal threat to American security, my adopted homeland and it is not an acceptable threat option. American Muslims must reform to be acceptable in America.

For American Muslim society and culture to become peace loving and endear democracy based on the discussion presented above I can think of many reforms. I end this presentation by listing reforms proposed by Dr. Hamid to make Islam a religion of peace.

1. It is imperative for Muslims to adopt new Islamic teachings that do not allow killing apostates (Redda Law).
2. Islamic authorities must provide mainstream Islamic books that forbid polygamy and beating women.
3. Accepted Islamic doctrine should take a strong stand against slavery and the raping of female war prisoners, as happens in Darfur under the explicit canons of Shariah ("Ma Malakat Aimanikum").
4. Muslims should teach, everywhere and universally, that a woman"s testimony in court counts as much as a man"s, that women should not be punished if they marry whom they please or dress as they wish.
5. Muslims should publicly show strong disapproval for the growing number of attacks by Muslims against other faiths and against other Muslims. Let us not even dwell on 9/11, Madrid, London, Bali and countless other scenes of carnage. It has been estimated that of the two million refugees fleeing Islamic terror in Iraq, 40% are Christian, and many of them seek a haven in Lebanon, where the Christian population itself has declined by 60%. Even in Turkey, Islamists recently found it necessary to slit the throats of three Christians for publishing Bibles.
6. Islamist attacks are not limited to Christians and Jews. Muslims must condemn the ongoing slaughter of Buddhists in Thailand by Islamic groups. Why was there silence over the Mumbai train bombings which took the lives of over 200 Hindus in 2006?
7. Muslims must not forget that innocent Muslims, too, are suffering since the most common murderers of Muslims are, and have always been, other Muslims. Where is the Muslim outcry over the Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq?
8. Islamophobia could end when masses of Muslims demonstrate in the streets against videos displaying innocent people being beheaded with the same vigor we employ against airlines, Israel and cartoons of Muhammad.
9. Islamophobia might cease when Muslims unambiguously and publicly insist that Shariah law should have no binding legal status in free, democratic societies.
10. Muslims must cease using the charge of "Islamophobia" as a tool to intimidate and blackmail those who speak up against suspicious passengers and against those who rightly criticize current Islamic practices and preaching?s. Instead, Muslims must engage in honest and humble introspection.
11. Muslims should--must--develop strategies to rescue our religion by combating the tyranny of Salafi Islam and its dreadful consequences. Among more important outcomes, this will also put an end to so-called Islamophobia.

Kishan Bhatia

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References:

1. Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Islamic Magazine, 18, 25 to 31, 2006
2. Edward C. Sachau, ?Alberuni?s India,? Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002, 4th Impression, 2005. The 820 page book provides a detailed account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography, chronology, astronomy, customs, laws and astronomy of India about 1030.
3. C. K. Raju, ?The Eleven Pictures of Time,? SAGE Publications, New Delhi, London, 2003.
4. Kishan Bhatia, Science and Cultural Dilemma Guest column, India Cause web pages, March 21, 2007
5. Kishan Bhatia, Homicidal Islam Guest column, India Cause web pages, March 14, 2007
6. Wafa Sultan quoted in an Op-ed in WSJ, March, 2007.
7. Radiff India Abroad, April 24, 2007
8. John Keay, India a History, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York, 2000; pages 207 ? 211 (Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni), pages 237-238 (Muhammad of Ghor) and page 315 (Akbar).
9. ?Most Muslims agree with al-Qaeda goals,? Indian Express, April 24, 2007.
10. ?More muscle to Pakistan?s Madrassas,? Asia Times, April 25, 2007.
11. Science seals on Muslim history, The Telegraph, March 23, 2007.
12. Men neednt worry , The News, Jang (Pakistan), May 5, 2007.
13. Tawfik Hamid, How to End "Islamophobia," WSJ, May 25, 2007

Previous articles by:
Kishan Bhatia

Science and Cultural Dilemma

Homicidal Islam

Development of Rural India?s Entrepreneurs

Defending Indefensible Cultural Practices

Mughal India and Sectarian Bombs

Terrorism and Political Dialogue

Islamofascism and Islamophobia

Political Map of Islamic Nations

Pak, India & America: Religious Extremism

To be Arabs or not: Pak dilemma

Developing democracies in Islamic nations

Pakistan: The ?but...? factor

Prospects for Economic Growth in S.Asia

What?s Musharraf to do?

Pakistan?s Educational System

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Kishan Bhatia