Response to Tommy Robinson’s “Mohammed’s Koran – Why Muslims Kill For Islam” by Khola Hasan
Promotion of Mohammed’s Koran (2017) by Tommy Robinson and Peter McLoughlin
Bismillah ar Rahman ar Raheem.
I begin in the name of God, the most Gracious, the most Merciful.
Before I begin my response to Tommy Robinson’s book, “Mohamed’s Koran; why Muslims kill for Islam”, I would like to clarify a few crucial points of reference:
Firstly, I am a proud, loyal and patriotic British citizen. In this I am certainly not unique in any respect, as most Muslims share this love for their country. I work hard, pay my taxes, obey the law, and contribute in a small way to my country’s economy and success. Furthermore, love for my country obliges me not to stay silent when there is injustice, falsehood or immorality.
Secondly, I have lived most of my life in London, one of the most multicultural cities in the world. My friends, colleagues, neighbours and the various people I have had the good fortune to meet over the years have been from a myriad of cultures, religions, races and colours, and I revel in being part of this glorious tapestry of God’s creation.
Thirdly, I have worked with the East London Three Faiths Forum for over a decade, and count myself blessed to have vicars, priests and rabbis as my colleagues and friends. In this treatise I feel compelled to answer TR’s vicious criticism of the Islamic faith and history with a critique of his amnesia regarding British and Christian history. This is not something I would choose to do under normal circumstances as I do not wish to mock the sensibilities of my friends and countrymen. In fact, I believe that Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all in the same boat in modern times, struggling as they are in a modern secular world that castigates faith, spirituality and religious lifestyles. Islam obliges me to treat the Old and New Testaments as holy and divinely inspired. My faith obliges me to love and respect Jesus Christ, his mother the blessed virgin Mary (after whom an entire chapter of the Quran is named), as well as dozens of previous prophets such as Abraham, Noah, Solomon and Joseph. I cannot therefore stoop to trashing the Bible in the manner that Robinson treats the Quran. I will however show that the adherents of any great faith do not always live up to the ideals of their faiths. This is just as true of Islam as it is true of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and others.
Even the shortest of perusals of history books will reveal that adherents of all the world’s great faiths and empires have seen the ebb and flow of civilisation: sometimes rising to the heights of enlightenment, and at other times plummeting to the depths of barbarity. Faith teaches both physical and spiritual ascension, yet human beings can be frail and forgetful. To focus on the lowest times of a civilisation while forgetting the heights it soared in centuries past, as Robinson insists on doing, is simply irrational and ahistorical. The Muslim world is clearly passing through a time of immense intellectual, social, cultural, political and religious pandemonium. This has not always been so, and God willing, it will not be so in the future. The current malaise neither defines Islam nor is intrinsic to the faith. There are a variety of reasons for the malaise, many of them political and outside the control of Muslim countries themselves. Some commentators will explain that Muslim countries are mere pawns in a chess game for political and material control being played by much bigger and richer world powers. Others will explain that the Muslim world reached immense heights in the past, but then allowed itself to stagnate and stupefy. Its record on human rights, women’s emancipation and political transparency was one of the best in history, but it now wins prizes for the worst. Whatever the criticism, it is still fair to say that the Islamic world has given the world some of its most glittering, tolerant and scientific civilisations. To deny this and claim that Islam has contributed nothing positive to the world is sheer ignorance.
Robinson’s book divides history and our present existence into binary opposites. The premise, chapter, verse and conclusion of the book is that Islam is depraved, Christianity is noble. Muslims are uncouth, Christians are cultured. Islam destroys, Christianity builds. Muslims subjugate women, Christians elevate women. Islam ordains slavery, Christianity condemns slavery. Muslims are paedophiles, Christians are saints. And so on and on, ad nauseam. It is thus important to set the record straight. TR and his ilk need to realise that murderous genocide, racism, sexism and curtailment of basic human rights will certainly be found in the histories of all world civilisations. Christian rule has seen its fair share of psychopaths and tyrants, as has Islam. The torture of heretics, public lynchings of non-conformists, burning books and persecution of minorities can be found in the histories of all great empires. But there are also numerous examples of justice, emancipation, invention and tolerance. Just as it would be nonsensical to define Christianity by the Spanish Inquisition or the KKK, so it would be nonsensical to define Islam by Isis. Catholic priests who raped young boys and Muslim men who groomed and raped young white girls made a mockery of their religions and abused their positions of power. Such people have no faith, morality, decency or Godliness. Their respective religions cannot be defined or condemned because of their vileness.
There is a danger today from extremists among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, the Far Right and others. Faith remains a powerful force in politics and popular culture; it can be utilised to offer peace, love and harmony, or it can be used to inflame, degrade and hate. Robinson’s book is an affront to all faiths, to history and to truth itself.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Part 1
Religious intolerance and superstition in Christian Europe.
The modern European-Christian enlightenment did not appear as a gift from the skies, adorned on a tray of holly and ivy, accompanied by singing harpists and carried down by choirs of translucent angels. It was an enlightenment that was born out of blood, guts and gore…
Read more at https://kholahasan.wordpress.com/2017/11/08/my-response-to-tommy-robinsons-book/