Western Islam and Scholarly Shirk
OP - January 18, 2018, 01:50 AM
I am sorry for this long rant and it is not my intention to offend. But I have personally had it. I tried to find the good in Islam. And there is some good, but there is a whole lot of negativity. I have been on this forum, while also trying to hold on to my Islam. I respected you all a great deal and loved to read your posts, but was trying to find a way to continue to honor my shahada. I was trying to be an open-minded Muslim, but it's not working.
I was looking at some responses to questions from Yasir Qadhi. I notice whenever he gets to a sticky subject like voting, killing of apostates, domestic violence, secular governments, etc. he always says some version of "We live in the West so we don't need to worry about what the Quran/Hadith/Shariah says about these things". It reminds me of when I took my revert class and I asked a question about polygamy and my teacher said, "Well in the U.S. you can only have one wife legally anyway". It seems that the go to answer is always "Well we live in the West". It's like they are relieved that they don't live in a country run by Islamic Law. But that answer doesn't solve the fundamental problems on which these questions are based. So with all of that in mind, are they not all but admitting that there is something wrong with Islamic Law or at the very least something being wrong with the interpretation of Islamic Law? To me the logical person would ask the following questions:
1. If Allah (swt) knows best, why is there not more peace and harmony in countries run strictly by Allah (swt)'s law?
2. Why do I appear to be relieved that I don't live in an Islamic Country?
3. If we do not have to worry about such questions because we live in the West, then don't such questions point to a flaw in Islamic Law?
4. And my final question is...Do these YouTube Sheikhs truly believe what they are saying? They have to know deep down inside based upon their answers that this is some B.S. An Ex-Muslim has a YouTube video of Nouman Ali Kahn talking about the "perfection" of the Quran when talking about the hitting verse in the Quran. He said every ayat is "perfect". And no where in there did "NAK" explain why this ayat is perfect in the perfect Quran. He didn't even try the whole argument that the passage does not mean to physically hit but to walk away. He never addressed the fact that men often use this ayat to beat their wives. So domestic violence is perfect?!
Then there are the mental gymnastics. You ask about female genital mutilation and you get a myriad of answers. "We don't practice it." "It's not Islamic". "It's MEANT to increase a woman's sexual pleasure because we don't do FGM but rather some other version of cutting". To which I want to ask, I have not seen anything in this religion being concerned about women, much less our sexual pleasure.But then you point out that Islamqa says that FGM is Fard (Obligatory) they say a whole bunch of stuff I don't understand and can't even begin to try to explain to you.
And if you really back these folks in a corner where they can't answer a question, they say "Allah knows best!"
THEN, there is the FEAR! All they talk about is FEAR. "FEAR Allah (swt)!" "FEAR the hellfire". "FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR". It's been my personal observation that you FEAR something, it leads to anger and that anger often leads to violence. And this may explain why they are angry all of the time. These are some of the angriest people I have every met. And truthfully, I have become a very nasty person at times. I have said things that am not proud off because I'm pissed off all the damn time.
THEN, there is the lie (my word for it) where they tell you that Islam gives you a relationship with just you and Allah (swt), not a middle man. Actually, having studied many religions, Islam has more middle men between me and God than anyone. And not only that, the relationship between me and God is some of the most complex mess I have ever seen. In fact, I don't care what anyone says, the scholars are worshipped. You can't do anything without getting guidance from the Imam or Sheikh and the answer they often give you is often based on interpretations by scholars or writings from Centuries ago.
I became a Muslim in part because a family member ran off and became a Salafi. We (several other family member took shahada) were trying to save said family member and feared he would cut himself off from us. I thought I could cling to the spirituality of Islam. But that is drowned out by the people. And had only saw the "beauty" of Islam until this mess came along. So I earnestly am trying to look at the spirituality. But the Muslim Community is annoying, no offense. Everyone is in everyone else's business in the name of "advising". And they are quite manipulative. It's disgusting. I literally had someone at the masjid tell me that my bun was too big. So God has nothing better to do than to worry about how big my bun is underneath my scarf?
Which brings me to my next issue.... They have reduced God to this very petty entity. He (yes, I am using the pronoun "he" because, no offense, only a man could come up with this mess)... He worries about how I use the bathroom, if I take a picture, if I listen to music, if I go to the movies, if put on oils, if put on lipstick. And what's worse, all of these things are more important than how you treat people (at least that's the impression I get). And they never tell you in the outset that you have to give up music, movies, and TV. You can be the kindest, gentlest, sweetest, most giving person in the world and still go to the hellfire because you put on lipstick. At least that is the impression I get by the way they act. And then they turn around and say, "Allah made this religion easy for us". If it is so damn easy, you don't need to say it's easy!
And then they say, "You are giving into your desires". Damn right I am! Didn't Allah give me desires in the first place? And culture, music, art, literature are often ahead of the curve when it comes to social change, which is my guess as to the real reason these things are "haram". Someone didn't want people to be too enlightened about the world around them so they made damn near all art "haram". But that's my guess. You can't have people thinking too much because they might do something crazy like think for themselves and have a revolution. It appears there is no such thing as balance in Islam.
I take my spirituality seriously. And I stay a Muslim because I don't want to think badly of all Muslims because of these horrible experiences I have had. I thought my brother's cult was the problem. But some of these beliefs seem to be common to Islam as a whole. You kind of run into it everywhere you go. The answers to the questions are pretty similar. And where there is disagreement they say "Scholars have different opinions on these things".
I am getting to a point where I HATE Islam with a passion. Yet, I am still trying to stay Muslim because I don't want HATE another religion, especially one that has 1.6 Billion people. And I am angry because, as I said before, it turned a very sweet caring person I know into to something unrecognizable and hateful. I tried to come to some sort of peace with Islam and the Muslim community. But there is no room for individual interpretation and connection with Allah (swt). I'm usually fine with the religion when I am by myself. But I get around other Muslims and I want to deck them. Invariably someone will criticize something in the name of "advising" me. And Oh, It's there "duty" to "advise" and be such obnoxious asses.
I had Muslim friends and now I look at them completely differently than I did before. I can't believe that they are a part of such hate.
I'm a huge Star Trek fan and these folks behave like the Borg. Every time someone says, "Allah knows best", I hear is "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated".
I came into this thinking about Rumi. I have been reading his poetry for years. Where is the Rumi version of Islam?
I've tried to stick it out, but I am beyond disgusted and annoyed.
Again, I did not want to be offensive to anyone. But I needed to get all of this out.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing" -Edmund Burke
Topic: Western Islam and Scholarly Shirk